I’m taking the September LSAT but I’m not feeling too confident so I’m thinking of taking it in October or November as well. Would submitting in November affect my chances to get into a school?
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I’m taking the September LSAT but I’m not feeling too confident so I’m thinking of taking it in October or November as well. Would submitting in November affect my chances to get into a school?
6 comments
My understanding is that submitting as soon as you get the October score is actually perfect timing. November test may be risky though.
Later submission with higher LSAT always mogs an earlier application they hardly even glance at due to the LSAT score.
The #1 rule, @shyamvip, is to submit your app when you believe it'll be at its strongest. If that's when the November LSAT comes back, then that's when it is!
With that said, you can scan the message board and see me gently nudging people on submitting pre-Halloween if possible. My rationale is that we're in a period of significantly increased national apps and we've seen a big difference for a lot of T20/T30 schools for applying pre-Nov 1 and then in the Thanksgiving-and-beyond window. To build off the other comments - yes, applying before Thanksgiving is "beating the rush" in the sense that the majority of apps are still submitted from Christmas through the end of January (which is synced up with when undergrads are home between academic terms). But the number of apps has increased so much nationally (~35% in just two years) that there's still a veritable tidal wave of folks who apply before Thanksgiving.
One way to split the difference here is start working on your app materials while you're also prepping for the LSAT. If you're not feeling confident about the September LSAT, maybe you reschedule that one for Oct/Nov. Now you can keep prepping for the LSAT and get rolling on your personal statement and other docs for the next few weeks. This means that you'll be in a better spot to turn your apps around come November.
I hope that helps!
All law school forums I've attended, the admission heads and deans have said submit by Thanksgiving.
@OliviaRob same! But I wonder how much of a difference it really makes. November scores come out exactly a week after thanksgiving, so if you have your application ready to submit day of score release (with a higher score), wouldn’t that be better than submitting a week or two earlier with a lower score? Would love to get anyone’s opinion on this!
@Glitterunicorn November scores this year are released December 2nd....
Not at all. I've been told by multiple schools that if you submit before Christmas you're beating the rush and are in a good place.