Hey all, I'm beginning to brain storm my personal statement topics. I am having an internal debate. I am 45 years old and spent 25 years in the military (active duty Marine infantryman). My resume that will accompany my apps obviously will reflect a huge amount of military jobs / assignments. I am questioning whether or not to write a PS that focuses on a military scene / setting or to branch out into some other aspect of my life. If I go with "other", the topic would likely be related to my running / triathlon hobby (How you tell the Ironman / marathoner at a party? Don't worry, he'll tell you) or something related to recent volunteer service (youth coaching). With any of the above options, I feel I can make it personal / unique and demonstrate something about me and my personality.

Option A - Military (the softball / most expected option): Go with what you know. Obviously, I identify with the military and even in retirement, feel it is a large part of who I am. The most likely PS from this would be my first command experience outside my career field in which I grew by learning to work with those of varied occupational backgrounds and experiences.

Option B - Athletic or Coaching option: Personal growth through perseverance and commitment to a goal, plus learning some sacrifices aren't worth it (loss of family time vs time / physical training required for certain athletic goals) or lessons from a youth girls basketball / track coach.

I am leaning heavily towards option A, but do I run the risk of painting myself as "the military guy"? Is that even a bad thing to be worried about? I don't have a "Moses came down from the mountain and said you shall be a lawyer" story, so none of my options will really focus on the legal profession.

What are things that can make my application stronger.

Is anyone else having an issue waiting for LSAC to process a transcript? My undergrad submitted my transcripts via the electronic exchange over a week ago but it's still not showing on LSAC.

I am very interested in attending UCI Law and wanted to see if anyone could give me an approximation of the likeliness of an acceptance. I took the December LSAT and got a 161. Retook in February and absolutely BOMBED with a 158.

My GPA is 3.45 and I am a URM if that makes any difference. I'm between the schools 25th and 50th percentile, but closer to the 25th.

Receiving back my February score was a shock and disappointment, especially because I was PTing consistently in the 166-169. And now, I'm just left unsure of what to expect and where I stand.

Any input would be appreciated.

Hey guys, I'll be starting law school this fall and would like to enroll in a law school prep course. The three I've heard of are in the title. Does anyone have experience with any of these prep courses? If not, does anyone recommend a different prep course? I'm rather new to the law prep course business so any help is appreciated. I've also come across a handful of people on 7Sage using one or two of these courses so please enlighten us with details!

I've also attached an optional poll below.

How long after a school is notified of a new LSAT score do they usually notify applicants of a decision? I am on the wait list at my top choice school; the rest of my apps are on hold until February's score posted, so I assume they haven't yet reviewed it and would likely take longer from these schools to receive a response. Can someone enlighten me on the time frame I can expect a response for the wait list school and others? Would it expedite the process if I also notify my top choice that my new score has been posted and that I would like them to review my app again? Or will they likely review my app automatically upon receipt of the new score?

Hey guys,

Hope there's been good news going around. I got into one of my top choices which is University of San Diego and they offered me a 36k scholarship for the first year, with the option of it being renewable if I keep my GPA above a 2.8. That seems pretty easy but I hear law school is on a different grade scale than undergrad. I'm a first- generation college student so I'm really trying to maximize my funding. Wondering if anyone has any tips or advice/forums/blogs anything on how to get the max financial aid.

Also, has anyone attempted to be flown out to schools on their dime? I'm trying to do that but am feeling uncomfortable approaching it.

Thanks,

Stephanie

EDIT: Room has been taken.

Hey All, I was planning on going to UVA’s Open House but unfortunately my plans have changed. I booked a hotel room that is not refundable at the university hotel (literally walking distance from the school). If anyone is interested in going and wants my room, I will give it to you for $60 (I’ll call the hotel and change the name on the room to yours). PM me with your email address if you are interested.

Hi everyone,

Question for you...a school that I’m trying to negotiate scholarships with asked me to show them my other offers. Is that normal? Are offers from other schools confidential? A little confused as to how this process works, so any insight would be great.

Thanks!

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?

So I just got my feb score and really screwed that one up. My Dec test score is higher than the feb score. I already told schools that I will be taking the Feb test so they are waiting for my score. Should I and can I call the schools to tell them I don’t want to report my Feb score? Or would that not matter because my highest score is my Dec score and they won’t bother with my new score?

Thanks ??

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

https://www.lawschool.life/interview-with-dean-zearfoss-umich/

Here's an informative interview with UMich Dean Zearfoss! Hope you guys find it useful

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.

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?

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!

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

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.

Hi all, hypothetical here. If you were planning to go into public interest, and you got a full ride to a T-6 (or Penn eg) vs HYS, would you take the full ride? How about if it were T-4 full ride vs HYS?

Thanks for your thoughts! :)

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.

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!

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!

Dead.