It seems that one's chances are lower as a non-citizen international student. Part of this might be because law schools worry that non-citizens need sponsorship to work after graduation. Does anyone have experience applying as a lawful permanent resident/green card holder (who is eligible for citizenship in a few years)?

I assume this status eliminates the concern that one might not be able to get a job in the U.S. after graduation/clerk. Can anyone speak to whether LPR/green card holders are treated the same as US citizens in the eyes of the top law schools?

I hope everyone is keeping their heads up in these times.

I got waitlisted and would like to send an updated resume. Since I finished the LSAT, I have been learning the Russian language. I know Arabic, Hebrew and conversational Spanish and I chose Russian because I love the language and have always wanted to learn it. I also know that being a multi-lingual lawyer can only be a competitive plus. Does anyone know how I can go about sending an 'updated resume'?

This is what I have so far but it feels so bland. Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you everyone.

Dear Admissions Committee,

Thank you for reviewing my application for admission to XX School of Law. Since completing the LSAT, I have been teaching myself the Russian language. A multi-lingual lawyer is indispensable and learning Russian can only open more doors of opportunity for myself and put me at a competitive edge.

Furthermore, I would like to express my continued interest in the school of law.

Sincerely,

XX

Some accidents happened to my CAS Report and it probably will not be complete until mid-April. I am thinking about 1) just not do anything and see what may happen in the end, maybe some schools still want me (but probably not my dream schools) 2) withdraw my applications and apply early next cycle

The reason why I am considering option 2 is because I am worried I may need to rewrite my app materials all over again, most of which I just finished in January and the next cycle is just half a year away. Let's say if admissions offices read my app this May, my stories will become a "recent old news" for them in Sept. Is my worry justified? And if I withdraw, am I a reapplicant next cycle?

Thanks!

Hi there - I am applying this year’s cycle for entry in 2022, and just trying to get ahead of all materials needed for when the applications open. Does anyone have any suggestions or guidance on when is best to start asking your connections for letters of rec? I was thinking May/June if I want to apply early in the cycle (ie close to when apps open).Any thoughts?

hi - so I took the january lsat and my score was OK, but at the low end of my 10point spectrum. so I applied to my first choice regional school and just received their decision yesterday. I'm in, and have a 50% merit scholarship. I'm above their 75%s on lsat and gpa. BUT, I am trying to get as close to 100% merit, as I'm paying out of pocket (no govt loans). I've been planning to take the june test just to finish with a bigger score (even if I had gotten a 100% - - I really love this test). When I took the test in january I started to have covid symptoms the day before my test - - a headache that I couldn't get rid of for the actual test - - i ended up with worse mild symptoms a few days later. So, I think I can do better! I've been preptesting better at the least. Another thing is that I found out last weekend that I have to have surgery on my eyes, my vision has been blurry since mid-2020 and now I know why. That may have impacted my january performance, but the surgery might also interfere with june - although I think the recovery time is pretty quick. I'm even wondering if I might qualify for some sort of vision-based accommodation (long shot). Needing a surgery just adds a layer that interferes with the june test (and also why I can't do the april test, besides signups being closed)

Has anyone ever re-applied to a school that accepted them the next cycle? do you think the school will penalize me if I do this? I certainly don't want to seem ungrateful for the merit award they offered and I don't want them to hold that against me. I'm also not sure whether I should just pay the seat deposit, take the june test and then try to renegotiate a higher scholarship - although that would be early july and they may have given away all their money? Anyone ever done this? I hate to throw away 'good money' that I could use for textbooks/study aids later on. Thoughts?

I also don't plan to re-apply if my score isn't at least 4 points higher as it would be like resubmitting the same application and hoping for a different outcome. I only applied to this one school and if I do much better, I'm thinking of applying to a couple more, since I think I want to move somewhere new.

thanks everyone! I really appreciate any feedback

3 straight rejections and I just spent several hours looking over law schools that didn't quite make the cut for applications the first time.

Definitely feel like I may have submitted a few apps to the wrong schools. I also know that this whole exercise is the result of getting nothing but rejections thus far.

Anyone else in this boat?

That extra scholarship negotiation school and the extreme reach that sent me an unsolicited fee waiver seem like foolish decisions in the face of schools that have decent programs but we're pushed aside.

