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Hi everyone,
On Tuesday, June 11, at 9 p.m. ET, I'll host a webinar with Mathiew Le, the assistant dean of admissions and financial aid at The University of Texas at Austin School of Law. Mathiew will give us a five-minute presentation on UT Austin law, and then I'll ask him some of the questions you're dying to know:
You’ll get a chance to ask your questions at the end.
:warning: You’ll have to register for this webinar in advance.
:cookie: After the webinar, we’ll award one attendee a free Edit Once (see https://classic.7sage.com/admissions/enroll).
:warning: The webinar will be recorded, and we may post it on our site or on YouTube. We may also share the audio on our podcast.
→ Please register for the webinar here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/4cc9fc08ce59502a34538d7d4481ef37
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
If you want to ask a question, you should connect via a computer instead of calling in. We also recommend that you join the webinar a few minutes early and test your microphone.
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16 comments
I go to UT, so if anyone has questions about the school in general, or about Austin, feel free to ask!
Unfortunately, Texas has asked us not to post the video of the webinar, but we'll do another webinar with them in October or November. Stay tuned!
Here are the notes I took during the webinar for those anxious to know what Dean Le said:
• Pitch for Texas Law
◦ Austin, TX is a livable city with a lot of cultures
◦ Low cost of attendance and COL
◦ Elite public institution
◦ Breadth of programs, one of the largest faculties
◦ 300-350 students per class
• Admissions Process
◦ Individual processes each application (24 hrs)
▪ UT checks for all documentation
▪ LSAC sends a PDF with personal statements and a PDF with CAS, letters of rec
◦ Full admissions committee reviews challenging cases
◦ Quicker turnaround earlier in the cycle. Slower near LSAT score releases.
▪ Generally about 6 weeks
• We are looking for...
◦ What is the student bringing to the law school along with mission and vision of the school?
▪ How will the experiences enrich the classroom?
▪ Quality of personal statement is key here
◦ Is the student prepared for the intellectual rigor for the law school? (typically LSAT and GPA)
• What about students not interested not looking to work for public?
◦ Employment numbers: majority going into big law (250+ employees)
◦ As a public law school, they have a different role to play than private (community). Serving the underserved communities (i.e. environmental or criminal)
◦ Underlying your role as an attorney is to give back to your community in different ways.
• If you resume shows your interest in law, then your personal statement doesn’t necessarily have to?
◦ Every admissions dean is looking for something different. Ask them.
• Encourage applications tailored for each law school
◦ Stakes are high, so put your best foot forward. We can tell when it's a generic PS.
◦ Tying to mission of school will have a better impact on admissions committee
• Half are above the median, half are below
◦ those below convince the committee that they are a good fit
◦ diversity is encompassed in the broadest of terms
• LSAT
◦ Multiple LSAT scores – We do look at all of them. Multiple scores are common. Knowing what’s at stake, many schools have a threshold for scholarship. Median LSAT and GPA are competitive for scholarship. Only a problem when the student sits for 4 or more.
• UT-Austin does accept competing offers/try to match
◦ try to offset as much burden as possible
• Encourage soul-searching, what will be a good fit for the student's
◦ Rankings issue, may lead to negative experienced
• Advise not to do/common mistakes
◦ Have someone review the application, spell check, grammar
◦ Not being true to themselves, everyone’s experience is different
▪ Show commitment to public service in whole application
▪ How do the pieces fit together?
• What are some successful ways students have recently demonstrated interest in UT that has allowed them to get off the WL? Thank you!
◦ We try to be as communicative as possible. Proactively reach out to students. Some may remove themselves from waitlist.
• Do waitlisted students ever get scholarships?
◦ Yes, but it depends on availability. Generally, not disadvantaged in that respect but will have less money than earlier in the cycle?
• Early decision
◦ Criteria for admissions is no different for early decision than regular decision
◦ You do get a decision earlier than anyone else, and there is a financial incentive.
◦ Traditionally, do not get additional aid.
• Low GPA addendum
◦ Keep it short and sweet to explain trend or performance
• Transfer applications
◦ focus on grades in 1L
◦ Top 10 in class will position themselves strongly
◦ Experiences you have during first year (leadership, community service)
• International students, how does that affect chances?
▪ Analysis and evaluation is no different
• LSAT Writing Sample
◦ They do not look at the writing sample strongly. Personal statement is far more important than the writing sample.
◦ Put your best foot forward, but it is the least important part of the evaluation.
• Non-traditional students
◦ Not having academic references is fine.
◦ Have conversation with employer about what the law school is looking for (analytical skills, top 1% of students/employees, etc)
• Reciting your resume is not a good use of your personal statement
• Think about balancing your application between the two previously stated questions (unique applicant and good academic fit academic)
• LSAT is a better predictor of 1L performance than GPA so is considered more heavily
• If your whole resume is one topic, then consider making your personal statement about something else.
• Resume – UTA gives you up to three pages, and some other law schools will let you have more than one page as well
• Try write two kinds of personal statements
◦ Tied to your resume
◦ Something more creative
Congrats to @46080 , the winner of our Edit Once giveaway!
@doganervin674 @46080 We've sent the recording to the Texas School of Law for approval. If they give us the green light, we'll post it.
Thanks for the webinar! Will there be an accessible link for those of us who had to leave early?
Cheers,
J
Thank you so much for facilitating this great content!
Thank you, Dave! Can you please let us know where the recording is located once y’all post it? Thanks in advance.
This was fantastic and informative, thank you!
Thanks for doing this David!
This is starting soon!
@bbhbb24872-170-by-October One hour.
Nice! About how long will it last?
Radical!
Sweet! Looking forward to this!
Wow, thank you for doing this!