So I got a decent score on my November 2018 LSAT but wanted to score higher, because, well, money. I'm ready to apply to a school (UConn) and am unsure if I should wait for my January scores to come back or not. I remember feeling like I did alright on the LR and RC sections, but that LG section just about killed me. I worry that if I wait, my score will not actually be higher and then I've hurt my "earlier" application chances (and yes, I know it's getting later in the cycle).

Thoughts??

To anyone who is nervous about having applied late in the cycle, I urge you to keep positive.

I took my LSAT last July, then got absolutely buried with work. I wasn't able to get my apps in until about 2 weeks ago (January 23rd).

Earlier today, I heard back from one of my top schools with around a 70% scholarship offer. Heard back literally less than 3 weeks after I applied.

I know this cannot be generalized to everyone, but I truly do encourage you all to stay positive! This shit is crazy!

Thank you 7Sage for all the help. This program is fantastic.

Hi everyone,

We’re building an FAQ into the admissions course! So far, we’ve added the following:

You look for your question by typing a keyword into the instant filter on the admissions syllabus:

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Hi all,

It's about that time to start scholarship negotiations with schools. Please share your experience negotiating for higher scholarships. Share what worked and what didn't work. Please try to include the school name, your LSAT/GPA stats relative to the school's 25th/50th/75th percentiles, whether you are an out of state applicant, who you negotiated with, method of communication (phone/email), the school's initial and revised offers, and any other info you think might be relevant.

Ill start us off with a fail. I applied to University of Denver and received a 35k per year scholarship award. I replied to the scholarship award email with the following:

Hi (hidden),

Thank you for this generous offer! The cost of tuition and having as little debt as possible is very important to me. Would the admissions committee be able to increase the amount offered to me in light of my new LSAT score? My new score from the November test is higher than my score from the September test.

I received the following response:

Thanks for the kind email. Based on your numbers, you are not eligible to receive a higher award. You have been awarded the most you qualify for.

The school has sent several subsequent emails encouraging me to apply for other scholarships that they offer. I am not interested. This was an out of state application. I live in New England. My LSAT is a few points above their 75th percentile and my GPA falls between their 50th and 75th percentile. I believe being an out of state application affected the amount of scholarship I was awarded.

The most important thing you can do to improve your odds of transferring is to achieve the highest possible grades during your first year. Your 1L GPA will determine whether your transfer application is seriously considered.

If you want to know the second, third, and fourth most important things, you should check out our new blog post!

https://classic.7sage.com/transfer-101/

I spent fall 2018 on exchange in England for one semester (Sep-Dec 2018) and took three courses. Two were 100% assessed on a 15-page essay. The other one was 30% first essay and 70% final essay.

I just received my grades for the two 100% assessed courses and my grades are TERRIBLE. I've never received marks this low in my LIFE. I'm talking 2:2 and a 3rd class (here is a link to understand what this means: https://www.scholaro.com/pro/Countries/united-kingdom/Grading-System).

I have a 3.87 GPA at my home institution, but since every law school wants transcripts from every institution attended (including study abroad), there's no way to escape sending them. Since I was only in England for one semester, I can't send my international transcripts to LSAC (they require at least 1 year abroad to evaluate them), so they'll just be sent directly to each school I apply to. I have no idea how schools are going to react when they see my exchange grades. There's almost no information about it on admission websites, no matter which school I look at.

I know this is going to hurt me during the admissions process. What do I do? Will the schools reject me because of these grades? Does anyone know what schools do with exchange transcripts? Is there a way I can redeem myself from this?

Some international UGs have low GPA even at the top of the class.

Is 2.9/superior better than 3.6/above-average at HYS adcomms?

Do adcomms just ignore actual GPA and only look at the LAC rating or not ?

Just got accepted and paid my seat deposit for my top choice school, yay! But what should I do between now and August when school starts?

Anyone have ant recommendations for what to do to help me mentally prepare for school?

Due February 15, 2019

Due March 15, 2019

Due March 29, 2019

Due April 2019

Due April 14, 2019

Due April 30, 2019

Due May 1, 2019

Due May 15, 2019

Due June 1, 2019

Due July 1, 2019

Due July 15, 2019

Due August 15, 2019

Due August 31, 2019

Due September 1, 2019

Due October 31, 2019

Due December 10, 2019

Advice about how and when to negotiate for scholarships: https://classic.7sage.com/admissions/lesson/law-school-financial-aid/

Here's what I hope will serve as a Chicken Soup for the Soul for those who have yet to hear back and are starting to doubt or even despair...

