Hi all,

I got kicked out of my high school in my sophomore year. I was caught with marijuana. That part of my life is a blur. My mom had recently passed away and I was feeling very lost. This was also, like, more than 10 years ago. I am 26 now. I do not remember how I left it with the other school aside from knowing they asked me to leave. I don't know if its part of my "record" or anything like that.

Do I need to include this in my application? One application asked a question along the lines of "have I ever got into any trouble in a educational institution," or something like that.

Thanks in advance for any info!

Title says it all. I live in Canada and 7Sage provides a great ranking system (that also estimates your chances of acceptance) for law schools in the US but none for Canada. Does anyone have more information on Canadian law schools?

Hi everyone,

I apologize I have been submitting a lot of questions regarding admissions. Am I supposed to enter my LSAC GPA or my real GPA in the applications? Or does LSAC submit that in the transcripts?

Hey everyone, I’ve been MIA the past couple months. I took not getting into any school pretty hard and had to do a lot of re-evaluation of my life. I took on a second job and have been working 70 hour weeks.

Today, however, I got an e-mail from Northwestern School of Law offering me a spot off of their waitlist. I accepted the spot and will be flying out to a Chicago within a week to start my 1L year at NU.

I had to come back to 7Sage to express my deepest thanks to everyone in this community. From JY, to @"Cant Get Right" to every single person I worked with through this process on the forums, thank you so much for everything you have done to make my dream of attending a T-14 Law School come true.

For everyone out there still struggling and climbing that mountain, don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t. If you work full-time you can make your dreams come true. If you have a bad gpa, you don’t have work experience, or you are struggling with the LSAT, push through. Your hard work WILL PAY OFF. Do not listen to the plethora of naysayers that will haunt you along the way. Stay positive, stay motivated and keep your goal in sight. I promise you if you do that, and never give up, you will eventually be where you want to be.

I can’t describe how much this community means to me, and even in my absence I’ve still thought about each and every one of you. Again thank you 7Sage from the bottom of my heart.

Hi all!

Navigating CAS/ making sure I've actually done things right is giving me anxiety. Can someone shed light on either one of these things:

Thank you!!!

Hi everybody - I am hoping to get some opinions on whether or not the following topic could be a solid Personal Statement idea or if it might make my law school motivations appear misguided.

I would like to write my essay on how my parents are what initially made me want to pursue a career in law. They founded a small PI law firm about 25 years ago - my dad is an attorney at the firm and my mom is the director of the firm's business and marketing. Seeing my dad in the courtroom as a child and witnessing the difference he made for so many of his clients was very inspirational to me. Additionally, the fact that my parents founded and have since expanded the firm and that they both put have put so much of themselves into the firm over the years means a lot to me. I would like to work for the firm as an attorney one day and eventually continue our family business.

But I am just worried that this could make me sound like I only want to become a lawyer in order to be like my dad and have a family business handed to me someday (which, for the avoidance of doubt, is not the case).

Bit of a specific request. My GPA/LSAT are 3.46/169. I graduated in 2011 and have pretty solid work experience and strong extracurriculars. So far I've gotten waivers from Penn and Michigan. Looking at LSN it looks like people with my numbers have been admitted to both at decent rates.

Here's the issue - the latter half of my college years were sort of marred by mental health issues related to a side-effects, dependency, and withdrawal symptoms for a medication I was prescribed but in hindsight should have never been taking. I went from straight A's my first two years to a basket of B's and C's my later two years.

I plan to write an addendum for this for top 5 schools - because I figure my chances there are slim anyway, my gpa (and probably LSAT) will absolutely be an issue for them and explaining the circumstances can only help

For schools like Penn and Michigan where I have a waiver, should I bother explaining anything? Or will the explanation just hurt my already okay chances? The worst on my transcript are a few C's Junior/Senior year, and then a withdrawal (non-punitive) from 3 courses my last semester.

What about other T-14 schools where I don't have a waiver. Addendum or no?

Thoughts are appreciated. Thanks!

I unfortunately made a minor mistake in all my statements for one of the law schools. In the header, I included my name, what type of document (personal statement, etc.), and my LSAC ID. I messed up my LSAC ID. I somehow did not add the last number of my ID, so it is noticeable that it is not a complete ID number.

Should I contact the admissions and ask to submit the revised documents? It is my top law school but I made this stupid mistake in an otherwise flawless application. I only submitted the application 2 days ago.

Transmitted Application Warnings - we are unable to release your CAS report to the following law schools. Select the law school link for detailed information.

I submitted 3 applications yesterday. 2 of them went "complete" on the LSAC page. 1 of them gave me the above alert this morning? However, there is no "detailed information" concerning what the problem is. I'll call LSAC Monday morning, but has anyone else run into this issue?

