This is the first installment of Inside Admissions, a new 7Sage series that walks you through the most important parts of applying to law school, from choosing when to take the LSAT to writing the perfect personal statement.

In an ideal world, you would give yourself a full year to apply to law school. Of course life can have different plans and many successful applicants have followed a different schedule—either starting late and moving more quickly, or spreading the process out over an even longer time as they juggled other responsibilities.

But let’s start by looking at that ideal case. In a perfect world, you would study for the LSAT for a full six months before your first exam day, give yourself plenty of time to retake if needed, and steadily chip away at the main written components of the application so that you can apply right when rolling admissions begin in September and October.

Future posts will go over all of these steps in way more detail, but here’s the big picture:

Law School Admissions Timeline: A Month-by-Month Overview

Fall prior to applying to law school:

  • Start studying for the LSAT.

    The best strategy is to start early. The LSAT is difficult, and you’ll want enough time to maximize performance. The total amount of time you will need depends on your aptitude for the test, how much time you have per week to allocate for studying, and how much time you have between your decision to apply to law school and the application deadlines. A safe rule of thumb is to start studying a year prior to submitting your applications so you have time to retake, though you should plan to first sit for the test only when your scores are actually within your target range.

February:

  • Register for the LSAT.

    By February, you should have a good feel for how prepared you are for the test. If you are making steady progress towards your target range, you’ll be able to evaluate when you’ll be ready for your first test. This is another advantage of following a structured LSAT study program, like 7Sage’s. If it’s February and you’re not making the progress you hoped for, now would be a good time to evaluate changing up your study strategy or beginning more intensive tutoring.

March

  • Reach out to your professors for letters of recommendation.

    If you’re still in school, you might well be on or around campus at this point, which means you could see them in office hours or at least catch them before they take off and stop answering emails for the summer. Recommendation letters may be submitted to LSAC early and are good for five years.

April

  • Take your first LSAT!

    Taking your first LSAT the April before the application season gives you the most flexibility in considering a June, July, or even August re-take. But only sit for that first test if you feel truly ready for it.

  • Consider making campus visits.

    You might consider visiting law schools you know you are interested in during the spring when law school is in session. Some schools let you sit in on a class to get a taste. This is helpful for understanding what you do and don’t like about law school and also potentially gives you rich material for a Why X statement.

May

  • Register with LSAC.

    At this point, you might be tempted to hit the beach for…a month? If you’ve nailed the first LSAT, congratulations! If you still think you should do better, you should look into registering for one of the summer tests. While you’re at it, you should also register for your LSAC CAS report now, just to get that out of the way.

June

  • Take the LSAT again?

    Good luck!! Not everyone can have their testing completed by the summer but if you can, having a concrete score can help you put together a realistic school list and free up time for application prep so you are good-to-go when many applications open on September 1st.

  • Requests transcripts.

    You’ll need to have these sent to LSAC, and follow-up to make sure they are received and processed. It should only take a few weeks, but sometimes complications do happen.

  • Clean up your social media accounts.

    Make sure there’s nothing potentially disreputable on them. We will leave that to your discretion. This doesn’t mean you need to heavily self-censor, but take a few minutes to imagine what a snooping admissions officer might find when they search for you.

  • Make sure you have an appropriate email address.

    Now’s the time to get a professional email, one with a signature. You don’t have to print business cards just yet. Have you printed business cards? OK. Keep them in a drawer for now.

  • Begin thinking about your personal statement.

    Brainstorm and start narrowing down what you will include. If you would like some professional guidance, this is also a perfect time to start meeting with an admissions consultant.

July

  • Compile a working school list.

    By now, you should have your LSAT results back. You should have a realistic idea of your reaches, targets, and safeties.

  • Devise an admissions checklist.

    You won’t know a school’s requirements for sure until they release their new applications in September or October, but looking at their application requirements from the previous year will give you a good picture of what to expect. Pick five schools you’re interested in, and start to get an idea of what school-specific customizations you’ll have to make.

  • Make and edit your law school résumé.

    You’ll already have a copy of one, but you will still want to tailor it to meet the expectations and interests of the people who are going to be reading your applications.

  • Start drafting your personal statement.

    The personal statement requires some serious drafting so it’s worth brainstorming it and making sure that you’re telling the right story about yourself (because there’s more than one that you could tell right?). This is a process of trial and error but fortunately, nobody’s watching you. So you have plenty of time to make sure you’re presenting your motivation to study law in a cogent and compelling fashion.

  • Start writing your statement of perspective (if applicable).

    A statement of perspective, or diversity statement, is shorter and requires a little less intricacy than the personal statement but it’s still important to make sure that you’re telling that aspect of your story with clarity and proportion.

  • Check in with your recommenders.

    Ideally, you’ve already had two or three people (ideally at least two professors!) agree to write you letters of recommendation for law school. Now’s the time to check in with them and give them a firm deadline.

