I'm hoping someone wouldn't mind explaining the application cycle to me. Honestly, the minimum that I know is that applications are rolling, so it's best to get your applications in early. But when exactly do all applications open? (or is it different for each school?) And in how far advance do we get access to the essay questions? And is there a general date/month that you should have all your apps in in order to have a good chance for scholarship money?

I apologize if these are really basic questions. If so, I'd appreciate someone showing me a webinar or a site that breaks it all down.

Thanks a lot :)

I took the December LSAT and underperformed (and new it) and also took the February LSAT and feel like I did much better. For some of the schools I'm applying to, my Dec. score is at or just below the median, but for many of the schools my expected Feb. score is above their medians. Should I wait until I receive my Feb. score before sending in an application? Will LSAC/CAS include my February score once it is reported if I apply today? I'm struggling because everybody tells me earlier is always better, but there is such a disparity between my low-160s Dec. score and expected high 160s Feb. score, I want to make sure the significantly better score is included in any application I complete. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Hi everyone,

My Feb LSAT got postponed to Feb 24. This will be my third attempt and my current highest score is a 150.

I am not trying to get into a T10 school. My dream school is Loyola Chicago, which currently ranks #82. And I am also considering DePaul and John Marshall Law School which are at even lower ranks. In other words, I will be happy if I got accepted into any law school in the City of Chicago which offer a part time program.

With that being said, should I still apply for Fall 2018 admission after I received the Feb LSAT score?

Thanks!

One of the applications asks me to provide a secondary school where I received my diploma. Are they asking for --- literally, the elementary or middle school that I attended? There's a place on the app for graduate school so I assume not that?

Does anyone know how law schools/California bar association, look upon a case of you suing someone for a hit and run? Don't recall details, is it important to report? And does anyone know if this will effect future bar exam?

I used to work with an attorney who agreed to write an LOR for me. We weren't employed at the same agency but did a lot of work together and served on some of the same committees. She left her position not to long ago to serve as an assistant director at one of the schools I'm applying to, so she wrote the letter for me on the school's letterhead.

I also asked for my last two supervisors to write me letters, which they both agreed but haven't submitted yet, which as you might imagine is causing me some anxiety. I had planned to submit my academic LOR and the attorney's LOR to this one particular school, but I'm wonder what the community thinks? Does it seem like it'll matter that one of their own staff wrote me the letter (and I believe it's a pretty decent letter)? Or would they prefer to hear from my actual employer instead?

Thanks!

Back in May after I did my diagnostic, I had a bit of a panic attack. It was well below what I expected and I genuinlly did not think I was going to be going to law school. My GPA was competitive average which meant my LSAT would have to be average at best to get into the school I wanted to. That meant a 20 point increase. Today I got accepted into that school. A stanger I was buying preptests off of recomended 7Sage to me and I am grateful I listened to his advice. I will be passing it on, recommending 7Sage to everyone I know writing the LSAT in the the future! Thanks 7Sage!

I'm assuming business causal? Sport coat okay/recommended?

Hi all - I'm currently working on the Yale application, wherein they recommend submitting a resume and limiting it to a single page. I'm wondering if others who have worked for 5 or more years after graduating college are having trouble limiting to one page, and if it's advisable to submit a two page resume? I've had 3 jobs post grad, 3 internships during school, a publication, and some misc. sports awards and other honors. Including everything on a single page would mean not putting much (or any) detail for each job position. As an alternative, does it make sense to exclude the internships? They were long ago, but still meaningful experiences. Also a portion of the application specifically asks for internship experience and other work completed during studies, maybe it's not necessary to include it in both places? In other words, the resume could be just for honors, awards and publications and the other parts of the application can cover work experience (both pre and post-grad)?

Would be great to hear how others have approached the resume. The application doesn't specify the exact components they expect to see in it

Thanks!

Hari

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 checked off the LGBTQ+ box in an app for UCI and mentioned that I was gay in my "Why X" essay. A few days after being admitted I received an email from a 1L who is apart of their LGBTQ club, saying welcome and feel free to ask me any qs if you would like to find out about my experience as a queer student at UCI.

