Hi everyone,

I'd like to introduce our newest editor, Mark Firmani. He’s actually been working on your behalf already, but I haven't gotten around to welcoming him yet. Mark graduated as the valedictorian from Quinnipiac University, and he is now a doctoral candidate at the University of Pennsylvania English Department and a J.D. student (deferred admission until 2019) at Yale Law School. He’s so bright that I have to wear sunglasses just to email him.

One more exciting announcement: 7Sage Editor Ben Mauk was nominated for a National Magazine Award for a brilliant essay in the Virginia Quarterly Review! You should all read it and share it. Here’s the link:

http://www.vqronline.org/reporting-articles/2017/04/useful-village

Hello all, I am hoping that someone could give me a little bit of insight here. I took the December LSAT and I do not plan on taking this test again! I have a 150 w/a 3.6 GPA. I have 2 degrees and a paralegal cert graduating with a 4.0 GPA. I graduated undergrad in 2012 and from the ABA paralegal program in 2016 so I know my GPA and school activities may not play that much of a factor. I have over 5 years of experience in the legal system. I have some pretty strong LORs. I want to apply this month to begin this fall. I am looking into Rutgers, Temple, and Drexel. I am concerned because I know my LSAT it not as highly competitive as some schools would like.

Basically my question is should I shoot for it and apply now or wait and apply this fall for next year when there are more seats available?

Any info helps...Thanks

I took the December LSAT and scored a 150. My last score reported was in Decemeber 2016 with a 141 and before that in 2013 with a 143. Should I write an addendum explaining my scores or is it not worth it?

Thanks for all of your responses.

Just realized I actually need to send a C&F addendum to one of my schools--it's a really minor issue. Anyone willing to look over a draft?

Although most law schools claim not to have a preemptive cutoff score for the LSAT. Let be real, they have to draw the line somewhere. Let’s say for a school whose median is 153, and a mean of 150. Would you say that cutoff is 149?

Got 108k in scholarship to UUIC. Numbers close to median and a special shout out to @"David.Busis" for helping me prepare a stellar application! Highly recommend his services!

I am still waiting to hear from 4 of the schools I applied to (application submitted in November) and received a notable award at the company I work for at the end of 2017. Since I've been out of school for a few years I consider this an award worth informing schools of but I've noticed that some blatantly state to submit updated résumés while others don't. Should I submit an updated résumé if a school doesn't specifically say I should? I assume that it wouldn't hurt but could be wrong, any thoughts?

Does anybody know if there is a specific timeline for this scholarship?

Hello,

so I have a 3.28 and a 169...

USC rejected, UCLA waitlisted, and UC Irvine accepted with 90k, Loyola with 110k.

If UCLA rejects, I'm left with Uc Irvine as it is higher ranked than loyola...

Given I can make good grades and work hard (yada yada)...am I in a bad spot?

I dont have solid career goals right now but I know for sure that I dont want to graduate with 100k in debt with a 60k a year job IF that...

how likely is it that I go to UCI and crap out? Ive already waited a year and increased my LSAT by 10 points to get to where I am now and was extremely disappointed USC and UCLA didnt accept/waitlisted.

Thanks all

Hi there! I’m late to the application game and just submitted the first half of my apps. Only to realize... I sent an old draft of my resume (really dumb mistake, I know). Everything is up to date, but I wrote my present tense parts in third person. Throughout college, I was taught to use third person on resumes, but only recently learned that it’s not preferred. There’s also a minor formatting issue on that version (something is bullet pointed that should have been a subheader... but I re-read it like 12 times without noticing and considered making it a bullet point beforehand, anyway).

My question is: should I email an updated resume to those schools? I submitted to my biggest reach schools and my safe schools. Will they care about the third person thing? And if I do resubmit, should I do it today or wait a little bit (I literally just send the apps in last night)? I asked some people on Reddit, and they said I should be fine. But a dream school that I feel like I have a solid chance at got the bad resume, so I'm still a little nervous.

