(And PS - sorry for missing this reply question over the weekend!)

@MJ Sorry for missing this question over the weekend!

Yup, I also do regular ol' admissions consulting along with the weekly AMA class! You can book a 30 minute session here or you check out the broader consulting packages here.

@cmemery2020 Good follow up question! I mean "higher than the median for that particular school." So a 170 would represent a "high LSAT" for Fordham, whose most recent median has been a 168. But it would still be low for NYU and Columbia (172 and 173 respectively).

I hope that helps!

@APBookninja It's actually a third option - the TOTAL award over three years. I just pulled up UVA for example and saw a few folks who were listing awards of $90k and $45k. I would assume by default that the former is "$30k annually for three years" and the latter is "$15k annually for three years."

People sometimes list their annual awards. You can tell because the giveaways are 1) it's a number that isn't divisible by three (fin aid folks like to give even awards for three years...) and 2) if the award doesn't seem to be in line with other folks in the same statistical range (eg, everyone else with these stats is listing $135,000 but this person lists $45,000 - my guess is that they ALSO got a total award of $135k, but they just listed the single year amount).

What I always advise to people in your position is that you just need to build up the rest of your app. If one area is weak but the rest are strong, things can balance themselves out.

Regarding grad school, I wouldn't suggest that if you're looking at it only through the lens of having to prove yourself academically. That's a big financial investment, so be sure you'd only be doing it if you determine that it's the right next step for you. Otherwise, a few years of work experience in your chosen field can serve the same function (ie, building up your resume) while also helping you save up some money for your expenses in law school.

And one last note since you mentioned aiming for a 170 and then Hofstra/Touro. Those are schools whose medians have mostly recently been in the 150s. Don't feel like you have to vastly exceed their medians in order to compensate for your LSAT or be competitive for admission. The main target is "hitting their medians."

The good news is that they really don't change radically from one year to the next. This is especially true of the prompts for the personal statement (which is almost always about why you want to go to law school and be a lawyer), the diversity statement (almost always about your background and where you come from), and the Why School X statement (why you're specifically interested in this school). The questions that are most likely to change are the "get to know you" questions. For example, Georgetown occasionally mixes up their prompts. Thankfully, there aren't tons of schools that have those kinds of questions (Georgetown, Stanford, and Michigan are three that come to mind)!

As a former admissions officer, both the red letter stat as well as the context of the stat are important. In this case, you'll be below the medians for all the T14 (and T25, for that matter). But we'll see that your first two years really held you back and then that you were a far different student during your final two years. If you can balance that out with a higher LSAT (and a good resume, and good written statements, etc), you can still compete for admissions at those schools!

I'll also throw something out there for you - this is a good example of how there's context behind the seemingly black-and-white number of your LSAC GPA. In your case, a 2.6 is going to be below the medians everywhere. However, admissions officers also know from experience that GPAs tend to be lower out of West Point grads (whether it's grade deflation, taking 18 credit hours a semester, mandatory PT, etc etc etc - take your pick!). So, yes, it's a low GPA ... but there's some further context there that will mean that the admissions officers are going to view it a smidge more kindly than a 2.6 from another school.

Two things can be true at the same time, @hevans99! Yes, admissions officers will take into account all your academic information when assessing your potential to do well in law school. That includes all your higher ed work, your LSAT history, and feedback from professors via your LoRs. But another thing is true - the only number that gets factored into a law school's median is your LSAC GPA (ie, your undergrad GPA).

But let's put this another way. Let's say that we were chatting right after you graduated from undergrad with that 3.45. If you asked me what you would have to do to put yourself in a good position to balance that number out, I'd suggest things like grad school, getting professional experience in your chosen field, and really hitting the LSAT hard. It sounds like you've done one of those things - that's good! If you can do the others, you can still be very competitive for law school admissions!

@jcar787 Then I gladly rescind my "heads-up!" and adjust it to a "wishing you the best on the January 2027 LSAT and then preparing your materials for submission in Sept/Oct 2027!"

Fun fact - every American law school is required to utilize the LSAC GPA rather than calculate GPAs in house because some law schools got caught cooking their books. Yikes!

If you're applying to Canadian schools, things are a bit different on that side of the border. Every school calculates GPAs differently in their assessment (some count all classes, some only count your best 90 credit hours, some allow you to retake a course and then only count the second grade, etc).

@jcar787 I hear you and appreciate you about not wanting to rush things! But let me put this another way - it's a bit like saying that you're planning to arrive at the airport 45 minutes before your flight takes off because you want to be careful about packing and don't want to rush things. That's close enough to departure that you're probably going to run into problems unless you're leaving from a smaller airport where the security line is never longer than five people.

Here's what I mean outside of that analogy. With the marked increase in apps this year, there were some law schools who hadn't even touched their January apps by the time that their deposit deadlines were due in April. We could tell this from websites like lawschooldata.org. But these tended to be schools in the top 20-30 (names like Stanford, Vandy, Notre Dame, and USC). Schools further down the rankings typically have more flexibility for applicants submitting their materials in January and February. So if you're targeting the top schools, it may be better for you to test in January and then wait to apply to the next fall. But if you're applying outside that cohort (ie, flying out of a smaller airport), this is less of an issue.

