First things first - I'd be sure to check on each school's policy for what they do with apps that are complete if not for a pending LSAT. Most schools' policy is to withhold reading the app until the new score comes in. In your case, that's totally alright. But what you want to make sure is that their policy is NOT that they'll consider your app fair game for review without the new LSAT. You want to avoid that situation like the plague! It's rare but there are a few schools who do that.

If a school will hold your app automatically, then you don't even need to write that addenda!

Second things second - If it's a school that won't read your app until your Nov LSAT comes in, you may then ask yourself "... so what's the point? Whether I submit on 9/1 or 11/28 when my score comes back, they aren't going to read it until 11/29 at the earliest." I think the key here is:

• If your app is done in early Sept and would be a distraction from LSAT prep, then just submit it. While your app won't be reviewed by most schools until late-November, the benefits are 1) if there are any issues with something minor (like a hiccup with LoRs or it turns out that LSAC doesn't have your final transcript), you have all of Sept, Oct, and Nov to resolve that issue, and 2) at least your app will be ready for review immediately in late Nov (ie, no worries that admissions offices are swamped at that time and it takes a few days to process your app).

• If you app is done in early Sept and you'd like to hold on to it for one last review in November and it wouldn't be a distraction from LSAT prep, that's alright. The benefit is that you'd have the peace of mind of one more review in November before submitting.

Good luck!

This is a SUPER COMMON question, @Gcastillo1513! I promise that other folks are also wondering about this!

My advice is always that you shouldn't give the admissions office something that they didn't ask for. If they wanted it, they would have given you an option to give it. Believe me - I spent plenty of time building my school's application every summer after getting lots of feedback from our committee and things we needed to tweak/add/delete, so if I wanted a Why School X then I would have put it in there.

I'll grant some grace if you have a VERY specific interest in the school. Examples could include friends presently at the school, professional colleagues who have attended the school and are recommending it to you, a specific dual degree program that makes the law school unique, or something like that. In that case, I think this is something worthwhile to mention on the addenda. But - and this is a big "but" so it should really be more BUT - keep things tight. One brief paragraph where you lead with something along the lines of "I want to take a brief moment to explain my sincere/personal interest in __ School of Law." That line acknowledges 1) I'm going to keep it tight, and 2) it implicitly acknowledges that you're going beyond what's been asked so you don't want to intrude.

I hope that helps!

Just a clarifying question, @EsmyVilla!

Do you mean: "Will you not get scholarships if you apply to law school in December or January?" as in "does applying later mean you have less of a chance for scholarship?"

Or, do you mean: "Will you not get scholarships if you apply to law school in December for a January start date?" (and there aren't a whole lot of law schools with Jan starts, so I'd want to know what school you're talking about here...)

I'm guessing a lot of folks are in this boat, @adzballroom!

Let me approach this in a different way. I think the question of "should I take the Oct or Nov LSAT?" is a bit moot today on August 6th. Why is that? Because you could register for the October LSAT and then a get a full refund on your registration through August 27th (and it should be said that the registration deadline for the Nov test is October 1st - far enough down the road that you don't have to worry about it right now). The way I see it, you have three more weeks of LSAT prep to figure out if you're in a good spot to take the October LSAT. If you're in a good spot, then go for it! You can also register for November just as an insurance policy.

Per your comment about not wanting to take it too many times, I hear that. I would never advise someone to give LSAC more money than is necessary and I certainly understand that there are more fun ways to spend a Saturday than taking the LSAT. But from a purely admissions perspective of reading your app, it's ok to see three takes and it's ok to see four takes. That's a neutral factor.

I'm sorry you're going through this, @NikkiW! Sigh!

First things first - it sounds like you've done your part here. You reached out to two professors with whom you had good relationships. It sounds like you gave some deadlines and that you followed up a few times. If they haven't done anything, it's because something has come up on their side (I'm not saying this happened, but I've run into situations where profs had significant medical issues and dropped off email for a while to focus on that). It could also be that they really know that law school apps don't open until Sept 1 so they have a little more time to get things done. My guess is more on the former than the latter. Profs are usually really good about this because they know that this is part of their professional responsibilities.

My usual rule of thumb is that you should try to have at least one academic letter if you're within two or three years of your most recent higher ed experience (either undergrad or grad). So if you graduated in 2024-2026, it'd be nice to see one academic letter. I leave it to you to balance out "how well do I know any other prof" vs "how well do my supervisors in a professional capacity know me." If you feel like the supervisors know you far better than the next group of profs that you'd reach out to, then it's ok to roll with two professional letters.

