Some basic advice for those new to the law school application process

Graduate School Law School
1

<p>Having seen the same few issues crop up about once a week, I thought I’d put together some basic advice. Not for you, but so that I don’t have to read the same 3 or 4 posts 500 times. I’m that kind of guy. =)</p>

<li><p>Do some basic research on the schools you want to attend. The bar association (abanet.org) and law school numbers (lawschoolnumbers.com) are good places to start. Not that we don’t like going to these pages for you to give you odds, but if you aspire to law school you should be able to do some basic research by now.</p></li>
<li><p>If you do not have a REAL (not practice) LSAT score any chancing you do is pure, 100%, pie-in-the-sky conjecture. Really. Your SAT is not an LSAT. Your practice LSAT is not an LSAT. If you’ve taken a prep course, and consistently score within a 3-4 point range, go ahead and chance yourself using the bottom score. I know, you test better under pressure. Maybe you’re the 10% that does, but statistically, you’re probably not that guy.</p></li>
<li><p>No, your undergrad major and your undergrad school don’t boost you nearly as much as you think. I know, you don’t think it’s fair that a 3.9 from Podunk State in Applied X-Box counts for more than your 3.6 from MIT in a ME/Pre-Med double major. Don’t complain to me, call US News. Their rankings don’t take your school or major into account.</p></li>
<li><p>Splitters (high gpa/low lsat or the reverse), you are going to have a rough cycle, and you are hard to predict. Such is life. Get ready to apply to a lot of schools. Shake off the ones that say no. Hopefully you’re a high LSAT splitter, so that you’ll get a lot of fee waivers. Then it’s just time invested. If you really are a splitter (and not just low in one category and average in another) you should get in somewhere.</p></li>
<li><p>Personally, nothing annoys me more than 0L’s telling me either how much money I’m going to make, or how I’m going to be unemployed. Hiring professionals can’t see 3 years into the future, much less that writer from Forbes who wrote a story on the “Death of the Traditional Law Firm” because his undergrad classmates are having trouble making partner in the NLP250. By the way, some variation of that story comes out in every economic downturn. The job market today looks a lot like the early 90’s. History says it will come back. If I knew when, I would be a very rich man selling that information.</p></li>
<li><p>Post count is not authority. Insulting my post count because you don’t like my tone simply means you don’t think you can argue with me effectively.</p></li>
<li><p>There is no 7.</p></li>
<li><p>No, I’m not an expert either. I defer to those (Bluedevilmike comes to mind, but he is certainly not the only one) with more experience. You probably should too.</p></li>
<li><p>Those who should read this won’t, or will flame me below. I won’t care. This was pure stress relief for me.</p></li>
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2

<p>Thank you. Bless you. Amen.</p>

3

<p>I agree with all of that and would like to add a few more:</p>

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<li><p>“I like to argue” is a bad reason to go to law school. “I’m not good enough at math and science for business school and med school” is a bad reason to go to law school. So are “my relatives are all lawyers,” “I want to be rich,” “I don’t really want to be a lawyer but it will help me do [x job],” and “I really like Legally Blonde/Law & Order/To Kill a Mockingbird.”</p></li>
<li><p>Being Asian and/or female is insufficient to make you an underrepresented minority.</p></li>
<li><p>There is no extracurricular activity, internship, or work experience that will give you a significant boost in the law school admissions process. Your LSAT score and GPA are the most important thing; after that, it’s mainly about whether you have SOME activity/job/hobby, preferably something that demonstrates leadership and innovation, and that is slightly interesting or unusual (law school admissions officers are people too! reading about 78 people who are the treasurer of the Pre-Law Society is fine, but they’re going to remember the guy who teaches juggling). So just do what you like, and do it to the best of your ability. You do like SOMETHING other than dreaming about getting into law school, right?</p></li>
<li><p>If you are in high school or your first two years of college, do not even think about studying for the LSAT. You only need a few weeks or months for that. Instead, get the best grades you can and try to learn more about different careers, to see if law’s really what you want to do.</p></li>
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