Not trying to scare you, but just clarifying the nature of my "heads-up!"

@jcar787 - Yes, there are going to be candidates to law school who look like you and will be admitted! It happens every year!

First things first - your age isn't really relevant in the discussions that admissions officers will have about your app, or at least not directly. Being older isn't a good or a bad thing, but it immediately clues me into a few things. If someone is older, they're more likely to have a deeper resume (good!) and a clear rationale for why they want to make a career switch (and that clarity is also good!). One flip side is that they're more likely to have developed roots in their present community, including maybe having a family and children. Just from professional experience, I've found that those folks are a little less inclined to move than a 22 year old since those younger candidates don't need to worry about things like "selling my house" and "finding a new school for the kids."

(And please don't read that as a problem that you need to overcome or anything! If you can clearly articulate your interest to the school when you're applying - usually on the Why School X doc - you're fine!)

Regarding your GPA, it's low but there's the context that it was a long time ago. Older GPAs aren't as reliable for predicting your law school GPA as your LSAT will be.

And speaking of that, yes, a higher score can balance things out!

But one quick note - taking the LSAT in January will be late for applying to T14s and even a good number of T30s. National apps are way up (+30% vs two years ago). If you need to take that long to get the score you're hoping for, that's alright because you have to do what you have to do. But I just wanted to give you a heads-up about this! My general rule of thumb for the upcoming cycle is that it's probably best apply before Oct 15th if at all possible.

I hope that all helps!

@EsmyVilla - I hope I can help!

The quick answer is "yes," there will be people admitted to law school with a GPA around a 3.4 (which is going to be below the medians for most everyone) and then an above median LSAT. That happens at most schools!

More broadly, we can reframe and broaden your question to be "can I still be competitive for admission and scholarship if one aspect of my application is weak?" And the answer to that question is also "yes!" Even in this environment where apps are way up nationally, law school admissions officers aren't only admitting the perfect apps. They're looking at the composite whole of your profile, weighing the strengths and the things that are not as strong, trying to figure out how you'd add to their enrolling class, etc, and using all of that information as the basis for their admissions and scholarship decisions.

@APBookninja Once you get past two or three years out of undergrad, admissions officers no longer expect to see any academic letters. We expect to see two professional ones instead.

@LSATTAKER - Good questions!

Once you start getting 2+ years out of undergrad, admissions officers expect that we'll just see one academic letter. This is usually because you've been doing other things now for 2+ years (like working) so it's also likely that we'll see a professional letter of rec. One academic and one professional - you should be good to go!

For anyone reading this who either will apply during their senior year OR right after graduation, the expectation for you is that you'll submit two academic letters of rec. It'd look a little weird just to see one (or none!).

That's a good question, @AnnaTidmore, and also a really tough one!

Here's what I advise with my clients - just rely on your stats when defining who your reach, target, and safety schools are. I advise this partly because it's a conservative approach (and I think this is one of those times when it's better to "expect less and be surprised when you get more" than the opposite) and because a number of folks overestimate their softs. And on that note, I'm not accusing you of that. I'm just saying that this is a prevalent enough issue that my default setting is to just encourage folks to use their stats to build the foundations of their list. And beyond the stats, look for schools that are good fits for what you want (eg, they're in the right region of the country for your post-grad plans, they offer the exact clinics and externships that you're looking for, etc).

And with that said, yes, softs do count. Every law school will admit people who are below their medians. These are people who have some combination of an extraordinary resume and/or an extraordinary personal background. Additionally, these are also people who have a clear articulation of their professional goals (meaning that the admissions office can say "even if they are the dead last person in our class at graduation, they are absolutely getting a job because they know what they want to do with this JD") and who are going to add significantly to the Socractic learning environment at the school for the next three years (ie, "even if they are the dead last person in our class at graduation, they are absolutely going to expand the conversations in our lectures because of their personal/professional experiences").

I hope that helps!

So let's admit that this is totally subjective, @c2124, and also that things have really changed radically over just the past few years.

Historically, applying around Christmas was fine, around Thanksgiving was "good" early, around Halloween was EARLY early, and around 9/30 was "shouldn't you have better things to do with your time" early. I've found that a lot of collegiate pre-law advisors still have this timeline in mind.

But there's just been a massive upswing in apps these past two years. According to LSAC, apps right now are 11% higher than last year but 36% higher than two years ago! And it's not like they're "bad" apps, either. Based on LSAC's data, the biggest part of that increase has been in the highest LSAT score bands.

Now, combine this fact with the reality that most schools start seriously evaluating apps around mid-October / November 1. Why then? Because the weeks before that are filled up with traveling to law fairs around the country. So when admissions officers get off the road, they already have a tidal wave of applications waiting for them to review.