I thought that was very sweet of the school to have that student email me. Have other schools done anything similar for you?

I am pursuing a dual degree at one of the law schools I applied for (JD/MES). The school recently contacted me and said I did not meet their minimum academic requirements because I received a major in Anthropology rather than an Honours Specialization in Anthropology. I have been asked to write a rationale form to apply as a non-standard applicant with the following:

-Why I do not meet the minimum admission requirements

-How my professional/personal and academic experience have prepared me to be successful in the program 

I have a pretty direct and logical reason for not receiving an Hons. Spec.: I was 1 credit away from an Honours but the only 4000 level course my school offered in my program was for students intending to pursue a masters degree in Anthropology and I did not want to do that, and decided to pursue electives that would better assist my admittance to a dual JD/MES (i.e. environmental law courses). Similarly, I know what to say re: how my academic experience has prepared me to be successful in the program.

However, I have no idea what to write for 'personal experience.' I don't really understand how personal experiences could make up for the fact that I was 1 credit away from an Honours Specialization and decided against it. The only thing I can think of is that I was the president of a lot of committees and councils in my undergrad while maintaining a 3.7 CPGA, and thus believe I am well prepared for the workload a graduate degree would provide.

Otherwise, I don't really know what else to say and I'm worried the rationale form will come up short.

I spoke to a guy involved at in the MES program not too long ago, and he said admittance to the graduate program might help in getting into the law school itself (i.e. the dual degree is really unique and would look good to the law school as a fringe applicant). I want to make sure the rationale is really good in case that is true -- anything to help my admittance to law. Has anyone had any experience writing a rationale form? What do you think they are they looking for when asking about how "personal experiences" have prepared a student to be successful in a graduate program?

Hi all, I'm applying to school in the fall and am going to start requesting my LOR's now (1. to get it out of the way and 2. to give some of my writers time to do it without feeling rushed on their end as I know they have busy schedules). Here are the people I'm going to ask to write LORs for me:

Graduate school professor that was also on my thesis committee. I did well in her classes, I feel confident that she "liked" me, and would write me a good LOR. I also volunteered to do my thesis on a project she was working on so I'm hoping there is some vested interest there. I was in grad school 2009-2011 so this is my most recent college experience (obtained my UG degree in 1998 and I couldn't pick out 95% of my UG professors out of a line up at this point).

Former boss (military) that is my mentor and who I have had an over 15 year professional and personal relationship with.

Former military work colleague that was a military lawyer and is now a successful lawyer in civilian practice.

The principal at my daughter's elementary school who can speak to my volunteer work within the school. For the last two years, I have performed significant volunteer service for my daughter's school. I am the coach of her basketball team, assistant coach of the school's track team, I am the "Wednesday lunch parent" (translation - provide adult supervision for a 2 hour lunch / recess period for the school every Wednesday, year round), class librarian (work the library for the class every other Thursday), and Girls on The Run practice parent (bring snacks twice a week for the school's GOTR program).

QUESTION (s): I believe that admissions committees would prioritize the LORs in the order above (as far as relevance / usefulness in the decision process. Agree / disagree? Any issues with any of the potential LOR writers or are there any other "type" of person I should be looking for? Note: Finding someone to write a quality LOR from my UG days is going to be extremely tough since, you know, Bill Clinton was president, Seinfeld was still airing new episodes, and mp3s were invented that year...

Hello,

I need some insight on what exactly I should omit from my Resume. I graduated undergrad in 2012 and went back for my paralegal cert. in 2015. I have 5 years work experience. I also have a ton of extracurricular activities(boxing, dancing, mentoring), Honor Society's and leadership positions during undergrad. Should I include all of those things or should I stick to my skills and employment experience? Thanks for your responses!

This may sound ridiculous, but it just so happens that I can be ridiculously indecisive. I know that it's important to consider employment stats, scholarships, national ranking, location, course offerings, specializations, etc. in making the decision, but I find it somewhat frustrating that there is no "logic games approach" for deciding on a school.

If you're reading this and you've made your decision or are in the process of making it, could you share how you went about it?

