Hey everyone,

Would love any advice about how to strategically approach this application cycle. It's my first time so I'm a bit nervous. The goal is to get into a T14 to study technology law. I work full-time and am willing to wait until next cycle if a top school isn't in the cards for me.

My numbers:

I know admissions is mostly interested in the numbers, and I'm in between 25th and 50th percentile in both categories for the T14. My absolute dream would be to attend Northwestern (also applying to Georgetown, Duke, UVA, and Penn, still deciding on the rest). My question is - would it be better to apply Northwestern Early Decision with what I have now or retake the LSAT in November? Do I have even a slight shot?

For more context, soft factors:

Thank you all so much for even reading this :') appreciate your help!

Hey everybody! I am struggling between what topic to use for my personal statement and how to structure it. If someone could please message me and let me know if they can help me with that. Thanks!

On my online status checker for TAMU Law, it says that my application is still "Under Review" but under "Decision Status" it says "no decision made". I've heard that this means that someone in admissions reviewed it and has decided that another faculty member needs to review it and has made no decision from there. Any thoughts?

At some point I though I came across a list of privet scholarship /grants for law school. I'm not sure if it was in a discussion thread or someplace else anyone have the link or know what I'm referring to.

Hi all,

While trying to avoid counting down the hours until score release tomorrow, I'm finishing up my app materials and I need to write a Public Interest essay for pretty much every school I'm applying to so I can qualify for PI scholarships. I feel like my PS is on lock, but was wondering if anyone knew of blogs or samples of successful PI essays out there? I'm especially worried about being repetitive with my PS, since I've worked in nonprofits for 7+ years and that's pretty much my life.

Thanks!

This question mainly stems from lack of proper information and not trusting TLS; plus I think this is a subject many people aren't sure on. What is considered having good ties to a city/region?

Is having lived in a city since early teens to graduating high school and doing 2 years of UG enough? I moved away to finish my UG but am thinking about coming back, but it has been almost 4 years.

Do I need a family connection? A decent amount of friends/people I know there?

What do y'all think? I feel this community is much more level headed and understands not everyone wants big law, so I'd appreciate your thoughts.

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How do I see what my GPA is on LSAC? I heard that there can be discrepancy between your GPA from your degree granting institution's transcript and any other institutions' transcripts if you took a course there during high school.

I posted a question but have now edited it to this as I don't know how to delete it.

Morning everyone–

I am in the process of drafting a diversity statement for my applications, but I am not fully convinced I need to write one. My PS already addresses my religious/racial diversity. My diversity statement would just be highlighting a different aspect of my diversity not mentioned in my PS. I feel as though it would be repetitive to submit both, but I would love to hear y'alls input on this. Thank you in advance!

Hi All,

To quickly summarize:

I applied to law schools last year with a162 LSAT score, and a strong resume of federal government and political work. I got into most schools I applied to, receiving 50% - 70% scholarships from every school I got into.

I decided to decline all of my acceptances. I work as a political consultant for progressive candidates and campaigns around the country, and I felt that I needed to stay working in the campaign world for one more year. When I told my company I was leaving for law school, they gave me a huge promotion, which included allowing me to oversee all of the national political projects and campaigns that our company was working on. I was/am in a unique position to help candidates I support get elected, and causes I care about get brought to the national conversation. I'm glad I stayed. It's been the right decision.

That being said, I am reapplying because I want to keep my options open, and my doors open, just in case.

Clearly I feel that my applications and essays were very strong, as they resulted in me getting solid scholarships to the schools I wanted to go to.

My question is this: do you guys think I can re-use my personal statement and/or optional essays? How much do you I need to change? They personal statement was very strong and it worked out for me very well. I'd prefer not to have to change it, but I could see why that may look bad to an admissions committee.

Would REALLY value your thoughts here!

Thanks!

I have worked abroad for the last decade and my undergraduate and master's degrees were attained far in past. I think Moses wasn't shaving yet when I got my MA. I am not deterred by the notion of having my LOR translated, but I do worry about the authors' facility with LSAC's English-only website.

If anyone knows about the step-by-step process for uploading LOR, I would like to translate it. I have asked LSAC for the same with screen shots, but am preemptively asking here in case they come up gor nisht.

Of course, in the event that LSAC comes through, then all of your birthdays will have come at once and I'll be the one doling out the multilingual screen shots.

Thanks in advance? You're welcome in advance? To be concluded...

Since the unlimited editing has been out of stock for a while are you able to purchase the one time editing and repurchase it for each draft of your essay?

Would anyone be interested in swapping personal statements? I finished my first draft and am too close to my essay at this point to move forward on it.

AHHH. Im trying to decide between two versions of my personal statement that I've had written. They're both similar but go in slightly different directions. Two schools I'm applying to have their apps due tomorrow. I spoke to someone previously involved in law school admissions at an ivy league and they really liked the first version. But also had some negative feedback from others on the first. I haven't had the chance to show my second version to anyone involved in admissions though and I'm worried if I take the leap and go with the second statement I'll be hurting myself. Im really procrastinating aren't I. Yep. Don't need serious feedback, just wanna know which to submit :)

If you know anyone that could help with a last minute decision like this, let me know!! Thank you!

