I have a good GPA (3.84), but I am unsure how high I'll score on the LSAT. Where do I need to be in comparison to a school's average to have a good chance of acceptance? I know this is subjective and there are many other factors, but I would appreciate any input. Thank you

Does anyone know how admissions are affected if you have a truly unique hook/atypical applicant? Rhodes Scholar, olympic experience, military hero, celebrity, NFL/NBA star, etc? I was on the US Paralympic team for a winter sport and was curious what kind of advantage that might give me. 3.7 GPA, diagnostic was 161, 77% done with CC.

I emailed one of the admissions counselor to meet with her, I have not heard back anything. I wanted to re-email and ask for an interview date again (as I have heard many students are doing this prior to admission to law school). Any advice on politely emailing and meeting with admissions counselor?

Apologies in advance for this horrible question. But while signing up for an LSAC account, if you're a non-URM, should you still check whatever caucasian/white boxes you fit and "yes - report my information" to law schools? Or check the caucasian/white boxes and "no - DO NOT report my information" to law schools? Or is it best to just check the decline to respond box altogether? Ack.

I heard a rumor that employment history is required to sit for the bar, therefore its required to list on your applications. Does anyone know if this is true? I was told I have to list fast food employment from 20 years ago and if I don't when the BLE looks at tax returns I will be denied for lying about employment. Does anyone have any info on this?

Hey guys,

I have been trying to write my personal statement for the past few weeks, but I feel stuck. I know more or less what I want to write about, but I feel pretty overwhelmed considering the fact that I'm supposed to 1. grip the reader within the first sentence 2. make myself sound likable, thoughtful, unique, etc, person that makes admissions officers want me at their school 3. tell a story about overcoming an obstacle, and how I grew because of said obstacle 4. discuss my reasons for pursuing a legal education and my goals for the future..... all in less than 3 pages.

I suppose I do have a decent athlete/injury story to tell that conveys my perseverance, but I am honestly still kind of bitter about it, and I am quite self deprecating and pessimistic, so drawing out the "how I grew from what happened/ why I am a better person now" part is a struggle, and composing something about how I'm so awesome is just agonizing. I'm also having a ton of difficulty with the intro, as well as narrowing down my explanation of what happened (I am trying to use one event in my athletic career to summarize the numerous years of injuries). Also, I do not have much on my resume to back up my reasons for going to law school, since I decided that I wanted to go to law school when I was in my senior year of college.

So yeah... I want some guidance/ help, but I can't afford to pay someone $200 an hour. Are there any more affordable options in terms of personal, one on one guidance/ counseling? I know there are free resources on the web, but I want something a bit more personalized.

Thanks for your help

Hello 7sagers,

My name is Alex, and I will hopefully being applying to law school next year. After my undergrad, I decided to take some time off the academics and work full time. I worked for almost 4 years. My question to the community is this, I would prefer having letters of recommendations written by my former professors instead of my former employers, but I don't think any of my professors could even pick me out of a line up. How should I handle the situation?

Do we need to start looking for apartments now if we are going to live off campus? I was also curious what kind of meals you plan to cook for yourself during law schools . Trying get some ideas on cheap and healthy meals since I want to cut expenses as much as possible.

Now that the Georgetown deadline has passed, what did you guys do for the Top 10, if you chose that optional?

I did my top 10 favorite words and I wrote a little paragraph before explaining my history of loving different words lol I'm not entirely sure if I was supposed to do that, but they did say we could write up to 250 words...

I submitted Jan 27th and have started getting back some answers. Stats are UGPA: 3.0 LSAT: 165. I've also been out of school for six years and working for what it's worth.

I received a rejection from NYU a week ago but today I received an acceptance email from GWU with a scholarship offer for $105K. According to the LSAC calculator I should have had a less than 25% chance of even getting in. Do you think that a scholarship offer might indicate that they believe higher ranked schools may accept me as well? I might just be hoping here but I'm curious!

Dead.

I got into a school whose median LSAT and GPA are higher than mine, but got rejected from a school whose median LSAT was the same as mine? Acceptance rate was higher at the school that rejected me. It was also out of state, if that makes any difference at all. Super excited that I GOT INTO FUCKING LAW SCHOOL!!!!!!!! But what gives?

Besides a school's ranking and whether a particular school will improve your odds of landing a job, what are you looking for in a law school? Are there other things that make a school attractive or not? I am taking my first law school tour tomorrow and just curious about others thoughts and possible factors that may not be on my radar. Thanks!

First congrats to everybody who got into their dream school, received the massive LSAT score you all deserve, or just survived another week at the job you can't wait to leave behind!