I received my acceptance to a T13 about two hours ago. I submitted my application on Halloween (or October 31st, for those who are not familiar with Halloween or its variations). I also applied to the same school in 2016; I submitted my application around late-November and was accepted on January 4th back then.

In other words, about 6-7 weeks elapsed before I heard back from the school during the 2016-2017 application cycle. This cycle? About 12 weeks. So, all other factors notwithstanding, it took me almost twice as long to hear back from the same school.

Now, I said "other factors notwithstanding." Chances are there was at least one factor (e.g. the fact that I'm a reapplicant) at play. Not to mention that this is just a datum out of tens of thousands. But I just wanted to tell y'all that things are still happening.

Also, I received my acceptance email around noon (PST) in 2017. This year, however, I received the email around 5 p.m. (also PST). So it seems that at least one school doesn't have a strict temporal guideline for sending acceptance emails.

Hi everyone! I took a three courses for a summer program in an institution in Asia and got all B's. The letter grades were transferred to my home university's transcript, and the letter grades actually show up on my transcript. Will LSAC count these 3 B's when calculating my LSAC GPA? I read on the LSAC website that they don't count grades for courses taken for less than a full academic year, but is this true even for grades that directly show up on my UG transcript? Thank you for your help! Have a wonderful day :)

Which sounds better? I'm applying to schools such as UVA, NYU, and Penn. Would I write NYU School of Law or New York University School of Law? I'm mentioning the school's name only once in my PS and I don't know which sounds better.

Hi.

The January lsat was my third lsat.

I don't know if I should take both the march exam or just the June exam.

Does taking lsat too many times look that bad?

I know Yale averages LSAT scores, but does it really matter for other law schools?

AHHH. Im trying to decide between two versions of my personal statement that I've had written. They're both similar but go in slightly different directions. Two schools I'm applying to have their apps due tomorrow. I spoke to someone previously involved in law school admissions at an ivy league and they really liked the first version. But also had some negative feedback from others on the first. I haven't had the chance to show my second version to anyone involved in admissions though and I'm worried if I take the leap and go with the second statement I'll be hurting myself. Im really procrastinating aren't I. Yep. Don't need serious feedback, just wanna know which to submit :)

If you know anyone that could help with a last minute decision like this, let me know!! Thank you!

Hi guys! Would anyone be willing to read over and possibly edit my resume? I'm submitting my apps within the next several days and I think it could use some polishing.

My question: Is there any way to estimate the GPA and LSAT numbers that will likely lead to a full tuition scholarship to any given law school (i.e. above 75th percentile in both, for example)?

Reason for the question: I'm a college student at a public university near the area I grew up. My goal is to practice law in that area, so I'm tentatively planning to go to my school's law school. Since the school is a public school ranked 50-100 range, I can't find much help from online tools like hourumd.com or mylsn.info. I understand and expect that answers to such a general question will have a lot of astericks attached, but I'm hoping to identify some general guidelines.

Thanks in advance!

Hello, I wanted to get everyones thoughts/opinions on how they identifying what law schools they wanted to apply to and the criteria if any they used in selecting them. I dont have a LSAT score on file presently so I can only guestimate with the admission predictor. I have an okay undergrad GPA (3.1) and high grad school GPA (3.8? with about 4 years of upper management exp. under my belt. I am hoping to apply in Fall 2019 for enrollment in Fall 2020.

So far I have created an lists of school I am interested in, I have done some prelim research, and have visited a few schools in my area. I know this is a pretty broad/general question but I am new to the whole LSAT/Law school admission process. Thanks in advance everyone.

Does anyone have suggestions to put admissions decisions out of one's mind? It's so hard not to refresh status checkers obsessively or constantly check my email, but I know it's a horrible use of time that only causes more stress! Thinking about limiting myself to checking my personal email 1-2 a day...

So I found out that LSAC will receive requests for transcripts after 6 semesters. Do winter/summer semesters count too? Thanks!

I retook a class and went from a C to an A. From my understanding the LSAC counts both. However on my transcript it has both grades but the first one has a 0.00 credit therefore not changing my Undergrad GPA. Also next to the C there is a status column that includes an "E" which according to my schools website means "Repeated course; grade is excluded in cumulative grade point average; hours are excluded from hours earned."

So with that said, does the LSAC count the original grade when there is zero credit given? How could they assume the credit possible? Or would they just go to the second grade and take that credit and apply it to both?

Hi everyone,

I just took the January LSAT.

After the break, we had a RC section, an LR section, and the writing sample.

I had been feeling ok about things before the break and since I like RC (I know...I'm a freak) I was kind of thrilled to see the second RC section when I opened to it after the break.