X

Hi, I applied to schools and September and wondering if a LOCI would do anything at this point considering i haven't heard back in 3 months. Or are LOCI only for waitlist.

Schools that have honor programs that you can apply for do these hurt your application at all? For instance, scholarship consideration if you don't get in? Also, can you still get full tuition if you don't apply for these programs (given that your GPA and grades are right)?

Hey all! I have a friend who is in the process of transferring law schools and could use some advice from the 7sage community. Anything would help, here it is:

Hello, I was accepted at UCLA and Northwestern as a transfer; i.e., I will be paying sticker at both, but if I go to UCLA I will not have to take out any loans (savings). I will have to take out loans for the last year at Northwestern (80k).

If, ideally, I want to work in SoCal BigLaw, what would be the smarter course of action: attending UCLA or Northwestern?

After performing a basic cost-benefit analysis, I am leaning towards UCLA, on the theory that the benefit of attending Northwestern (ending up at median and still getting BigLaw) has largely disappeared, while the benefit of attending UCLA (attending school and networking in my target market) is still in play. Further, the cost of attending UCLA (the risk of ending up at median and doing poorly at OCI for that reason) has already dissipated, while the cost of attending Northwestern (taking out loans for the last year) is still in play.

Given my SoCal focus and above-median grades (top 25% at BC/BU), I don't see much of a benefit to attending Northwestern, other than the added prestige of being in the T14 as opposed to the T20. Are there factors I'm missing here?

Said another way, will I see any meaningful boost in SoCal employment prospects by going to Northwestern, or will my top 1/4 GPA at BC/BU be sufficient at UCLA for my OCI process to be similar as between both schools (if I am targeting SoCal biglaw). I am thinking that at this point my OCI process will be the same at both schools and that it will really come down to my interviewing skills. If so, I don't see a point to take out loans to attend Northwestern.

Thanks for your responses! I’ve attached a poll below as well.

I've been out of school for 3 years. Going to law school only became a goal of mine my last semester of college. I ended up getting 5 academic recommendations the summer after graduating just so I'd have them on file when I was 100% secure in the decision to go to law school and likely rack up debt. Since I've heard academic letters are preferred to non-academic, I never really thought about getting one from work because I already have more than I can submit to any single school. Should I be getting one from an employer?

For some context on the letters I have, two are by STEM professors (I double majored in STEM & non-STEM), one is from a non-STEM professor, and two are from non-STEM professors who were also my thesis advisors and law professors at my undergrad's law school.

Since graduating I've worked at two law firms and am about to switch to a third firm. The areas of law I've worked in are pretty relevant because they all combine my interest in law, technology, and science in different ways: my first job was as a legal assistant/paralegal at a boutique firm representing start ups and individuals in IP (mostly trade secret) litigation, my second job has been at a boutique criminal defense firm representing clients facing computer crime charges, and my third job will be as a patent litigation paralegal in big law.

Even if I get rec letters from employers which letters should I submit given that most schools accept 2-4?

I feel like my STEM LORs help me stand out, especially because one is from a professor whose lab I worked in and co-authored a peer-reviewed scientific article with. My thesis advisors have a really great picture of why I want to go to law school because my honors thesis empirically studied an area of patent law I'm pretty passionate about (and about to work in w/my third job).

I had a question for people who are applying as a STEM Major who are in a similar position as me. I finished college with a 3.77 GPA and a chemistry degree. However, I am not great at standardized tests, and before taking the actual test, am guessing I will score roughly 155 on the test based on PT's. I believe this is considered a "reverse splitter" applicant. I wanted to know if you are similar to myself, if you were accepted anywhere and what scholarship offers you have been getting? Also if there are any schools that look more favorably upon reverse splitters. Thanks so much for the help, I really appreciate it!!!

Hi all! Looking to do an essay editing exchange. Primarily personal statements but I'd also be willing to exchange other essays or resumes as well. Comment or inbox me if interested! Thanks and good luck to everyone!

Hey ya'll

Im planing to take Feb LSAT, the first time I took LSAT I got 127 in June 2020, and now my highest PT LSAT score is150. It been a while that even though I study a lot with BR Im not improving, My GPA 3.80 ( from UCI) is more than the 75 percentile for the school that I love to attend (chapman law) but my LSAT is bellow 25(154) percentile. I was wondering what do you think my chances are to get Into chapman at all or get in with scholarship?

Hey 7Sagers! I'm doing some research on schools at the moment and would love to connect with any current Cornell Law students or alums who could give me some thoughts on their experiences there, both academically and personally.

For some context, I don't know exactly what field of law I'd like to practice, but I'm interested in immigration law and international law, potentially labor law. I'm definitely intrigued by the alternative dispute resolution program Cornell has as well.

If anyone on here is a Cornell student or has a friend there who would be willing to connect via email, that would amazing! Thanks in advance.

:)