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.

What are some of the things yall are doing to research for a Why X essay? I am assuming they know everything on their website. I've been on interview panels where we've asked this question and always thought it was silly, why do you want to work here?.. They want to work here because we have an opening and they need a job... Anyway, Why X ideas?

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?

Hi,

I have a question about how the LSAC would handle LORs in my circumstances. My current timetable is to graduate undergrad May 2023, submit apps ~Fall 2024, matriculate in Fall 2025. My question is can I receive a letter of recommendation, have my recommender upload it to LSAC say around Fall 2022, and then wait to use that letter for the Fall 2024 application cycle. Or would I need to receive, upload and submit a letter of recommendation a set certain amount of time before my desired application cycle?

Naturally, I would think that (most) recommenders would be able to provide a more descriptive, elaborate recommendation fresh off of my experience with them, whether it be in a course or a research project, etc, so that's why I would think to acquire these letters as early as I can, have them sit in the LSAC LOR account for a few years, and send them out with my application when its time. Is there a flaw in my reasoning here/ is this possible?

I’d appreciate any help, and am glad to provide clarification on my situation.

Thanks!

Stanford seems to place a lot of value on them. What about H & Y? Other T14 schools?

Thanks!

Hey everyone,

Hope everyone's grey day went well! Although I appreciate getting the score before the holidays, that does mean that I have less time to work on some of the school specific optional essays. I'm wondering if anyone would want to team up over these next couple of weeks and work on editing each other's optional essays/keep each other on track? It would probably work best if they were the same schools & I'll be working on essays for most of the T-14 over the next couple weeks.

Let me know if this sounds interesting to you!

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?

If the target school has specific instructions on how to submit LOCIs, follow the school’s instructions.

If the target school provides no such guidance, it may be better to send a LOCI shortly before a school’s DD. Prior to the DD, the school would have been receiving deposits all spring. The outlines of the class are likely coming into focus. At the same time, they may be previewing their WL to see who are the best candidates to admit if necessary. Depending on the size of the WL, which may differ from school to school and from year to year, someone in the admissions office is probably keeping track of the WL and taking note of strong files, very interested files, and notable files based on admissions officers’ interactions throughout the cycle. This is where points of contact and LOCIs are distinguishing.

If it looks like the school is going to receive a total number of deposits that is short of their expectations, given the expected melt through the summer, they will go to the WL. Some schools may have already been reaching out to current admits by phone or by email to get a sense of how many deposits to expect in the lead up to and on the DD. When the DD has come and gone, if the deposits are down, some schools may chase down earlier admitted students to see if they forgot or could be persuaded to deposit with enhanced admissions offers. Some schools will not follow up and go directly to the WL if necessary. If a school has received more deposits than expected and they are concerned about bringing in too large a class, they may do neither.

Continuous curating of the WL throughout the spring by the admissions office makes sense because schools will want to act quickly with new offers at the ready. They would not likely wait until the day after the DD to start looking at 500-1000 files on the WL. If an interested candidate sent a LOCI shortly before the DD, admissions would more likely consider this recent activity to yield a deposit than a LOCI sent back in January and then silence afterwards.

If the candidate sends the LOCI a week after the DD, it too will bring attention to their file as the school is preparing their WL admit letters. However, if the school only needs to make a handful of admit offers off the WL, perhaps they school already has a list of new admits prepared and will have decided or acted by the time the post-DD LOCI arrives.

Trying to predict an admissions office’s actions or motivations is an impossible task since strategies change all the time. Trying to time receipt of the LOCI becomes less of an issue if the candidate has maintained a good line of communication with the admissions office before the DD. Polite, professional contact every four weeks or so as a WL'd candidate is a reasonable approach. Good luck!

Is it a good idea to reuse personal statements from previous application cycles? Long story short: I applied during last year's cycle (2020-2021) but decided to work a year and reapply during this cycle (2021-2022). My statement was well-written and even received positive feedback from my colleagues and peers. That being said, should I go through the process of writing a new one or just edit/revise/add to the one from the last cycle? I wanted to confirm that it doesn't put off the admissions reps who may have previously reviewed my application.

Hi I have a question...there's a school that I am applying to that says I must include any violation of the law EXCEPT those that were expunged and there's another school that says include any violation including those that were expunged.