As an aside, of course it has to be my reach school that I'm having this problem with. Grrrrr.

Hello everyone!

There are two schools I am seriously considering going to next fall, first choice being the University of Utah and second being the University of Montana. My GPA is 3.92, so above the 75th percentile for both schools, but my LSAT is 159, which is above the 75th percentile for Montana but at the median for Utah.

In order for me to financially justify going to Utah (would have to pay all 3 years of out of state tuition, their new policy) I would need a substantial scholarship. With the LSAT score I have, I don't think I will be offered enough in scholarships to justify going there. However, I just recently found out the Utah just implemented an ED program. In general, I think applying ED is a bad idea in most instances, but for out of state students that are accepted ED at Utah receive a $75,000 scholarship (roughly 65% of base tuition for 3 years). The only conditions to keep the scholarship are to 1). maintain a 2.5 GPA and 2). don't violate any student conduct rules.

While it would be great to receive a scholarship of that size to a school I want to go to, I am uncertain of how difficult it is to attain a 2.5 GPA in 1L. While I take pride in my academic performance and don't think I would have an issue keeping that GPA, I have no clue what types of grades are generally given out in 1L and how the grading curve would factor into that? I am just trying to be as cautious as possible since it would be very unfortunate to lose out on that amount of money and end up paying sticker price after the first year.

Montana is far more affordable, and I can be reclassified as an in-state student after the first year. I suppose my question is how do you guys feel about receiving scholarships with GPA conditions? And from your perspective, would it be worth the risk to apply ED to Utah? Thanks in advance for the help!

I just received an email from a law school I applied to. I submitted my application for this school yesterday. This morning I received an email saying my application was incomplete. Turns out that my undergraduate transcripts were not received but everything else was including my letters of recommendation. Do you have to assign the transcripts like the letters of recommendation in order for them to be sent? Or is there some other process that one needs to do so LSAC can send the transcripts? Or should LSAC just automatically send them?

Has anyone else had this issue? Thanks

Hello all!

Another personal statement swap post here (I know there have been several recently). I am working through drafts of two different personal statement topics. After speaking with my pre-law dean and a friend who gave the exact opposite opinion of my pre-law dean, I am stumped (though I know my dean is obviously more qualified and weigh his opinion much heavier). Anyway, just looking to do an old-fashioned swap. You read mine and I'll read yours.

Cheers!

I'm quite interested in studying health law but many schools don't offer this program. The T-14 only has some schools with health law courses, but there isn't a large focus on it. However, many tier 2/3 schools have health law departments and programs. Should I be focused on getting into the best ranked school I can? Or school I focus on a school that has my interests?

Hi everyone,

A lot of the schools that I'm applying to list their letter of reference requirements as "2 required - at least one academic." I was just wondering if it is better to get two academic references or use the other as an employment reference, personal, etc. Is there an preference from law schools on this? I have a few choices for both but I'm just not sure what route to go down.

Thank you all in advance :)

*P.S I'm applying to Canadian schools - not sure if this matters

I was advised to not repeat things on my resume and I'm not really sure why. I was under the impression that your resume is just to briefly describe what you did at your work. Of course in an essay one wouldn't want to be overly repetitive and use the same words/phrases, but some job duties between jobs are the same.

If one were i.e. working at a fast food restaurant, and then their next job was working at a different fast food restaurant....one would probably expect to read "flipping burgers" repeated between the jobs...I don't understand the importance of trying to rephrase that to ..."rotating" burgers or something.

I think it sounds a little bit stupid and like I'm trying to be fancy and trick the reader into thinking I did something different between jobs...or it just lacks consistency...I just think this is the wrong advice...

Happy Friday, ya'll

I've been thinking a lot about my personal statement and I've decided to talk about an experience that reaffirmed my commitment to justice and pursuing law but it might be a little controversial. Basically, I had an encounter with a retired cop and a lot of his stories were really glamorized stories of what was essentially police brutality and power trips. By no means do I want to come off as a police-hater. I have a lot of respect for law enforcement and I believe that good police officers carry out justice. In fact, I have a few police officers in my family.

It was just a really eye-opening experience and I think it might show my commitment and passion for law and justice.

Please let me know what you think.

Thanks!

Hi All,

I took the June test and scored a 153 which was my average at the time. I studied all summer and only had time to take two PT's before September; both were recent tests and I scored a 159 and 161. I took the September test feeling really confident and scored a 150 which I haven't scored that low since my diagnostic. Test conditions were good and I wasn't feeling nervous. (-11 RC, -15 LR, -8LG, -10LR). I have never done so poorly in LR, but RC and LG were relatively consistent.

