<p>So, I am starting my undergrad degree in the fall and I have been doing some research about the law school admission process and it seems that everything is very similar to the college admission cycle .
-(L)SAT and GPA are the most important
- we usually apply in the middle of our senior college/ high school year
- we can apply ED and EA</p>
<p>Is there any significant difference I need to know, although there are 4 more years before applying to law school and most of you would advise me to focus on my gpa and not think about law school yet.</p>
<p>Stop spending so much time on message boards during your last really free summer (that was the last time I wasn’t working a lot). My summer before undergrad was the best time of my life, in a get into a lot of really great trouble sort of way. Go do that, be a kid, think about law school in 2-3 years.</p>
<p>No need to be sarcastic, OK ? I just wanted to know how things work.Just out of curiousity.It`s not like I am gonna start preparing for the LSAT tomorrow…</p>
<p>Law School admissions are somewhat different from college admissions. First, for law schools admissions are highly numbers based - while college adcoms will place heavy weight on “soft factors” such as EC’s, background, and essays, law schools focus mainly on the GPA and LSAT score. In this way admissions can be more formulaic in law school than in college.</p>
<p>Other things:</p>
<p>-You are only supposed to take the LSAT once vs. almost unlimited tries for the SAT.</p>
<p>-Law schools generally do not give out financial aid…if you have trouble paying out of pocket (most do) you can get either merit scholarships or take out loans.</p>
<p>Take the LSAT only once ?This sounds terrible.What if one has a really bad day, what if he can score much better if he tries one more time ?
So, if this is the case, I guess the best time to start preparing for the LSAT is the summer after the junior year and take it in September… :(</p>
<p>A major difference is that the LSAT exam score is very often 60% to 80% of what determines whether you are admitted. </p>
<p>A second major difference is that if you take the LSAT twice or more, many, including most of your high ranked law schools, will consider any lower scores against you.</p>
<p>Thus, the reason your intent should be to take the LSAT once and do well.</p>
<p>No the essay isn’t really important. And yes you shouldn’t plan on taking the LSAT more than once, but plenty of peoplle do and are fine. If you know for a fact you didn’t reach your potential, like you were pt’ing ten points higher than you scored, then you should take again. But if you exhausted all study materials and did around what you could expect, even if its not what you want, I wouldn’t retake. Retakes hurt mor for the higher ranked schools you apply too (mostly HYS and NYU)</p>
<p>So, then the best plan is to study in the spring of junior year and take it in June, and if scoring way worse than predicted, take it again in September ?</p>
<p>Thats what most people do, I personally am taking it october of this year (i’ll be a junior) because I plan on going abroad next summer and I think I can do a better job studying this summer then trying to study during school in the spring.</p>