<p>Things seem to be a lot different today than back in prehistoric times when I went to law school.</p>
<p>Do students/applicants go visit and look at law schools the way they do undergrad schools? Is that an important part of the process? Or-do you sling the applications out there and visit after you get some acceptances?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Have D who is applying. She did some visits simply because they were nearby and she was in the neighborhood (Chicago area) but for others it is the sling method and she did not seem to think it was even needed to visit.</p>
<p>from what I read on LSD and TLS, visiting a law school before applying doesn't seem to be too common. Most kids seem to wait until after the acceptances are in. But with that said, alot of law schools do have scheduled admission tours (maybe 1 or 2 times a month- so it is not like UG admission) and I have noticed that some of these sessions do fill up.<br>
my kid visited a friend over a holiday week-end and it did coincide with an admission session at the LS. Needless to say, she did attend that session and tour.<br>
my gut tells me attending these sessions won't help that much, but if he happens to be close by and it's not much of an inconvenince, it couldn't hurt to attend an admission session!! Most of the time when a session is not scheduled, it seems like you stop by the admission office, pick up a map to do a self tour.</p>
<p>There are a few, and only a few, LSs that require interviews. If your son decides to apply to any of those, then he needs to schedule visits. I know Northwestern falls into this category and I believe W&L does as well. </p>
<p>Otherwise, I think most people wait until the acceptances come in before making visits. At least some law schools do schedule a couple of prospective students weekends for accepted students. These are well attended. Since your son attends a U with an affiliated LS, he might want to find out when its "prospie" weekend is and attend some of the events. They usually aren't all that well "policed" to limit attendance to actual acceptees and listening to the talks can be informative.
(It won't boost his odds of being admitted. He just might learn something.)</p>
<p>I am fairly certain that admissions officers from law schools visit the college your son attends--as well as many others. My hunch is that attending these sessions on your own campus does more good than visiting campus unannounced does. Sometimes, there are also on-line "chats" run by the admissions officers at various LSs. Sometimes, you can find out about these chats from your own pre-law adviser. For the student not yet ready to apply, it can, I think, be beneficial to just go on-line and read the questions others ask and the school rep's responses.</p>
<p>Out of curiousity, just checked the schedule at my law grad's UG alma mater. Deans of admissions from more than a dozen law schools visited campus for panel discussions for 'group interviews' during the months of October and November. I don't think that's unusual.</p>
<p>an issue with the "law school fair" is that everyone wants to talk to the same admission counselors. so if son is aiming for top 30 school, he's going to be standing in line with countless others and will get virtually no face time with the admission counselor. </p>
<p>admission session my d attended at the LS had about 25 to 30 students. They broke down in smaller groups to tour school so it was a pretty intimate setting.</p>
<p>my kid would not have gone out of her way to make trip for the admission session only, but she happened to be in town to visit a friend- so what the heck!!</p>
<p>and yes Jonri is correct- Northwestern definitely requires interviews- but it can be "off campus" with an alum, so you do not necessarily have to go to Chicago.</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone. Jonri- that's great information. I didn't even think about him using his college as such a good resource. I don't think he wants to stay there for law school- he considered the sub-matriculation program but scrapped the idea. I think he might be ready for some warmer weather. :)</p>
<p>Marny--</p>
<p>I am NOT talking about a LS fair. LS fairs usually have lots of LSs represented. I'm talking about something more like high school when admissions reps from a college visited high schools. Remember those? The admissions rep from Cornell or UPenn would be at the high school on X date and any juniors and seniors interested in that college could come meet him. </p>
<p>Well, when you go to a top college ( including Cornell) admissions reps from LS, med and even some B schools come to the colleges in much the same way. I assure you that there are usually fewer than 25-30 students at such a session. Moreover, all those students are from the same college, so it's easier to get info re how a law school deals with issues unique to your college. Lets say you go to Brown and have taken courses S/NC. If you go to a session at Brown, how that affects your app is almost certain to be discussed. It's not going to be discussed by LS admissions officers from 20 different LSs. It's going to be discussed by the rep from one LS who is visiting your college. </p>
<p>Now some of thes events at my kid's alma mater were panel discussions with reps of 4 or 5 LSs, but they still weren't "fairs"--far from it. </p>
<p>It's true that you won't get a tour, but it's a heck of a lot easier to walk into the educational planning department or whatever it's called at your kid's college, for an hour one afternoon between classes.</p>
<p>chill the attitude jonri, it's really not becoming. </p>
<p>I didn't think it necessary to make reference to "Law School Day" at Cornell so I just used a more generic term, but actually the process at Cornell seems akin to a fair with areas set up and kids wait in line to talk to LS admission counselors. I think they also have general sessions about the application process etc. My kid did attended a few years ago- she got a bunch of applications and other info- but said there were very lenghty lines at the usual group of schools.<br>
Jonri- I often try to carry over info from LSD and TLS as that is the audience that is going through the LS admission process now. For those practicing attorneys on board, I'm sure the admission process is quite different from when you applied many years ago. So as I do check out the other sites, I try to add the POV from kids currently going through the process. </p>
<p>So from what I have gathered-- it doesn't seem necessary to visit a school prior to applying- but some kids do. Law school websites will show that some admission sessions do fill up so some kids think it worthwhile to attend.</p>
<p>geez!</p>
<p>MOMW- if your kid decides to do a long week-end in NY to catch a game at the Garden or a Broadway show, he might as well check out the schools in NYC. Enough said!!</p>
<p>Hi MOWC,</p>
<p>To piggyback on Jonri's post, Penn does have panels/information session and even interviews with various law schools. Like undergrad, these sessions usually happen in the fall when the reps are out on the road (so the visits are most likely over for this year because they are in application season).</p>
<p>Career</a> Services, University of Pennsylvania</p>
<p>hope this helps</p>
<p>attaching the link so you and the WC will have an idea of who comes, and when they come.</p>
<p>I don't claim to be an expert on LS admissions. However, the information I post is NOT based on my own experience back in the Dark Ages. It is based on the experience of my own kid --an '07 grad, said kid's friends (some of whom are still in LS), many of my young neighbors, and the "kids" who work in my office who have gone through/are going through the process. It is also based on information in the alum magazines of my own LS and my kid's LS. </p>
<p>The information I posted was wholly correct. (Read the link in sybbie's post.) You corrected it. Yes, I got annoyed. I think my annoyance was understandable.</p>
<p>I visited some of my top choices before applying. I thought it was helpful for the personal statement and some of the essays. Law school admissions seems somewhat predictable, so I'm not sure why more people don't visit earlier.</p>
<p>I didn't visit anywhere before getting in (well, about 18 months before applying I walked around one, since I had some time to kill while in the city on vacation, but I didn't talk to anyone). Most of the places I applied were such long shots it didn't seem worth the money to travel to them (none were closer than a few hours from where I was living at the time) until I knew if I'd been admitted, and I was familiar with most of the cities in which they were located. Once I heard, I visited my top two choices and made my decision based on that. </p>
<p>Like colleges, most law schools have admitted students' weekends. These are great for meeting your future classmates, and maybe slightly less great for seeing what the school is really like, since there are more activities and events targeted at prospective students.<br>
I was a tour guide at my law school and people definitely do visit throughout the year. If you've got the money to spend on it, or you're in the area, it won't hurt you; it probably won't make much of a difference to your chances of admission either way.</p>
<p>Good information. Thanks, all.</p>