I was hoping to apply ED but that is out the window. I was wondering if I should sign up for November or just wait it out until January? I graduate in early December so I will have more time then but I can't help but think that I should try to sit for November so I don't pin up my hopes of having one last take in January for this cycle. I'm curious whether it would be advisable to just sign up Nov and withdrawal before if these next weeks don't go well.

My target would be 158-162. My average BR is 165.

Thank you for your input!

I am taking the LSAT somewhat late in the admissions cycle (November) and because of this, depending on how it goes I may wait until the next cycle to re-take the test. If I were to wait until the next cycle, would I need to gather my LOR's or would the ones that I have now carry over into the next cycle?

Thanks.

Can I apply ED with a current LSAT score, and then retake in November and apply with a new, potentially improved score?

I’ve been crunching the numbers and my chances of getting ED into the school of my choice (one of the UCs) is 23% with the LSAT score I have now. If I retake and apply in December, I have to improve by 3 points to get back to that likelihood, and by 7 points to even get to a 50/50 shot of acceptance. But the average improvement seen for retakes at my level (mid 160s) is only 2 points. Doesn’t seem like my chances of improving things are good. But I really really want to get a 170, or at least get a chance to go at it again.

If I take the January LSAT can I still apply for law school this cycle? Generally, when is the latest LSAT that one can take and still apply this cycle? Thanks!

Hi all,

I got my Sept LSAT score back today and got a 153 (bummer) and am mulling over what to do - if anyone had any advice that would be greatly appreciated!

Here are the circumstances:

SOS :)

I have a dilemma. I first wrote a first draft of a PS that I thought was good. It was focused on a conversation I had with my daughter (yeah I know, I'm old) and it was light and silly and only obliquely mentioned why I wanted to be lawyer but focused more on wanting to do well in school to be a good role model for my child.

Today though, after not being able to get a thought out of my head I wrote a different version of my PS that focused specifically on why I wanted to be lawyer. That had to do more with the trauma I experienced as a child. Not quite "walking over corpses to escape war-torn country" but definitely stuff that still brings me to tears when I think about it. I don't necessarily think that's appropriate to use to gain admission to law school. If feels like exploitation. On one hand I feel like after spending a life time trying to to not let past events define my identity, I turn around and use it at the first convenient moment. On the other hand, what if the essay before mine is from someone who escaped a war-torn country over corpses, I'm sure I'll sound positively like a crybaby then.

What do you think? Is it just me? Does anyone with the more serious obstacles (sickness, death of a relative, assault, abject poverty, etc.) in your life been hesitant to use it as PS fodder?

I recently improved my score from a 154 to a 166 and that is just edging into the good territory for T14s, but I am applying this cycle and decisions are coming very late. I am wondering if I should wait until the next cycle or to continue with a full scholarship at a lower ranked university. I am primarily afraid that I will not have as good of an application given that I will not have great references and lack more stories for a quality personal statement.

Being a Michigan resident, I was really aiming for the University of Michigan, but affordability would be an issue. Any input? I applied to U of M (initially denied, waiting for update), Northwestern, UCLA, Minnesota, UC Irvine, Notre Dame, Indiana - Bloomington, University of Washington (denied), U Colorado - Boulder (waitlisted), Michigan State ($126k), and Wayne State (100% tuition).

Hi all! I'm wondering whether (& to what degree) student activism belongs on a law school resume. It was one of my main extracurriculars and leadership roles, but I'm not sure how much to say if it involves a branch of an explicitly left national student organization, or organizing around raising university service workers' wages and unionization struggles (things that law schools probably aren't so keen on either?)

Thanks in advance!

Here's my perspective (for the 2017-18 app):

It is clear that we should all do as many practice interview questions as possible. But honestly, I didn't feel like it helped all that much. I spent 2 days searching up questions and preparing for them, but only 2 questions on the actual interview were on the 10+ pages of of questions I prepared. And even when it was a similar question, they worded it differently such that I could not use my prepared responses and had to rephrase them. This, combined with my nerves from not having been interviewed for about a year, made me run out of time for almost every question, even though I thought I had given myself some leeway. Additionally, I wasn't very certain, because I may have simply mis-remembered, but I felt like they mixed up the time allotted to you for the questions, for example: during a practice session, a question was given for the long answer response section, but during the actual interview, it was given during the short answer response section, and threw me off completely.

Do any of you have insights on this interview that you would like to share? I would appreciate any thoughts and advice =).

Here are some reflections from my interview last year:

Have a phone timer on the side.

My browser didn't beep when the time was up, because I clicked off of it.

Be even more concise than you think was necessary, and be able to answer every answer within 45 seconds, but be able to expand on it if necessary.

Practice table topics, instead of preparing responses.

Begin each response with a conclusion in mind.