I'm curious about whether it would be wise to submit a late addenda to the effect of a Why School X essay. I applied to Virginia at the end of November, have been UR1 since mid December with no word since then. Virginia is one of my top 3-4 choices and I'm a splitter, so I could reasonably fall into the admit, yield protect, or ding categories, especially in this volatile cycle. I've heard advice saying a late Why School X essay can help convince a school that you're serious about them, but also caution against. The reason against being that if I were wait listed next week, I wouldn't have much material to write about. I'm also curious if such a late addenda would delay a decision?

I guess any advice, hearsay or personal experience would be greatly appreciated!

I'm still a little confused on how the process works with showing financial need when you are working full time. My FAFSA shows that I have a decent salary, but I'm single and so that obviously will go away once I start school - my salary will be $0 haha. Do schools automatically account for that? Do I need to contact admissions/financial aid to clarify it?

https://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/college-rankings-blog/articles/2018-02-27/2019-best-graduate-schools-rankings-coming-march-20

We should be seeing new law school rankings by March 20th! Hopefully the ABA releases employment data by that time as well!

Hey everyone I just heard back from my dream school and i was wait-listed unfortunately. I'm new to this game so I have no idea on what I need to do to increase my chances of being admitted. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Many thanks and good luck to all.

I've been wait-listed at the highest rank school in my state and I intend to write a LOCI. How do I phrase "Look, I've received a $40,000/year scholarship offer from a lower-rank (not lower quality) school and to be honest if you would offer anywhere close to that amount I would attend your school, hands down. But frankly, at 38 years old, foregoing $120,000 in debt is at the top of my priority list." more eloquently?

Hey all!

So I got my scholarship offer from UCLA, but feel that I can't begin negotiating with them until I have my (hopefully) acceptance + scholarship from USC, since that is a closely ranked school + in the same area.

I have generous offers from WUSTL and Loyola (and ASU and GW), though I'm not sure UCLA would be interested in competing with either of those schools due to lesser rank (Loyola) and different location (WUSTL).

I have 2 questions - first, how long is too long to wait to respond to UCLA's offer and begin negotiating? Should I just jump in with the offers from other schools and see if they bite? If they don't care to compete with what I currently have, can I open the conversation up again as soon as I get my USC info?

Second - I'm fairly certain I have the numbers and credentials to get into USC and get some money. Is it okay to write a LOCI for a school where your application is still pending? Or is that just reserved for waitlist decisions?

Thanks!!

Hello everyone. :)

What are some jobs that a JD could do for a bank or for a financial regulatory organization/firm/body/entity? Entry level with an eye towards working your way up over time. I am most specifically interested in compliance with the goal of going into BigLaw or BigFed after years of experience for white collar/economic crimes.

Also, does clerking assist with these types of jobs?

Thanks all!

Hi everyone :)

I was wondering how important you guys think it is, to have either interned or worked at a legal firm or other legal institution before applying to law school?

Is it a particularly weighted factor in admissions or is it totally fine if you haven't had such an experience?

I have spent my undergrad years so far volunteering at various community impact organizations and working for a non-profit. I always thought I would just get to the legal interning and whatnot during law school and undergrad could be a time for me to get these different experiences.

I am asking this now because if it is truly an important factor for admissions I will try to get a legal internship over this summer, since I plan to apply to law school in October.

Thank you!

This is a random question... but can your designated pre law advisor at your undergraduate institution see or access your materials? Recommendations, test score, and things like that.

Hey guys, has anyone been successful in obtaining a deferral request and can share some advice about writing the request letter? I'm applying for personal reasons, not academic or professional ones, if that matters.

I'm wondering how other applicants who've been out of school for a while have addressed this section. The prompt is as follows:

"If it has been more than three months since you attended college, describe what you have been doing in the interval. You should include graduate or professional education, paid or unpaid employment, as well as any other activities that you consider relevant. Please answer this question separately from any information provided in a résumé."

The word "describe" suggests this can take a narrative form. Which is the approach I took, providing roughly half a page of single spaced paragraphs, describing my 6 years since graduation.

My concern is, there are portions where I describe why I changed jobs/roles/industries (instead of just saying "and then I started at...x"). For the most recent career move, I cite the reason being a desire to serve the public interest by practicing law, elaborating briefly on the process, saying that I took a few months to research career paths and meet with friends who work in prosecution, advocacy, and public policy before committing all my time and resources to LSAT and law school preparation

My concern is if that last bit would be out of place on this submission? Is it providing more that what is asked? Should it instead go into the personal statement?

It is technically describing how I spent my time, but it also elaborates on my thought process. I'm just hoping the latter isn't misplaced.

I've been offered one full ride from a school I'm less interested in and a couple of generous aid packages (appx $45k/year). But even with $45k per year, it is outrageously expensive. Another school is interviewing me for a full ride. I've informed the Admissions departments of the various offers already. Does anyone have specific advice on how to wring that last $13k or so per year out of them? Many thanks.