Related note, has anyone actually been to Davis, CA? Is it rural or suburban? Chill small town, government center suburb or tech town?

I recently asked one more professor to write me a letter of recommendation. She wrote and sent it to me around mid Feb. If I plan to apply for admissions again this Oct/Nov, will it be okay to reuse the letter of recommendation without needing to ask to reuse?

For those interested in an extra data point, here was my cycle. nURM, average applicant, 16high 3.6low.

ASU- $$+

Fordham- $$+

GULC- dong

Cornell- dong

USC- WL

BU- WL

NDLS- WL

UT- WL

UMN- $$$

UF- $$$+

WUSTL- WL

UGA- $$$

Boulder- $$

I'm withdrawing all my applications.

To be honest, I was in a hurry to become a white-collar working professional and make a respectable salary. Not everyone (least of all the KJDs with zero experience in the labor force) would want to work in a law office 40+ hours a week, which is why I recommend taking a gap year to test the waters. Imagine doing something you hate AND having 6-figure debt to your name :( it doesn't have to be that way. There are many other professions that pay better than law, have better work environments and have serious shortages of smart, driven candidates who can get the job done. It's never too late to make that change (not in my experience, at least).

I wish you all the best!!!

Deciding between FSU and SMU

Which school should I pick??

I am already stressed about having professors write me LoR in the fall. My classes are small and my professors know me by my name, but I have never gone to a single office hour for any professor. Since everything is online, I would have to make a zoom appointment to meet with them in "office hour", there are no drop ins. I've always wanted to go to law school, so I'm a history major; how do I ask questions and form relationships with my professors when I don't want to go into the area of study that they are in? If I ask additional questions about the readings, additional materials, aren't they going to know I'm just BS-ing them?

At my university a lot of the 3000 level courses are taught by PhD students and those classes happen to be the smallest and where I’ve been able to interact with the instructor the most. But I’m worried that because they are still in the process of completing a degree their letter of rec might be seen as a weakness in my application even it’s a positive recommendation. If anyone has any insight on this that would be really great!

I need some advice. I have missed not one, but TWO informational webinars for the same school. I am incredibly embarrassed and don't know what to say. I don't have any good excuses for registering and not canceling. I just forgot about them.

I feel like if I send them an apology email at this point it is insulting and points to my irresponsible errors even more. I haven't applied yet, but I really like this school.

Do any of you know if these absences will reflect badly on my application once I apply this fall? Should I just toss out this school from my list? Am I being dramatic?

Has anyone else been in a similar situation? I would really appreciate some advice!

I am bit unsure about getting letters of recommendation. I am an undergrad in engineering school (in my 4th year) who is looking at going to law school soon after graduation. I do not think it is very common for engineering undergrads to go to law school after graduation and so I don't really know how to approach the subject with any of my professors. I have worked with one professor outside of an academic setting, but I don't really believe I have a close enough relationship where they would be willing to recommend me for a field completely outside their field of expertise. Is there anyone else who has been in a maybe similar situation who might be able to provide any guidance here? Thanks!

Hey Guys so I’m deciding between FSU(Tallahassee) and SMU (Dallas )

I have a month to decide

SMU ends up costing more by at least $75 k over three years ... 98K more over 10 years when you include interest

SMU for me I feel like has better employment numbers especially since most students end up working for private firms

FSU students mainly end up working in govt jobs and get paid much less on average by 22k a year

FSU obviously has a much nice campus and is in a much prettier state overall not that Texas isn’t pretty

What are your thoughts??? Especially about FSU?

I feel like if I go there it would be a career killer

I definitely don’t want to be a public defender ... prosecutor ... personal injury attorney ... or a criminal defense attorney

I’m really into politics ... tech ( IP law & cyberspace law ) ... corporate law

The SMU student body looks like it’s more conservative which is a plus for me since I lean more conservative

If anybody is at FSU or SMU ... give me your honest opinion!

Is anyone stressed just waiting for law school decisions ?

help Sorry if this is stated elsewhere, but I couldn't find the answer.

I plan on applying for law school in 2022/23, but would like to get the LSAT out of the way this coming summer. I know law schools are accepting LSAT-Flex during the pandemic for the coming year, but will they accept LSAT-Flex scores in years after? I know your score is good for 5 years, but want to make sure the flex will continue to be accepted. Would it be better to just take the full LSAT once it returns?

