Law School Admission After 3rd Year

LSATPrep2022

Does anyone have experience (either themselves or know of someone else) who has applied to law school during their third year of undergrad? How did it go?

Matt Sorr

Are you attempting to apply during your third year, then go to undergrad for your fourth year, then matriculate the year after that? Or are you just saying that you only plan to do three years of undergrad before graduating? If it's the former, then I haven't heard of anyone doing it. That's not to say it isn't possible, I just have no experience with it. If it's the latter, then I believe you'll do perfectly fine. I have a friend who graduated after her third year of undergrad and, as far as she could tell, no law schools batted an eye. I also know of a person (though I'm not close to them) who only did three years of undergrad then immediately attended Harvard Law. All of this is to say: I don't think law schools will care much. Sure, they may have some concerns about your maturity if you'd be entering law school at 19 or 20, assuming you're graduating young, but those concerns will be put to rest if you have the GPA/LSAT/soft factors they're looking for. Law schools know that college is expensive, so they won't penalize you for finishing undergrad quickly. If graduating early will somehow cause you to have nothing on your resume, meaning no internships, jobs, or extracurriculars, then I'm sure that could put you at a disadvantage (particularly at higher ranked law schools). I seriously doubt graduating early would be the cause of that, however, and regardless of your soft factors, your GPA and LSAT will matter far more.

To be clear, I'm not an admissions officer or consultant, so if you want a definitive answer on this subject, you'd need to speak with one of them. I'm only speaking from the experience of a couple of people I know, so my thoughts aren't the gospel. The two people I know did perfectly fine, however. I hope this helps a bit!