And just saying this out loud - in my professional experience, I can count on one hand the number of times when letters of rec made the difference between a waitlist vote and an admit vote. It really doesn't happen regularly. I'm saying this just so that you don't stress out about this situation any more than you've probably already done to this point!

From the admissions perspective, I'm not really expecting to see academic letters of rec once you reach the "3-4 years out of college" mark. That's especially true in your case where you've been at the same job this whole time! So I'd say that there's no need to try and rustle up an academic letter.

If/when you bump up against a school whose application instructions indicate a preference for at least one academic letter (and Duke is an example), do feel free to call up their admissions office and explain your situation. My guess is that they'll tell you that it's fine to submit two professional LoRs. They should have the same mindset as you - why make you jump through the hoop of obtaining a letter that doesn't really tell us a lot about what you'd bring to our classroom and community versus the two letters that you'll already be submitting?

I hope that helps!

Good questions, @Kvans17, and ones that a lot of other applicants are considering!

1) I'll reframe this a smidge. Rather than worrying about "does it hinder or does it show growth," I'll encourage you to just consider that it happened. It's on your transcripts. And since there are some ups and downs on your transcripts, it'd be good to take the time to explain matters on the Addenda section of the application. You don't need to go into granular detail there. But it would be valuable to explain: 1) you'll notice some lower grades on my transcript, 2) here's what happened early on, but things leveled out, 3) here's what happened with my lower grades post-2020 (ie, transitioning to full time work).

But why am I taking this away from hinder/growth? Because you KNOW the schools you're applying to. I assume you're from the general KC and Kansas area and you want to work there postgrad. So you KNOW you have two-ish option (three if you bring in KU). So hinder/growth isn't changing your strategy - you KNOW your strategy.

2) Washburn's most recent LSAT median was a 155 and UMKC's was a 156. If you cross those thresholds, you're putting forth a statistical argument for admission. If you can get higher, that's great for both the purposes of admission and scholarship. And if you feel like you can get a few more points in October, that's great. What I'd caution you against is feeling like you need to overcompensate for something. That's me reading between the lines, but sometimes people think "if my GPA is way low, then my LSAT has to be way high." It's not that simple. Yes, it's better if it's higher. But you're also saying you have a great resume. I'm guessing it's in KC (since the other markets in the area aren't going to have "medium firms"). Let's say that you're at a place like Polsinelli or Husch after a few years at smaller firms. That's a great resume and admissions officers know you already have great connections at some of the big players in the local markets. This already compensates for some of the lower GPA. Don't feel like you have to go overboard here.

Fingers crossed and good luck!

I appreciate the very French handle to go along with your French bacc, @thibaultfieve!

In your case, I'd use your LSAT combined with your desired postgrad location (NYC) to determine your list of reach/target/safety schools. Your French bacc work will be seen by admissions officers as being totally solid. I know that that's a bit vague, but such is life when we're trying to compare apples and oranges (or in this case, the American and French educational systems). The key matter statistically is that you won't have a reportable LSAC GPA - it'll just be blank. That neither hurts nor helps you. But all it means is that we just have your LSAT as your lone statistical measure for figuring out your list.

Starting with schools in the city and near environs:

Reaches: Cornell, NYU, Columbia

Targets: Fordham (there's a bit of a gap here from the top three to the next group with just Fordham in between)

Target/Safety: Cardozo (only because it's a unique school)

Safeties: St. John's, Brooklyn, Seton Hall, Rutgers (you don't have to apply to all four, but I usually recommend doing one or two)

Outside of those schools, a lot of schools in the 170ish LSAT range will have solid NYC outcomes (Vandy, Duke, and Notre Dame come to mind). You can check out that information the ABA's employment forms found here: https://www.abarequireddisclosures.org/employmentOutcomes

I hope that helps!

@ravenfaith_ Ding ding ding! This is it @DianSchroter! The law school admissions world has shifted so much in just the past two years that doing regular updates to incorporate the most recent info shifts things around a great deal.

I think this is actually a moot point, @PowerUp_Tutoring, because I think LSAC only lets you sign up for one day. But I could be wrong!

Assuming I’m wrong, it’s be a little odd for you to come back to talk with me on the second day. I would expect that you’d have asked everything the first time we talked. So rather than be impressed with your dedication, I’m going to question your efficiency!

But of course, if you did think of a new question, or if you thoughts of a follow up, it’s totally alright to come back and ask!