Let me give you a fun fact. Or a "fun" fact. Lawschooldata has a feature called "Heard Back." It allows you to see the percentage of lsd.law users who report that they've received a decision from a school. This information is sorted by the date range that the users submitted their apps: early Sept, mid Sept, late Sept, early Oct, etc. It allows you to get a sense of how far along an admissions office is in reviewing apps. In early May (ie, after deposit deadlines had passed), schools like Stanford, Notre Dame, USC, and Vanderbilt were really only done reviewing apps submitted through about Christmas. We've seen some waitlist activity from those schools but not tons. What does that mean? That these schools effectively filled their classes with applicants who submitted their apps before Christmas.

So now let's put this all together into what I think is the best calendar for our present era:

• Applying before Oct 15 is "good" early. There's no difference applying on Sept 15 vs Oct 15 for the vast majority of schools because of all that law fair travel that I mentioned. If you apply by Oct 15, you should not feel like you applied "too late."

• Applying before Nov 15 is fine. We're still in that range where most schools will be able to review your app and give you a decision before March 1.

I'm not going to mention the timeline after that because we start to move into a range where it really just depends on the school. Applying January for USC this year was a bad idea, but was likely just fine for Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine, etc.

As far as "is there a date after which you should just wait until next year," that's also really subjective. Some folks are ok "shooting their shot" with a late app. Other folks HAVE to apply late because they can't take the LSAT until January and they HAVE to start law school this year. Others would prefer to keep their powder dry and submit their strongest app in September of the following admissions cycle. It's totally up to you! My only words of wisdom are just being clear eyed about matters if you submit apps in Jan, Feb, or March. You'll read success stories on Reddit, you'll hear from your cousin's best friend's sister's husband about how they applied on the deadline in 2015 and still got in with a big scholarship ... but those are the needles in the haystack and/or what happened in the past. That's not the current situation.

I know that's a lot of info but I hope that helps!

So I'm going to be super nitpicky here, @CheyenneKenney, because law school is all about semantics!

Technically, anyone is allowed to write an LoR for you. Heck, I could write one for you ... but I'm not sure how good it would be ("Admittedly, I know this candidate only from their 7Sage handle and icon, but I feel confident in their ability to do well in law school.")!

But I think you really mean "is this a good idea," or "would this be effective," right? In that case, the key for an academic LoR is that I want to hear about what you bring to the classroom environment. A good candidate to write an LoR for you, thus, is someone who has instructed you in an undergrad or grad class. If that's a PhD student, that's fine! If that's a full prof, that's fine! If it's a department chair, that's fine! Admissions officers aren't going to make a huge deal of distinguishing between each of those kinds of instructors. We leave it to your discretion as an applicant to determine which instructor you think would hit the right marks for 1) enjoyed their class, 2) had a good relationship with the instructor, and 3) you trust them to submit their LoR in a timely manner.

I hope that helps!

@mkos99 It's not really about "offsetting," per se, but about "providing necessary context to understand what's up."

For example, let's say that someone had a significant health issue during one semester (mono + broke a leg + a concussion, etc). It's absolutely unreasonable to assume that they would perform at their best that semester, right? Your case is a bit less dramatic (at least I hope it is!) but it's still good just to have you walk me through things in one paragraph.

And to your last question, we actually do offer time in 30 minute increments and you can learn about that here. I'm mindful of costs so I try to talk VERY FAST during that period. But I also do a weekly admissions AMA on Wednesdays at 1PM Eastern and you're welcome to pop in there and ask a few questions. It's anonymous (like here) and we're answering questions in public, but we can at least get into greater detail than a chat room AND it's still free.

My only additional advice from the perspective of a former admissions officer is if you feel like you need to rush your prep and your apps, you'll probably be a more competitive applicant next year rather than this year. It's really rare to see someone do their best on the LSAT while they're also in a grad program. That's before we even get into the reality of questions like "... so, when are you going to find time to write your personal statement, update your resume, and do your school specific statements...?"

I know you said that you need to apply this admissions cycle! I just wanted to offer the counterpoint that you may be better off in the long run if you give yourself the time and space to do your best!

@mkos99 Just to answer your question about what grades do or don't count, the answer is "every undergrad course taken towards your first bachelors." What that means in plain English for you is "yes, your transcript from the school you attended freshman year and - yes - ALL the classes you took."

And regarding an Addenda, I think this is a pretty clear cut case where providing one is beneficial. As an admissions officer, I'll see the transfer, I'll see the GPA trend, but it's nice for you just to walk me through things quickly to make sure I don't miss anything.

I hope that helps!

@BertillaIsabelKim Thanks for the question!

Speaking in broad terms (since you didn't give the exact details of the situation at hand and that is totally understandable), applicants are admitted every year who have CF disclosures. That includes academic issues in all their variety (warnings, censures, suspensions, dismissals, etc). The keys are going to be:

1) Disclose this issue and explain things clearly.

2) Take responsibility for what happened.

3) Be clear what the repercussions of the incident were.

4) This was an isolated incident and you have had a clean record both beforehand and since then.

I hope that helps assuage some fears!