Did you go with a gut feeling? Do a chart? Do a chart with a weird point system that ultimately made the decision for you?

Did you talk to academic advisors, professors, friends, and/or family to get input on anything?

If you've decided, were you absolutely sure or more 80% sure or maybe even less?

These are the kinds of questions I've been dying to ask other people. What's your story?

I just wanted to publicly praise @"David.Busis" and the incredible difference the admissions package has made in my cycle! If anyone is even remotely thinking about purchasing it, have no more hesitation!! I firmly believe the admissions package has made all the difference in my cycle thus far. I just got in at UC Irvine today and I KNOW that my PS/Why UCI/Resume made ALL the difference!

I've posted about this before, but have hit yet another road block and need some advice on how to proceed.

Back Story:

I've sent one e-mail to the schools I applied to letting them know my transcripts would change after my CC sent the right one. The transcripts did change, just not accurately. So now there will be a SECOND change to the transcripts.

So this is where I am stuck, do I e-mail the schools again saying "oh sorry, something else is messed up now" or do I just wait for it to get completely resolved? (I have no idea how long that will take) Will schools just auto-reject me because of this? This is absolutely insane...

The diff in GPA is 2.83 vs 3.1x if it is done correctly.

This is absolutely killing me!

Hi all, if I am hoping to convince school A to give me aid by letting them know how much I got from school B, should I wait until school A’s financial aid app forms are available and fill them out, see what happens, then tell them about school B’s offer? Or should I tell School A now since their $ is limited?

Has anyone done one? I have one scheduled for this afternoon and I could use some input! Thanks!

Hi everyone!

So.. I have a withdraw on my transcripts from a billion years ago. It was due to time confliction and other reasons. My school did not count the withdraw as a fail or ding my gpa for it. I only spent a couple weeks in it, so was well within the acceptable withdraw time frame.

Would LSAC overlook this as it is "non-punitive", or will they punish me for dropping a class regardless?

On my transcripts, it looks like:

Art 199 Clay Sculpt. workshop Grade: A Repeat: N Attempted Credit: 3 Earned: 3 Pass: 0 GPA credits: 3 Quality points: 12

ENL 101 College Composition Grade: A Repeat: N Attempted Credit: 3 Earned: 3 Pass: 0 GPA credits: 3 Quality points: 12

WLD 125 Arc Welding I Grade: W Repeat: N Attempted Credit: 2 Earned: 0 Pass: 0 GPA credits: 0 Quality points: 0

Term totals: Attempted Credits: 8, Earned: 6, Pass: 0, GPA credits: 6, Quality points: 24, GPA: 4.00

I'm thinking it should be okay since it had no effect on the gpa, and wasn't a "Withdrawn/Failing". What say you?

And if it does, how would I go about maybe having this corrected at my CC so that it doesn't impact?

Hi everyone! I have recently decided to postpone my applications to next cycle. Having an active CRS registration, I’ve received a ton of fee waivers from schools. I was going to send out some quick “Thank you for the fee waiver” emails, and ask them to apply waivers to my account for next cycle. Do you guys think it would be good to do it now, or wait till closer to next year’s cycle?

What should I do if I already told law schools I'm going to take the Feb test but I know that I won't perform very well on it?

My applications are already in. GPA 3.74 Last LSAT 161. Really want to get into some reaching schools like USC and UCLA. Should I mentally prepare myself for rejections and apply again next cycle?

In 2012, I received a NP in Intro to Political Science which LSAC considers an F. Long story short, I took that class a long time ago when I was first considering law school and it was purely for educational enrichment, I took it over the summer for christ sake.

Should I explain this in the addenda? I do have a reasonable excuse for not taking the final, the professor was very strict about when he wanted his tests done and when I exceeded the time allotted for both tests with my one Philosophy final (with testing accommodations), I asked for an extension and it wasn't granted. If it were any other class maybe it wouldn't matter but since I'm applying to law school I feel as though I should explain this. But I also don't want to look really dumb by exceeding the time limit for two tests with just one. The philosophy final was super writing heavy but still.

Any thoughts? Suggestions?

Thank you,

Steph

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!

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