Hello,
I am having difficulty grasping what time period I can apply to law school. I graduated from undergraduate college in Fall 2016 and having graduated one semester early, I thought that I would take this six months to prepare myself for the LSAT and take the test in June. I thought that having taken the test in June, I could enroll into a school for the Fall 2016 semester. However, recently I started looking through the LSAC website and was really disheartened.
Is it possible to enroll into Fall 2017 with a LSAT score from June 2017? If not, is it possible to start from Spring semester rather than to wait the entire year? I saw that to start from fall, there are some schools but their rankings do not match mine. I know my grades wouldn’t take me to the top schools but I was confident enough that I could rank myself into the top 50. But if I am to start from Spring, most of the schools rank into the low 100s.
Any kind of advise would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Don’t go to a law school that’s in the low 100s. Go to a law school ranked 50-100 only if the tuition is very low.
If you’re starting now to prepare for the LSAT, you could take it in June and submit applications in the fall of 2017. They would be to start law school in the fall of 2018. That’s the earliest.
Your planning was completely messed up. Did you think to consult the pre-law advisor at your college? Plan on enrolling in Fall, 2018. Take the LSAT and submit your application this coming September.
I was focused more on taking the test rather than planning the logistics out. One additional question that came up in my mind: are the chances of transferring worth it the risk? I was thinking in the sense that if I get into one, is it worth transferring to another school later on.
Going to law school with the plan to transfer is very risky. You can only transfer with top grades, and grading in law school can be pretty unpredictable. So it’s probably smart to only go to a law school you could be happy graduating from.
You don’t need to beat yourself up for missing this law school application cycle. Just take your time, study for the LSAT, then get some kind of work experience for a year. That will only make your application stronger anyway. Most law students take some time to work before law school.
The law school you go to can have a big influence on the career options you have after you graduate. It’s not worth potentially undermining your career just to get there one year faster.