For my fellow splitters....LSAC Forum is worth it!

LSATcantwin

I attended the San Francisco LSAC Forum yesterday with a lot of questions regarding my status as a splitter. It was EXTREMELY helpful to talk to the school directly and to ask them how to approach my situation. It gave me both a boost in confidence, and a strategy for each individual school.

Each school repeated the typical "we have a holistic approach" mantra but then followed it up with some advice on how to show them you are a different candidate than your record might suggest.

A couple of examples;

• U.C. Irvine - While they have to consider grades, they will break it down by year and history. For example; I had bad grades in 2008-2010. This was almost a decade ago, and since then I have considerable experience in the military and work force as well as a 4.0 form my undergrad college. They will draw a red line on my application to note this distinct change. Their suggestion? SEND MORE LETTERS OF REC. For someone like me, with work experience, he said it would be invaluable to receive 3-4 letters of recommendation. One from each aspect of my life (work/school/military) in order to show work ethic and to show I'm not the person I use to be. I wouldn't have known to do something like this without attending the LSAC Forum.

• University of Virginia - Told me to focus on my work experience. The grades were so long ago that if I focus my application on work experience they would probably get a better idea of who I am today. This will help them to "excuse" my past discrepancies because they can see a notable change in who I am. She even gave me her contact info to reach out to her if I have more questions about this. They said while my LSAT is low (163) to submit the application, retake the LSAT, and then have them look everything over. She said I sounded like an interesting candidate and wishes all the best for me.

I am SUPER pumped to go to law school after talking to the 10 or so schools at the LSAC forum. It really helped to break down the wall between me and these schools. It helped me to understand that these people are humans, and they won't devalue you for past mistakes, if you give them a good reason to value you now.

Please, do yourself a favor if you are a splitter, and try to get to one of these forums!!!

TexAgAaron

Curious because I'm considering UVA, how long have you been out of UG?

btownsquee

Thank you for this!! Excellent to know.

LSATcantwin

@akeegs92 said:
Curious because I'm considering UVA, how long have you been out of UG?

I have a complicated story. I started undergrad in 2008 and failed miserably. Joined the Marine Corps from 2010-2014, went back to undergrad in 2015 and graduated in 2016. I've also had work gaps in-between all of that. So I'm VERY non-traditional haha.

TexAgAaron

Ah ok. I'm definitely not in that ball park but I graduated in Dec of 2016 and am only working as a part-time server at a restaurant while I study for the LSAT.

You perked my ears with UVA and work history because that is something that has made me nervous. I worked my way through college and couldn't afford to move during the summers (I was at Texas A&M which isn't super close to Dallas or Houston) and intern and my serving gig there was really weird about staying during the summer. I was self-supporting to pay the bills.

The UVA person at the Houston was just an alumni so I couldn't get a great vibe from them on "what they value on an app". What kind of work do they value?

Sorry, I'm just trying to get a better picture of UVA's admissions.

LSATcantwin

@akeegs92 said:
Ah ok. I'm definitely not in that ball park but I graduated in Dec of 2016 and am only working as a part-time server at a restaurant while I study for the LSAT.

You perked my ears with UVA and work history because that is something that has made me nervous. I worked my way through college and couldn't afford to move during the summers (I was at Texas A&M which isn't super close to Dallas or Houston) and intern and my serving gig there was really weird about staying during the summer. I was self-supporting to pay the bills.

The UVA person at the Houston was just an alumni so I couldn't get a great vibe from them on "what they value on an app". What kind of work do they value?

Sorry, I'm just trying to get a better picture of UVA's admissions.

They said any kind of work experience helps to separate you from the grades. What she said was, they will look to other areas of your application, to see if there are strengths to make up for any weakness that they see.

TexAgAaron

Ah ok this makes me feel a bit better. I have just seen all these people on their website with these high end jobs and I'm thinking "I'm nowhere near this!" haha. I appreciate help here!