Ok, about that time again. I finally have a full re-write of my PS that I'd love for someone to read over for me. Happy to read your PS, DS, or other essay in exchange! Thanks fam.

Hi everyone,

We are going to put these office hours on hold as we prepare for the new season. If you want them to continue, leave a comment, and we may restart them in June!

📌 Questions? We've got answers. @"selene.steelman" and I are happy to talk to you about law school admissions in our remote office hours every Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET.

🐣 New: Selene and I will start with a short discussion of a timely topic—law school financial aid, wait lists, etc.—before we open it up to your questions.

🍪 Topic: This Wednesday, we'll talk about how to pick a law school.

🎥 Heads up: The webinar will be recorded, and we may excerpt portions of it for our podcast. You can ask questions anonymously, though—either live or through our question box.

🔗 Here's the link to our office: https://zoom.us/j/594695176

--

You are invited to a Zoom webinar.

When: Every Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET

Please click the link below to join the webinar:

https://zoom.us/j/594695176

Or iPhone one-tap :

US: +16468769923,,594695176# or +14086380968,,594695176#

Or Telephone:

Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):

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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!

Hi friends, do I need to give LSAT for LLM admissions?

Hi everyone! I feel like I've been around 7sage forever at this point, and want to say thank you so much to everyone here. From help with LSAT studying to listening to my rants in the admissions process, the 7sage fam has made an incredibly long and difficult process so much more bearable and enjoyable. :) It's totally terrifying to say I'm actually done with everything, but here we are.

As many of you know, this was my 2nd application cycle. I applied late last year and got shut out a lot of places. Despite getting a couple of tempting offers, I decided to push back a year. I am 100% happy with my results and confident that it was indeed the best choice for me. I attempted to increase my LSAT score between cycles but that backfired, haha. Scored 4 points lower on my 1 re-take. Despite that, I had a much better cycle and am so excited to say that I am headed to Northwestern this fall!! I still feel like at any second they are going to realize they made a clerical error and I was never supposed to be accepted haha. When I began studying, I never would have thought I'd be accepted at any T14, let alone 2 of them, let alone get a scholarship large enough to make it financially possible. I owe so so so much to 7sage, JY, the admins, and everyone on the board here. Thanks to 7sage, I brought my LSAT up 13 points and am headed to an incredible school. Unbelievable.

For anyone else considering delaying, my biggest advice is that you should only do it if you have a specific reason that you think you underperformed, and it is something you can correct for the next time. Maybe that's a low LSAT, or you applied late, or something else. If you can't narrow it down to a specific reason or you actually performed on par with your numbers, I don't think rolling the dice is always the best plan. It worked out for me, but I'm sure it doesn't for everyone. I got in to 3 schools that WL'd me the first time, but WUSTL gave me less scholarship. Many increased their medians this year, so at a lot of schools where I had a median LSAT the year before, I was 1 point under this time. I think my 2nd cycle played out about like you would expect for my numbers, but it's significantly better than last year.

Here's some data on my cycles...

Stats: 168 / 3.85, non-traditional, 12+ years of work experience

2017-2018

Michigan: WL

Berkeley: Rejected

Northwestern: WL

Cornell: WL

UCLA: In w/$90k --> $105k

USC: WL

WUSTL: In w/full tuition

UCI: WL

UIUC: In w/full tuition

U Washington: In w/$36k

Seattle U: In w/$105k

2018-2019

Michigan: WL

Berkeley: Rejected

Northwestern: In w/$120k

Cornell: In w/$84k --> $135k

UCLA: In w/$93k

USC: WL

WUSTL: In w/$105k --> $150k

UCI: In w/$120k

U Washington: In (didn't apply for $$)

Lewis & Clark: In w/$120k

U Oregon: In w/$114k

Seattle U: In w/$120k

Hi all,

I was just curious about the significance of Phi Beta Kappa on your resume when applying to law schools. Obviously, I'm aware that GPA and LSAT are the most important, and then the other factors are considered to a lesser degree but certain honors or awards (like if you get a national scholarship, for example) of course weigh more than others. I go to a top 10 school and will graduate with a 3.85 GPA (weighted LSAC GPA will be about a 3.91) but due to the competitiveness of my school, I did not make Phi Beta Kappa.