Thanks for the help!

Hi everyone! I'm really liking these non-LSAT related posts. They're a fun way to take a break from the LSAT. I'm just curious what law schools you all have visited and which ones you liked and disliked and the reasons why. Were there any law schools that you visited that you thought you wanted to go to but visiting made you reconsider?

I have worked babysitting and served as personal assistant for 10-20 hrs a week all through college (in addition to another PT job for first 2 years).

Should/ how should I list this on my resume?

Thanks!

Hi all!

Happy studying! I am currently in the middle of submitting apps. I sent an application to Georgetown ED with only one LOR (they require one but accept up to three). My other recommenders just finished and sent it to LSAC. Once I assign the LORs, will Georgetown receive the new letters?

Thanks in advance!

My name is Stephanie Gonzalez. I have been using the email address of stephgmeister[at]gmail.com since the beginning of time. However, this may seem adolescent and ridiculous because "meister" is not apart of my last name at all, it was just one of the options that wasn't taken. Also, this email works great with the space I have on the header of my resume. Does anyone advice against using this email address?

I haven't seen a thread on this topic, but for those of us that are professional law school applicants, what is the best way to include our professional licenses, memberships, etc.?

I am a LEED Accredited Professional, and even my personal email signature reads "Name, LEED AP BD+C". I imagine architects would include "Name, AIA and/or NCARB" in their resume header, and Professional Engineers, "Name, PE", etc. - is it too jarring for me to do the same with LEED AP in my resume header? What if my admissions reviewer doesn't know what LEED AP means? Where in the body of the resume would be a better home for certifications, and how would your recommend formatting them?

Thank you!

Hi.

There was another post on this sometime ago, so I was wondering if there were additional thoughts. Here’s the situation:

I applied to schools on an old (not great) score. The day before Dec test, I got admitted to the PT program I was aiming for, but no $$. Given that the time and $ invested in the Dec test prep was a sunk cost and that I was confident of a significant improvement I took the Dec test (mainly to leverage for $ and to aim higher on apps). I got the Dec score back and it pushed me up 20 percentile points; based on this score improvement I asked for reconsideration at the program to which I had been admitted. They returned a scholarship offer that helped with tuition (about 30% of tuition). I just received admission to another PT program with what would be nearly 70% tuition - similar tuitions at both schools). The second school is marginally more well ranked than the first school in PT rankings and 10 spots higher in the regular rankings.

Is it reasonable and/or good practice to leverage the second school’s offer against the first school’s offer after having asked once for reconsideration for $ and been rewarded for the Dec LSAT score improvement?

Thanks,

TD

Hi all -

Having graduated with an Undergraduate degree (B.M.) in music performance in 2010, I am now set on applying to Law School for the 2018/19 admissions term. I obtained a Master of Music (M.M.) in 2012.

My question relates to the fact that what I feel was my success in these degrees is most evidently shown by my applied work with my instrument. For Example, my GPA was sufficient as an undergrad (though not terribly fabulous), yet I won multiple awards for performance on my instrument, including winning a state wide competition, winning a school wide concerto competition, and receiving an award only given to 1 student per year at my school for excellence in music performance. Due to my focus on my instrument, my GPA does not reflect this success. My GPA was much higher as a Master's Degree student, however.

So, I am wondering if anyone has any advice on translating these achievements to my application for law school. My goal is to show that for a music student, these achievements were as or even more important than my GPA. Not sure if that is even remotely possible, but I suppose I have to try!

Thanks very much.

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

Hi all, I just submitted my FAFSA but didn’t see a place to include 2017 tax return/income info. How can I include this information?

Also, I am struggling to understand how the FAFSA works generally. I only found some of my schools when I searched to add them. How do I get Federal aid for the others?