My best advice is always to worry about today’s problems today and tomorrow’s tomorrow. Today, all you have to do is eat a good dinner the night before, get a good night’s sleep, get a good breakfast in the morning, and do your best on the LSAT. That’s it! Then you can keep up with some LSAT prep (in case you need to retake), work on app docs, and see what your score looks like at the end of the month. Then reasses and figure out next steps.

I also think it’s useful to go into your first LSAT (which is what I’m assuming!) with the gameplan that you’ll probably take the test two or three times. That way, if you get the score you were aiming for, you’re either DONE or you can retake just to see if you can add a point or two for scholarship purposes. But if you don’t get the score you were hoping for, it’s not the end of the world because you were already planning on retaking.

Good luck!!!!!!

Good question, @Qfaivre! I’d file this under “cool story, bro” (which I mean politely because I have teens so everything is “bro/bruh” related). That sounds like a great experience and a good way to spend a summer between academic years. Is it going to move the needle for admissions in a huge way? That’s unlikely, unless this is somehow directly tied to your legal interests. But is it a good and worthwhile thing to see on your resume? Totally!

@JhovannyAcevedo You could do that! The cost of living budget is just an estimate from the school - it’s not a required budget. Some people will do things to save money and others will spend more.

From my experience, I wouldn't say it's a "sizeable" impact, @cmemery2020, but it's certainly a consideration. Your application is somewhat black/white - you have a GPA that's written in stone, this document is your resume and it lists your experiences, etc. But there's always context to that and one aspect of that context is your personal background and where you came from.

Per your second question, I don't think this ever was a negative because your background made me wonder if you could afford to attend. I've admitted some folks whom I felt strongly about and I was positive there was no way that they'd enroll because of the disconnect between our merit award (let's assume an applicant with lower stats) and the student's probable need ... but then they surprised me by taking out the loans, or getting an outside scholarship to help, or something like that.

I don't think you have anything to feel bad about, @ravenfaith! Your school list is your school list, and it's shaped by the factors that are most important to you. In your case, it sounds like you're taking into account "my area" and I'm going to interpret that as "where I live and where I want to work." That's a totally reasonable thing to do! If you want to go to school in your area and work in your area after law school, the best options for that are going to be law schools in that city, state, or region. And if you're at/above the medians for those schools, I'd say that that's a pretty good thing!

If you want to apply to a reach school or two, that's also totally fine! My suggestion is just to make sure you have a reason for that app. You're like to spend $100 on the app between the app and CAS fees. So if you're spending that money, make sure it's for a good reason!

That's probably the #1 question that reapplicants ask, @LilyHarvey! And the answer is not going to go over well... you should really write a new personal statement ... and optional statements ....

This is a case of two things being true at the same time. On the one hand, it's illogical and inefficient to rewrite a statement that if you feel that it does a good job explaining why you want to go to law school and be a lawyer. But on the other hand, the admissions officers at the schools you applied to previously already have the previous statements as part of the prior app. So you have an opportunity to add to your file and admissions officers will look on it poorly if you take a pass on that.

So my suggestion here is:

• If you did write about why you want to go to law school and be a lawyer last time - then keep the core aspect of what you want to do (eg, "I want to be a tax lawyer") and just present it in a different way.

• If you did NOT write about why you want to go to law school and be a lawyer last time - then use this PS to actually do that.

Good luck!

That's a good question, @allypants, and I think it would be worth noting briefly on the Addenda.

It's not odd to see one or two pass/fail courses on a transcript. It's not too strange to see three or four. But once we start moving into five-ish, that's worth a note. And I really don't think the note has to be anything bigger than:

• I'd like to take a brief moment to address a matter on my transcript.

• You'll notice five pass/fail courses.

• For context, it's very common to take pass/fail at my school. So I averaged [now I'm just guessing here from the context of your post] one per semester up until the Spring 2025 term.

• Thanks for your consideration and please let me know if you have any questions about this matter.

Easy peasy!

Regarding if this will affect your LSAC GPA, it shouldn't as long as you passed the pass/fail courses. In that case, there's no effect.

Do you mean "clicking on a school" as in "clicking on this page (https://7sage.com/admissions/tuition-and-costs) on our website"? Just making sure!

If it is that page on our site, we're drawing that information from the school's standardized report to the American Bar Association. The "Cost of Living" would be the estimates that schools give for room and board, living expenses, travel, etc etc etc.

"Tuition per year" is tuition per year, not per semester.