August

  • Write addenda (if you have to).

    Keep each addendum brief, clear, and forensic.

  • Revise your essays.

    Make sure that everything in them feels right and that the details all snap into place. Take your time. If you reach a difficulty, take a break. Sleep on it. In a few days, or a week, you’ll regain some freshness and be able to see your documents in a different light.

  • Begin writing your Why X statements.

    Do this especially if you’ve been able to harvest intel from current law students or campus visits. It’s a good idea to hold off on finalizing some of the optional statements until September or October—or whenever the relevant law school releases its application instructions for that cycle. The prompts for optional statements can change from year to year.

  • Begin researching opportunities for law school info sessions, campus visits, fairs, or law school admissions forums in mid to late August.

    These interactions won’t necessarily tip the scale in your favor but when you come to write a Why X statement for that school, you can really stand out by demonstrating that you’ve tried to find out as much about the school as you can.

  • Confirm recommendations are in by late August.

    Send reminders to any recommenders who haven't submitted the letters to LSAC.

September

  • Finalize your documents and written materials.

    This is the month when most law school applications open so you will want to be finalizing all your written materials. You may not want to apply everywhere in this month and in truth there’s very little difference between an application submitted in September and October (in fact, a few schools don’t open their applications until this month, anyway), but it’s a good way for you to minimize your stress and to allow you to upload everything to LSAC for each of your schools in a measured, composed manner. Make sure you submit everything with confidence and assurance! And really the best way to do that is to proofread everything. Make sure there are no spelling errors, no formatting inconsistencies, no factual errors. We recommend doing this at least a couple of times before you can consider a document finalized. Again, this is something that benefits from a little time away from the document in question.

September/October/November

  • Submit applications during this period if possible.

    There are a few things that it’s better to address in this time period, especially considering rolling law school admissions, because this is what admissions consider part of the first wave of application season. Most law school application windows don’t slam shut until January or February, so it’s always worth taking the time to make sure you’re happy with everything. But if you’ve started your preparations back in the spring, you should be able to take advantage of the time when most admissions readers are making serious decisions about their incoming class. If you’re happy with your numbers, and if there’s really nothing more that you feel you can do to your written materials, then try to apply before Thanksgiving week—or even earlier!

  • Decide whether you want to apply early decision.

    One thing to note is that most Early Decision deadlines fall in November. Admissions offices often get very busy around those deadlines (November 15, 30) so make sure you’re not rushing to assemble everything just before those dates. Try to put the Early into Early Decision!

December

  • Try to have all your apps submitted.

    December is still a decent time to apply. If you’re waiting for the November LSAT score, rest assured that applying before the holidays will mean that your application is likely to go into the main admissions pool. If you’re almost ready but not quite in November, apply to your priority schools first. Give yourself that peace of mind, knowing that you’ve done everything you possibly can to maximize your chances with your favored schools. So much of this process is about being able to relax after you’ve pressed send.

January

  • Still a decent time to apply.

    But now is the time for you to make your moves with the rest of your schools! Candidates still get admitted with good offers after applying in January, but odds start diminishing quickly after this point.

  • Consider ED2 if applicable.

    You may be able to convert to ED2 if your first choice Early Decision school has pushed you into the main applicant pool.

February

  • Quite late to apply.

    It’s possible that your application might find its way onto a waitlist somewhere. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But you don’t want those regrets that might come from not having applied in the fall.

  • Begin scholarship negotiations if applicable.

    If you did apply in the fall, by now you may well have heard from a few of your schools. And if you’ve been offered a place, congratulations! You may not immediately be offered scholarship money but don’t panic. Schools sometimes make their scholarship decisions a little later on. If you have an offer, or if you have more than one offer (perhaps from a safety school), you can begin scholarship negotiations. This involves sending short, sweet, crisp, informative pieces of writing that advise admissions from your prospective schools of your status and your intention to study at their school. See chapter 16 for more information about scholarships, financial aid and loan assistance repayments programs.

  • Apply for financial aid if applicable.

    Many schools ask you to apply for financial aid by this point. Check each school’s requirements carefully.

March

  • By this time, you should be considering applying for the next cycle if you haven’t applied.

  • Continue or begin scholarship/aid negotiations.

    Now is the time to begin those scholarship negotiations in earnest. You should have heard from the schools who’ve already offered you places and may well have received more offers by this point.

April

  • Send a letter of continuing interest (if you’ve been waitlisted).

    Your letter of continuing interest, often referred to as a LOCI, should be effusive and perfectly poised between your genuine interest in the school and some information about what you’ve been up to since first sent out your applications.

May

  • Choose a school!

    May 1 is the deposit deadline for many schools, but make sure and check your admission letters carefully for how and when to deposit.

Now that you have a sense for the timeline, let’s go back to the beginning and talk about each aspect of this process, one step at a time. Ready? The next post will cover how timing affects your decision to go to law school.