Thanks,

Nicole

Hello All!

After waiting for what felt like an eternity, I think my cycle is finally over!

A JD/MBA is my goal, and I’ve been admitted to both NYU Law and Stern School of Business, so that’s where I’ll be headed this fall.

I’m so grateful because I live in SoHo and my apartment is about a 5 minute walk to the law school. It will also be nice to not have to move and be close to my network of friends. It’s made my anxiety much more manageable to say the least.

Here were my other options/results:

-Harvard (waitlisted)

-Stanford (waitlisted; applied late*)

-Columbia (no merit aid)

-NYU $$

-Penn (no aid yet; applied late*)

-Cornell $$$

Thoughts:

If you’re applying in the future, get your apps in early.

-I crafted my personal statement to create a cohesive narrative that tied in aspects of my background, résumé and work experience, as well as how they related to my future goals. I think this is an important piece of advice that is sometimes overlooked. Make your application tell a cohesive narrative about yourself. This is really the time to talk yourself and your accomplishments up. This is your time to shine!

-LORs: Get them early and have your PS and résumé ready to give to your professors. This way they can write a letter that’s better tailored to your application.

-7Sage LSAT and the community on here is amazing. Literally couldn’t have done any of this without J.Y. and the rest of the lifelong friends I’ve made on here. Truly.

-Utilize the free admissions webinars and articles on the site. The advice was literally invaluable for my application.

-If you’re studying for the LSAT currently, just trust the process. You are in good hands with 7Sage.

For reasons of anonymity, I don’t want to post my stats. If you PM me, though, I’ll be happy to answer any questions you might have.

Best of luck to everyone & hope to see some of you this fall!

We've just published a guide to LL.M. degrees in our admissions course. Check it out if you're curious: https://classic.7sage.com/admissions/lesson/all-about-ll-m-degrees/

I was talking to an LSAT tutor on instagram and they told me that there is no meaningful difference between having an LSAT between the 25th and 50th percentile and having an LSAT that is at or below the 25th. In their opinion, the only thing that matters is that you have an LSAT that is at or above median.

To me, that doesn't seem to make sense mathematically. But, also, I am bad at math, so very little makes sense to me mathematically.

Lets say there's a law school with this LSAT breakdown.

25th percentile: 160

50th percentile: 165

75th percentile: 167

In the view of the tutor, there is no difference between a 164 and a 160 because both are below median -- but is that really the case?

When people say they are a non-traditional applicant, what do they mean? Is it just being older than 30?

Is the best that a law school offers is full tuition scholarships or can one get housing as well? Does anybody know? This is just in general but also if you have information about any specific schools.

Hi! This is probably nothing, but do emails from schools that say "We are impressed by your accomplishments and believe you would be an excellent addition to our community," leading into a free application waiver mean you have a better chance of getting in than normal? I know the schools get the information from CAS, but not sure what exactly they're doing with it, and how meaningful these emails are.

How big of a disadvantage is applying in April to schools like St. Johns, American, Cardozo, Brooklyn and Loyola Chicago? Does anyone have experience.

For splitters applying to T-14 schools, (borderline GPA, good LSAT score) do certificates look good on applications? My school doesnt offer a major/minor in Pre-law so instead I enrolled in a pre law certificate and will complete it my last semester of college (spring 2020) Does enrollment in the certificate look good? Can It help push splitters to acceptance?

Empty

Hi - I was looking for someone to sit down with to review score/GPA and evaluate admissions prospects in NYC. I want to understand both prospects for JD and JD/MBA admissions. Any recommendations? I used 7Sage for studying for first exam and love the site, so I am coming here with this question.