In 2016 I got a citation for possession of alcohol that was expunged.

If I include an addendum for one school, but not the other, how will this affect me in the long run with the bar and in general with applications? Should I include it with all of my schools? I plan to practice in PA or NJ if possible.

Hello,

I am going to law school this fall. I applied with a 3.1 and a 154 lsat. Every school I applied to I was below their median gpa. I got into 3 schools where I was at their median lsat, waitlisted at one where I was at their median lsat and waitlisted at another where I was two points below their median lsat.

I retook the lsat and got a 157. I am now at four schools 75th percentile lsat and one point above a schools median lsat (156) but below their 75h percentile (158). I emailed the schools that waitlisted me after my new score and they said that they will send my application back to committee for another review with my new score.

Is it worth retaking the lsat considering I am at four of the schools 75th percentiles in terms of scholarship money or trying to get off of the waitlist?

Also I will be withdrawing from one school that accepted me, but I am in the process of trying to get the two schools that have accepted me to see if they can give me a new scholarship with my new score. One of the schools I got into had their seat deposit on April 1 but they offered to move my seat deposit back to the 8th while they see if they can give me more scholarship money.

Hello 7 Sagers. I am a super splitter, who is banking on my essays to seal the deal. That being said, in order to write a strong Why essay for these schools, I would love to get in contact with any current students you all know from the following schools: Stanford, Harvard, UChicago, UC Berkley, UPenn, NYU, Columbia, Yale, Duke, UMich. Thank you in advance. #help

Ive been trying to sign up for the candidate referral service and i'm not sure how...I got the option to sign up when I was registering for the LSAT but I didn't do it. Do any of y'all know how to get to the place to sign up? Also, is it worth it to sign up? Im looking at schools like Notre Dame and Georgetown so idk if it would be worth it to sign up.

I am filling out the general scholarship application form for Texas Law and they ask "Please state any special, personal, or family circumstances that affect your need for financial support." This is a required short answer question. Any advice for filling out this question? I am not a first generation student or in any sort of unique circumstance, but I also do not have enough money saved for law school and am trying to avoid serious debt.

Does anyone know what you need to get to get a CSP at Melbourne? I currently have an offer for them which was given with a 159 LSAT score and WAM (weird unimelb lingo) of 75%. My WAM is now 80% and my new LSAT score is 161. What's my chance of getting a CSP?

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 everyone!

I am an upcoming senior at a university and will be graduating in a total of 2 years! Therefore, I was not able to declare my major yet, but am set to declare during winter break with my counselors; should I wait to apply until then, as my transcripts will reflect 'Undeclared,' or should I apply earlier and provide context that I am finishing my final requirement in the fall? Thank you for your time!!

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'm taking the January LSAT but already applied to all my schools, indicating on the apps that I'll be taking the future January LSAT (so presumably they're holding my application until the Jan. score comes in).

But in the hopefully avoidable event that my January LSAT score is lower than my present score and I decide to cancel it with score preview, will law schools automatically know that I cancelled my Jan. score and proceed with review or will they still hold my application, expecting Jan scores to come in? Am I supposed to update them that I cancelled my score or does LSAC send a report?

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

I've received a few emails from several law schools offering me CAS fee waivers if I reached out to the school and ask. Does anyone know of any good narratives to use when drafting emails for waivers?

Hi,

I know that receiving consulting can make a student seem privileged and maybe even negatively impact their application if it came down to them and a student who did not receive that service, but what about tutoring? Would an explanation for that be more plausible? I am thinking of receiving it because I tend to not be a bad test taker and I have been able to save money. I’m also a first-generation, low-income student.

For one of my recommenders under the letter's status, it reads "acknowledged." Does anyone know what this means?

Hey guys, does anyone have any idea of approximately how big scholarships are for Canada? Average? I'm googling award recipients and can't seem to find much regarding the amount Canada gives. Don't want to get too specific, but for a student who is accepted into Ontario schools, just looking for a ballpark on what to expect

Hello folks! Hope everything is well during your application cycle.

Just wondering would part time bachelor studies affect our JD admissions?

I only have 5 classes left for my last two semesters and will take part time studies during the last two semesters. This is due to that I have transfer credits from Quebec CEGEP (College).

Anybody familiar with this issue? Would part time studies affect my admission to Canadian law schools?

Thanks and Good luck!