Fall 2010 Law School Admissions Advice!

Graduate School Law School
1

<p>I just graduated from UVa this past spring with a 3.45 gpa. I am taking the LSAT in December and should get around a 160, and will be applying to law school to begin in fall of 2010. </p>

<p>I am applying to law schools ranging in rankings from number 8 all the way to 50 and 60. How can I increase my chances of being accepted within the top 30-35? Aside from giving you all information about my grades and LSAT score, I have loads of leadership and service experience, and I am currently working as a legal assistant at a law firm. I see myself as being a candidate at many of these top 30-35 schools (mostly around the 30-35 mark), but being borderline...</p>

<p>Any thoughts or recommendations to boost my application? Also, any recommendations for which schools I should apply to?</p>

2

<p>You’ve hurt yourself by waiting for the Dec. LSAT. To reduce the impact of the delay, if you haven’t already done so, register with lsac, request your transcripts from UVa (which must send them directly to lsac), ask the profs who are writing your recs to get them in, and and fill out and submit all the applications. Write the best personal statement you can. In other words, have everything completed so that when your LSAT does get sent in, your file will be complete and ready to go. It can take as long as 3 weeks for some universities to send in transcripts and then the transcripts have to be analyzed, including the calculation of your “standardized” gpa.</p>

<p>You don’t say whether you are a legal resident of Va. If you are, apply to all public in-state law schools. </p>

<p>IMO, though, you’d be better off waiting until the next application cycle. In essence, virtually all law schools have rolling admissions. The later in the cycle you apply, the worse your chances are.</p>

3

<p>I have already registered with lsac, requested all transcripts, received 2/3 of them, and met with all 3 of my recommenders, 2 of which have already sent in their recommendations. Should I really submit all of my applications before I have my score? I forgot to mention that I took the LSAT once already in June of 2008 (although my score was not so hot - this time around I will be improving a bit).</p>

<p>I am also a legal resident of Virginia. Do you think going to UVa undergrad would increase my chances of being accepted at UVa law? I know this one is a total long shot though. Also, both of my parents went to the University of Michigan for grad school (albeit, for medical related fields)…would this legacy increase my chances at Michigan? Once again, I am aware this is a definite long shot.</p>

<p>The schools that I’m thinking are still ranked high and I have the best chances of are UNC, W&M, W&L, Wake Forest, American and Tulane. </p>

<p>Thank you for your help and advice!</p>

4

<p>i’m going to agree with jonri on this one. I also suggest you wait one admission cycle, get a bit more work experience, and be ready to send in applications sept/october 2010 for the 2011 cycle.
As a mom, I’ve been following admission results based on stats on law school numbers way more closely than my kid has. (she thinks I’m nuts by the way- but she actually has asked for some advice as she knows I follow the trends).<br>
I can’t tell you how important it is to get those applications in early- especially if your numbers are on the low side of the 25% lsat score.
I’ve seen many kids with similar scores to my kid who didn’t get into “top” schools as they applied in dec. and january and compared their results with kids with similar scores who applied in sept./october. The kids who applied earlier in the cycle really did seem to have better results especially those that had some work experience too.</p>

<p>I’ve also noticed that some kids who were not happy with their results decided to reapply the following year- gained more work experience and sent in the applications early. They seemed to be more successful the 2nd time around.
also- did you start working on your essays? It may take you longer than you think. It took my kid about a month of re-writes, edits etc. until it was in a format she was happy with.
As an observer to the process, I saw that the application process is a bit more time consuming than I thought. So I would hate for you to rush through the process and not be happy with your results.
It might be worth your while to be fully prepared and apply for the 2011 cycle- or at the very least; see what happens this year- but re-apply for the next cycle if you are not happy with your results.
An early application can make the difference between a T-30 and T-60 acceptance.</p>

5

<p>You can do the search as easily as I can. Go to [url=<a href=“Search for Law Schools – LSAC Official Guide | The Law School Admission Council”>Search for Law Schools – LSAC Official Guide | The Law School Admission Council]LSATGPA[/url</a>] Hit “return to search page” if you need to do so. Change the little menu gizmo thing at the top to likelihood. Before doing this, MAKE sure that you know the policy of each school on retakes of the LSAT. Some schools still average, even though they don’t have to. </p>

<p>Put in your numbers. These would have been your odds if you had applied LAST year. You are applying THIS year, with a record number of test takers and LATE in the cycle. Your odds will be worse. </p>

<p>I don’t know what your soft factors are. I haven’t read your PS or the LORs from your profs. Having said all that…</p>

<p>I couldn’t find American on the list…may just be me. Of the rest, the only one of the schools you listed where it looks like you would have had a 50% chance of admission is Tulane. Unless you are a URM or your family can donate a building, forget UVA and UMich. Yeah, you might get a bit of a bump for being in-state or being a legacy, but it’s not going to bump you up even close to a 20% chance of admission. The in-state advantage might bump you up to about a 25% chance at George Mason, so you might want to add it. (With nothing to prove it, I tend to think that absent something extraordinary, people with less than 25% chances don’t get admitted. It’s only when you get to about that point that I personally think it makes sense to cough up the $ for an application. But again, that’s just my personal take on it.) </p>

<p>If you want to go to law school and insist on going this coming fall, look at a few where you would have had a 75% chance last year and try those.</p>

<p>I don’t know how it works if there’s already one LSAT score in your file and you don’t want apps to go until the second one “hits.” If I were you, I’d find that out IMMEDIATELY. If you can set it up so your file won’t go complete until the second score hits, yes, my STRONG rec is that you send apps in without waiting for scores. </p>

<p>Now, I’m just an attorney/parent, and I don’t purport to be an expert, but this late in the cycle, I think every day counts. You wait to see your scores, and then submit the apps, and by that time, another 5-10% of the class will be filled. Plus, instead of being one of the first people in the batch who took the Dec LSAT to have a completed file, you’ll be in the middle or end of that batch, both at LSDAS and the schools themselves. If I were a borderline case but thought my soft factors might “sell” me, I’d rather have my app go complete when the # of files people were reading each day wasn’t at its peak and there were more empty places in the class. </p>

<p>Again, I honestly think you’d be better off waiting until next year.</p>