Thanks in advance,

Joe

In thinking about what I plan to write my personal statement on I am a bit torn... I am an extremely high functioning adult (40), with Bipolar 1(1 is the most sever type), which does classify as a mental disability. Do you think this is to iffy of a topic? I have never done anything but fight to rise above this label. There is no tragedy in my discussion of my road. It would be a positive narrative, not a "why me?" or a "I've suffered so much.". I've always approached my disability with a "bring it on" attitude. The odd thing my husband and I have discovered is that the nature higher education (speed, long hours, stress, and such) is oddly enough a great outlet and quite therapeutic... Anyway, I think it is good narrative I am just not sure if my PS is the good place to tell it. Any time put into giving me advise will be greatly appreciated.

Hi everyone,

We've posted a new lesson, courtesy of @"selene.steelman":

Tips for Visiting Law Schools

I was just wondering if Law Schools looked down on or dont make a big deal about community college grades in comparison to those i attained at my four year university. My CC GPA was higher than my University GPA and it ends up balancing it out. Anyone have any thoughts about this? Thanks!

In one of the current applications I am working on, they want me to list the other schools I have applied to or intending to apply to. What is the best way to reply to this without hurting my chances? I do plan to apply to a few other schools regionally and they are not as high in ranking as the one I am currently filling out the application for... Thanks in advance.

I need some advice on where I should put my deposit money. My goal is to work in immigration law, and I've got no strong feeling one way or another about where I want practice, but I do not want to feel limited. I've received a full ride from Indiana (they've extended their deadline for me), Illinois, and Wisconsin. I've been offered $30,000 a year from Minnesota. I know that Minnesota has a lot of options for those interested in immigration, however the price tag scares me. I'll be paying for law school all on my own, I'm out of state, and I've already got to worry about $30,000 in undergraduate loans. Is Minnesota worth the extra debt, or should I take the full ride at a different school?

New lesson courtesy of @"selene.steelman":

https://classic.7sage.com/admissions/lesson/what-questions-should-you-ask-a-law-school-admissions-officer/

Hi all,

I received a full-tuition scholarship from a 100+ ranked school that I have little intention of attending. However, I would like to continue leveraging this scholarship as I negotiate with other schools. I understand that May 15th is the "First Deposit Overlap Report" and I know that schools will see which offers I am still holding on to. Do you think it's necessary for me to put the 1st deposit ($300) on a school that I don't really want to attend in order to continue utilizing it as a tool for scholarship negotiation?

I don't want to tell schools that I am "considering a full-tuition scholarship from X school" and request a scholarship offer "more in line with X school", only to have them be able to call my bluff on May 15th...

Let me know what you all think!

Thank you,

LAWYERED

Help! Seat deposits are due in 4 days and I am at a lost. I have narrowed it down to two schools, but am having trouble deciding where to go. I could use some input or advice.

School 1:

Full Ride, but in a not-so-fun location. Have a two year option available, but it isn't guaranteed. It has a good program for what I want to do, and is regionally close to where I want to practice. It starts in August which would give me more time to save up before matriculation, but assuming I am able to complete the two year track, I would be finishing up school and studying for the July bar at the same time.

School 2:

Great scholarship, but with inflation would put me 20-30K in the hole. It is in a much better location fun wise, with plenty to offer recreationally. It is not regionally close to where I would like to practice. Has a two year program that is guaranteed. It starts in May which would put me in debt that much faster. However, I would finish in May and have those free months to focus exclusively on the July bar and maybe do an internship.

Both schools are just about equal in ranking, bar passage rates, and employment. Given my two year track, I don't know if having fun options is as big a deal if I am studying 24/7.

Where should I go!? Any and all input is appreciated. Thank you in advance!

Hey Guys, so I was recently Wait Listed at my top choice Law School. I submitted my wait list form two days after receiving the email along with a Letter of Continued Interest addressed to my assigned Admissions Counselor. I took a visit to the school in 2017 and loved it, which I also mentioned in my LOCI. I am currently contemplating taking another visit to the school and trying to meet with my Admissions Counselor or someone from the Admissions Committee. I don't want to be annoying after I've already taken a visit in 2017 and sent in a LOCI. Thoughts? Suggestions?