About six or seven minutes in, the person sitting next to me raised his hand and was waving it in such a way that I was aware he was trying to get the proctors' attention. I tried to ignore this and carry on with my test. Not super successfully. The proctors were not noticing him, I guess, so eventually he had to ACTUALLY SAY, "Excuse me, sir..." At which point a proctor came over. Me: still trying to focus, though dismally unsuccessful at it by this point. I did not look up to see what was going on, but he did get up, walk behind my chair, and left. Then a few minutes later, he came back. Such a disturbance.

CAN YOU IMAGINE the wrench this threw in my game? I totally lost focus. I could not (not that this is to my credit, but is true) get my game back on after he came back and sat down because freakout. I ended up vaguely doing 3 sections in the 4 section LR. Just not able to take in what I was looking at. When I went on to the next section, which was an LR section, I was still freaking out about having screwed up the RC. And so it went. Not good. Tres sad, actually.

After the test was finished, I went and spoke to the proctors and asked them to write the incident up because I am going to write to LSAC and formally state that I feel certain my score suffered as a result of the disturbance.

Since my application deadlines are 1/31(they do accept the January test scores), do you think I should write an Addendum about this incident and state that I've sent a formal complaint to LSAC and include it with the rest of my application material?

This is my first time taking the LSAT.

BTW, I learned that the person next to me had a nose bleed, is what it was all about. Poor guy. Poor me. Argh. Life sometimes...

I'd really appreciate any and all input.

Thanks and I hope everyone else did ok.

This is for those of you who haven't applied yet because you're still trying to make your essays just right—at the cost of being just written.

We believe in revising. Writing IS rewriting. But there's a fine line between revision and fiddling around. Revision usually entails some kind of re-envisioning. Fiddling usually entails faffing about and idling.

Revision is driven by understanding: you see how your essay falls short. Fiddling is driven by fear—you worry that your story and your voice and your language are too plain, too generic, too undistinguished.

Your story is your story. It won't get you into law school if you ornament it with fancy language. The best thing you can do is tell it clearly.

The other best thing you can do is finish it and apply already.

So it appears that one of my essay was selected by an undergrad IR journal (Yale Review of International Studies)... To what extent does it help me with my application to a T14 school? How should I maximize the benefit it may bring me? Thank you!

As it is a point of distinction for NWPSL, there really isn't much material out there for us to prepare for this, so I thought I might share with you how I went from being unable to answer any questions in the given amount of time to answer every and any question they threw at me with ease and dexterity (and maybe you can see how much the process parallels the preparation for LSAT, and see how well preparing for LSAT can be a highly transferable skill if done properly). My starting point is probably lower than most of you. I deathly fear public speaking and interviews, and have had traumatic experiences that still make my forehead sweat and my hair stand when I think about them. But just like when I bomb an PT, I took a deep breath and chose to look at these failures as learning opportunities, and fuel to help me go farther.

Luckily for us, everything we need to succeed in the NWPSL interview is already given to us in the form of the Kira App.

I practiced the the whole month of Jan in conjunction with my LSAT prep, every day for 15-30 minutes. I will break down my experiences and results week by week.

First week: I was not able to formulate any answers, and I embraced that. I didn't try to brute force the questions and ramble off answers. Like with the LSAT questions stems, I tried to systemize my approach to these questions. So even though I wasn't able to answer any of the questions, I just kept listening to the sample questions, categorizing them, and breaking them down. By the end of the first week, I was confidently able to put every question they offered into one of four categories in a 2x2 matrix. On the x axis were the two types of questions: one, the X, Y, and C question types, which I define to be "tell me about a thing (X), why (Y) did you choose this thing, and conclude (C) what it meant to you" - an example in their words would be something like: "tell me what you are most disciplined in, and why?"; two, the S,T,A, and R question types, which many of us have heard about before, and is an acronym for situation, task, action, and result - an example in their words would be something specific like: "tell me about a challenging professional situation, how you resolved it, and what did you learn." or something vague like: "tell me a time you had to change someone's perspective." On the y axis were the two styles of responses I believe they expect: one is the professional business style interview response; and the other is the informal, coffee chat style interview response. I believe they want to see both sides of you. You will be able to differentiate these two based on the interviewer and their tone of voice. By the end of the week, with this matrix, I was able to start matching a few experiences to broad concepts that can apply to a bunch of questions. This simplification and streamlining process is key for those of us who are not natural speakers, since we can reduce the number of things we think about, and use a few flexible experiences to respond to almost infinite questions.