And the "Total 3 Year Cost" at the far right is the combination is basically (this year's tuition + this year's cost of living) x 3. You should assume tuition costs will go up a bit every year.

I hope that helps!

@lastminlsat It's still an important part! It's just that admissions officers understand that the supply/demand curve in that area is such that there are so many high LSATs that they don't have to feel like they need to reach for the LSAT as much as they used to. That means a high LSAT alone isn't going to be enough, nor high stats alone, nor a great resume alone, etc. Applicants really need to have the whole package.

From a very rudimentary standpoint, I think this will be akin to how schools treated different LSATs when they came about ("Will schools treat the virtual LSAT different than the in person? Will they treat new LSATs without logic games differently than the old one?").

First and bluntly - the stat is the stat. If we're aiming for a 3.80 and LSAC says Candidate A has a 3.81 while Candidate B has a 3.79, then Candidate A has the advantage.

But below the surface, I think that admissions officers will take the applicant's broader academic background into context. Historically, that's usually meant "While those Bs in those dual enrollment classes in high school drop the applicant's GPA below our target median, I'm not horribly worried about it because it was high school." Going forward and with the growth of accelerated college programs (ie, graduated with a high school and Associates degree), I think it's instead going to be "Yes, their GPA is a smidge low, but let's look at that good work in the dual enrollment classes that doesn't count anymore for their GPA."

@Adam So, I’m remotely diagnosing things and I don’t want you to read into this if it’s not relevant!

However….

What I want to learn from the personal statement is why you want to go to law school and be a lawyer. Even as a reapplicant to my school who probably wrote about Why Law last time, I want to know why you want to go law school on the personal statement. I get what you’re going for with your new topic! But the fact remains - I don’t want to learn about why you didn’t go to law school, I don’t want to know about the process of applying to law school, I want to learn about Why Law.

The addenda is where you’d talk about what you’ve improved since last time, ie, your LSAT.

Again, apologies if it’s not relevant, if I’m overstepping, raining on any parades, etc!

But now taking your question straight up, no, you don’t have to also have an addenda if the matters at hand are clearly identified in your PS.

I hope that helps!

If your question is why don't a higher percentage of the 170+ scorers attend T14s, I think you've hit part of it (ie, some applicants will have low GPAs, etc). @haena fills in a few other things down below (ie, they choose to attend another school outside the T14 because of scholarship/fit, etc). But there's a bigger piece of this puzzle that's important to consider - schools aren't interested in increasing their enrollment. They are enrolling the same size classes as they did before this big surge is apps started a few years ago. I can go into the why of that if anyone is so interested, but the relevant point for our discussion here is:

• If more people are applying with 170+ scores,

• And if T14s are enrolling the same number of students,

• Then a lower percentage of that 170+ cohort are going to enroll at T14s.

So a big part of the answer to the question of "why don't more of this group enroll at T14s" is the simple "because there's just not enough space." And if there's not enough space, then all the other factors in the app (GPA, work history, personal background, fit for the school, etc) are also going to be really important.

I hope that helps!

@MichelleGukhman I think that falls into Category A from above - you tried a new study program and found that it worked!

Yup, that's pretty normal, @Futurelawyer7916292! If it makes you feel any better, this is more or less what I want out of a professional letter of rec. I want to know what you bring to the team, particular successes, etc. It's usually four-ish paragraphs. Just enough detail for me to get a sense of things with a power read.

And just to say this out loud - no one is admitted because of the "strength" of their LoRs, no one is denied because of the "weakness" of their LoRs. The LoRs are more like a "safety check" we're performing as AdComms prior to voting to admit/waitlist/deny. So I can get why you may feel a bit deflated, but just know that this isn't going to hurt you!

And throwing this out there for folks reading this thread ... reading your LoRs is a bit of a Pandora's Box! I'd suggest opting out of reading them, just because - as mentioned - they're not going to help/hurt you so there's no strategy here. And if there's no strategy, it's probably best to not know the content of the letter so that there's no risk of you going "... aw, man ...."

Speaking from the AdComm perspective, I think it's worth saying something if we're talking about a 5-6+ point jump increase from your lowest to highest score. Although I know what happened (it's either a) you tried a new study program and found the one that worked, b) something negative happened to you on the lower test, like you were sick, or c) all of the above), it's still good for you to just say it out loud. This mitigates anyone reviewing your app who asks "Gosh, I wonder if they just didn't take the LSAT seriously the first time around."

And as far as content, one paragraph that tells me about the improvement is just fine (noting that I know it's the a, b, or c options I noted above)!