Also, should I keep taking full practice PTs or does the flex option suffice?

Thanks y'all!

Hey everybody,

I'm doing my final rounds of application checks and a thought popped into my head regarding the C and F Addendum. So I was cited for (lets just say for now) "smelling roses", nothing bad at all, but nonetheless I know I need to mention it still. No problem with that. But I can't seem to remember the exact day I got my citation. The only thing I've written is that it occurred in Fall 2010. Do I need to find the specific dates that I was given my citation, the exact day it was dismissed, and the date of court appearances etc? I have a well written addendum that explains the circumstance, my culpability, moving forward and learning from my mistakes, and how I've had no issues at all since, but I read somewhere that I would need to get specific dates, witnesses, and other stuff that I felt would be superfluous.

Thanks for help people peeps!

I originally planned to apply to both PhDs (history, just finished a Master's with a 4.0 at UChicago) and, separately, JDs this cycle (have worked in a lot of paralegal and legal research jobs); but I made veeery slow to no progress on the LSAT, and it became clear to me by November, when I needed to focus on getting the PhD applications out the door, that it was unlikely I would reach a super competitive LSAT score for this cycle (which would be necessary given my terrible UGPA at Princeton - 2.51 10 years ago due to medical issues long since resolved). I determined to finish the PhD applications and then make a decision on whether or not it made sense to apply in January/February with my current GRE score.

I'm now at the juncture of trying to understand how my current GRE score stacks up (170 Verbal 99%, 159 Quant 69%). The ETS's GRE-to-LSAT calculator says this is equivalent to a 172 (weighting the verbal 60% and the quant 40%). But I see on 7Sage that that conversion is not necessarily followed by law school admissions and that the best indicator is the GRE percentile. However, since the GRE does not provide an overall percentile, my question is, how should I look at those two separate percentiles for the GRE verbal and quant scores and figure out what an overall percentile is roughly? Would I look at the two percentiles evenly, weighting them 50-50, or, like the ETS conversion calculator assumes, weight the verbal percentile more? And how much more?

Hey, do letters of recommendation have an "expiration date" when they are no longer considered relevant? And more to the point — should I ask my recommenders to submit LORs again given the fact that they wrote them for me for the current cycle (20-21) but due to some unpredictable circumstances I had to postpone my admissions for the next cycle? I've read that LORs should be relevant to your current experience but I'm 2 years out of school and my job is the same as it was last year.

Thank you in advance!

Hello all,

Does anyone have any tips or successful strategies to search for and apply to outside scholarships prior to 1L?

Most online tools are targeted towards undergraduates, and lists of law school scholarships don't usually allow one to filter out items that don't apply. This makes it difficult to search and prioritize which scholarships to focus on.

Any thoughts, tips, and/or resources would be appreciated - thank you!

Hi everyone,

We've got a new blog post: Six Law School Personal Statements That Got Into Harvard.

I tried to pick essays that feel attainable. They're all well-written, but you won't find any stories of people overcoming insuperable odds, or even (with the possible exception of the last one) any personal statements by people with writerly super-powers. These are just honest reckonings by thoughtful, earnest applicants.

I hope they inspire you!

Hey everyone! I'm finishing up my resume right now and just wondering if I should mention the pandemic as the reason for my unemployment? Post-graduation I tried to find full time work during a gap year to study for the LSAT, but the pandemic cut that search short and I instead remained unemployed while studying for the test instead. Opinions?

I know that the July 2020 flex (and maybe the August flex too?) doesn’t count towards your total number of takes but does LSAC send those scores to law schools if you didn’t cancel them?

Is it okay or even wise to let a school know that they're your first choice and you would withdraw your other apps if accepted (via email or during an interview)? For reference, its a state school with around 65% in-state population and I'm OOS with loose ties. Thanks for your insight!

Hello everyone. Wondering if anyone here decided, after receiving their last score for this admissions cycle, to wait another year and continue studying for a better score? I ended up getting about five points less than my goal. It hurts, but I know I can do better and have decided to wait. I also had several setbacks in 2020, aside from COVID: deaths in family, divorce, moving across the country, and health issues. Anyone here waiting a year? Care to share? Thanks.