Second week: I was able to formulate broken or half responses to some of the questions. To clarify, in case it wasn't clear by this point, I used a notebook to write down my X, Y, C, or S, T, A, R's, and took notes on the questions and analyzed my responses for every question. Reviewing the recording is key, just like how you can learn a lot about your weaknesses by watching recordings of your PT, you can see every single mistake you make in interviews and try to fix them. By this point, I realized that the crux was that finishing early was a much better alternative than not finishing, and that rambling was the worst possible outcome next to complete silence. So I created some concrete rules for myself, such as: one, no tangents or background stories unless I still have 3/4ths of the timer left; two, start concluding before the 2/3rds timer mark. Background information doesn't matter; this is not a short story; you aren't graded on narrative; just get to the point. Pay attention to the timer. One minute is incredibly short, and we cannot treat this interview like any other. Just like the LSAT, it is better to skip certain things and get to the end, than to not finish. By the end of the second week, I was able to answer a some questions by rote that I have seen a handful of times at this point. I also realized, by practicing everyday, at different times of the day, that I answered much better in the afternoon/evening, than in the morning. Another thing that I noticed was that proper framing and recording techniques mattered, so what I mean here is: that your camera should be eye level; the frame should show a bit more than the top of your head on the top, and a bit more than your chest on the bottom (preferably show your hands to gesticulate); you should be either in the center of the frame, or slightly to the side, but if you are off centered, then it looks better to turn your body towards the camera.

Third week: I was very familiar with my matrix and was able to fairly confidently draft and talk about any topic the questions threw at me, but still had some rough edges. I was still tense, and often looked away from the camera when the topic was unfamiliar to me. Luckily, my brother was visiting me at the time, and I asked him for some feedback. He is younger than I, but was the social one of us, and he gave me one advice, to talk as if I was talking to a friend. This really helped, although it was a little unnatural at first. To further compensate for my nerves, I discovered that I was much more relaxed and better at the interview after I worked out, and something else that I did that helped, but I don't recommend, is I drank a ounce of wine 15 minutes beforehand. By the end of the third week, I was just going through the motions, and everything was pretty much just clicking into place, like some 1 or two star LR questions.

Fourth week: I only had a few days left before I needed to do the real interview, and was getting a bit nervous due to the impending deadline. But I told myself to believe in the system and the process. For the last two days, I was just practicing as if it were the real interview. One thing I discovered this week that helped was that if I had the chance to meet with peers or friends to chat earlier that day, my responses came out more friendly and more naturally, so I organized a lunch on the day of the interview to chat and catch up with friends.

Actual Interview: Almost everything I prepared for came in exactly as I needed. I was relaxed and natural. The categorization helped put me into a flow that just helped ideas slide out. It was like antifreeze for my frozen brain, especially for topics I was unfamiliar with. The only thing that I did, but turned out to be unnecessary was that I differentiated responses that were 1 minute long and 1.5 minutes long. On the actual interview, all my questions only gave me 1 minute. Most of them were formal, 2 of them were informal. About half of them required the XYC format, and half required the STAR format. I just wore my comfortable clothes, which included sweatpants, and alumni jacket for my undergrad college.

In conclusion, everything's coming up Milhouse? This process was so helpful, I wish I could pay to have access to it again. It was such a wonder way to practice for interviews in general.

I apologize for the long post, but I thought maybe someone would appreciate the detailed process.

Interviews can be a kind of harrowing experience for some people so I wanted to give a kind of play-by-play for folks who may be interviewing at Texas Law. It was a fairly straightforward interview.

Kira Talent (the company that many law schools outsource their interviews to) interviews go as follows: There is no interviewer. You can take the interview at any time within two weeks of registering. You can practice on the questions as many times as you'd like (the practice questions are the same for every school), but you only get one shot during the actual interview (which are different for each school). I would recommend repeating the practice questions until you get three questions in a row that you feel like you answered well. They asked three verbal questions, each of which allocated sixty seconds of prep time and ninety seconds of response time. They also asked one written question, which provided fifteen minutes of writing time within a 300 word limit.

I believe that the questions are likely switched out, but also likely recycled. Here are the questions they asked so that you can prepare:

VERBAL (paraphrased)

WRITTEN (paraphrased)

If anyone else has taken this interview and wants to contribute their questions, that would be extremely helpful!

Overall, for any interview, I would recommend coming up with thoughtful answers to the following questions:

If you're looking for more interview tips and stuff, I'd recommend this guide here, which has been super helpful for preparing me all of these interviews: https://www.collegeessayguy.com/blog/preparing-for-a-college-interview-tips-and-strategies