Wrote about this on Reddit but curious as to what 7sagers have to say about parental information on law school apps as well. Why do they need to know their occupation for example. What is this even used for? Also, in the education level section I had input high school as the highest level of education because I was unsure of what to put for a parent that went to college but didn't complete (no checkboxes or options just a space to write/ felt like putting college would be dishonest and inaccurate since they did not receive a degree) I'm assuming that I did the right thing however, I'm curious as to how to address this in future apps/ how do other people approach this. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

I know better than to be doing things to impress this or that school, but these are all pre-existing interests of mine and I would like to know whether it's realistic to expect to get in with this particular mix of activities.

Aside from a 3.88 (that I plan to push up to a 3.9 by the end of Spring with a 4) GPA, and a 172 LSAT (hopefully- it's what I'm going for! My diagnostic is 157 and I have 7 months.......),

What kind of extracurriculars will help me as an undergrad (junior)? I'm currently pres of a UN-affiliated club and looking into starting (and by default becoming president of) a literary club, a finance club, and (subject to approvals) a harvard-affiliated student chapter (the affiliation exists, but the club doesn't. Go figure), a global professional association club, and (subject to interest and numbers) a track club (without a coach, so not a team). I've also recently joined MUN and hope to chair a conference.

I'd been considering running for student body leadership, but I think it's a massive time commitment and a ton of administrative work (great- but way too much of a commitment).

What kind of internships will help? I'm studying econ and politics and haven't done any yet, aside from the odd work with, and not for, this or that company through my UN club. I'm looking at getting in 3-4 before July, after which I'll take 2 months almost completely off to focus on the LSAT before taking it in mid-September. I know I'd like one to be at a law firm just to get a real feel of it (probably taking this one first), but I also know that law schools adore other work experience. I really want to head off straight after graduating though, so I have to be really picky about my internships!

Thanks for toiling through and for your helpful comments!

This may seem like a silly question but for the lsat section on some applications where you have type all your lsats in what do you write if you canceled? It will only let me put in a numerical amount or leave it blank. Should I just not list that lsat because I canceled? One more thing, I was thinking about writing an addendum but I'm not sure if its worth it. My freshman year of college was really bad but after that my grades picked up beside my junior year 2nd semester. I studied abroad in the fall so my grades are not counted on lsac and then when I returned my spring semester of grades were terrible. I got sick multiple times that semester and had to miss a lot of school. On top of that, I missed a week of school because of a conference I was attending for the school that got snowed in and I was stuck there. After, that semester my grades go back up in my senior year. Is it worth writing an addendum if I just say I was incredibly sick that semester? Will law admissions think that's a credible excuse?

Do people know if we need to apply for FAFSA before the priority deadline to get loans? I know that the deadlines for some schools are relatively early? If it is done before summer, will that be ok too?

Is it seen as unprofessional to use an email address with a number in it? I made it [first name][last name]2122@gmail.com. I wanted a Gmail and it's impossible to make it just my name.

Hey all I've been thinking of my application process and I wanted to make a post about what I believe is one of the most important factors concerning the acceptance to my top choice!

I sent out my applications on January 2nd. I send an email to my top choice the next day requesting an interview. I did not hear back for over a week, but eventually the admissions office was happy to set up an interview for me that would take place later that week.

During the interview, I was asked a host of questions concerning why law school, what do I want to do in law school, various aspects of my employment, aspects of my essays, and other "standard" interview questions. I think the greatest thing I took from my interview and the biggest piece of advice I can give someone is that ALWAYS ask for an interview whenever possible, especially to your top choices. I was able to talk about myself other than what was on my application, which without an interview is the be all end all for the admissions committee. There was a confusing aspect on my employment history that was necessarily the easiest the explain on my resume and I was asked about it and I was able to give a coherent answer concerning it.

Another big takeaway from my interview is that I got to tell a specific story (I was asked a questions about leadership/working in a team) that I did not write about in any of my essays nor was readily apparent from the resume (nor could it have been since it was an isolated incident). My interviewer was thoroughly surprised a this answer and reacted very positively to it since she even told me she thought I was going to talk about something in one of my essays.

So always ask for an interview whenever possible! I was accepted one week after my interview took place!