With your LSAT score in hand, it's time to consider what that number means for your admissions odds. Everyone knows that an LSAT score is almost universally prized above all other factors. It often counts more towards an acceptance than GPA, letters of rec, personal statement, and resume combined! Often several times more than that collective "other." But exactly what does this number mean to the schools you intend to apply to? Let's investigate. Admissions Chances I should start by noting that I consider this a companion piece to this excellent article. Definitely give it a read! What … [Read more...]
Do Law Schools View Multiple LSAT Attempts as a Negative?
This blog is brought to you by a special guest, Spivey Consulting Group. One of the most persistent law school admissions myths is the notion that schools consider every LSAT score – or the average score – for individual applicants when assessing their admissions profile. This is a particularly tough myth to counter because it often originates from the carefully crafted semantics law schools themselves use in describing how they view multiple tests. Only the high score is submitted Law schools do read files holistically and they do read/see every LSAT score/withdrawal/cancellation of each … [Read more...]
How Do You Defer Law School?
The end result of applying to law school is--obviously, some might say--attending once you've been admitted. However, for some applicants, for a variety of reasons, this isn't possible. They may have every intention of attending, but things come up. It could be anything: A once-in-a-lifetime internship in a foreign country, the opportunity to take on a unique one- or two-year assignment, an unforeseen family or personal emergency. In that case, students are put in the unenviable position of having to turn away from what they've just spent (in some cases, years) striving for. However, many … [Read more...]
4 Commonly Asked Questions About Law School Letters of Recommendation
Recently, US News and World Report contacted PowerScore with questions about the law school admissions process, and specifically about letters of recommendation. Since their final magazine article didn’t use the entirety of our answers, we thought we’d post them here for you to use!Below are the four main questions we were asked, with each question followed by two separate responses. The first reply is from Dave Killoran, PowerScore’s CEO and co-author of the forthcoming PowerScore Law School Admissions Bible, and the second is from Tony Bates, PowerScore Law School Admissions … [Read more...]
What is Yield Protection in Law School Admissions
In the world of law school admissions, the U.S. News and World Report’s (USNWR) annual law school rankings are always looming, in one way or another, in the background.For better or worse, the USNWR rankings are the most widely cited, and for many are considered the gospel truth when it comes to law school rankings. They receive heavy criticism along a number of lines. Many criticize them for placing insufficient emphasis on employment outcomes, and too much emphasis on things like library resources and expenditures per student, which favor schools with a lot to spend. Another common … [Read more...]
Do Non-Traditional Law School Applicants Have an Admissions Advantage?
Anyone who has been following my posts on the PowerScore blog knows that I’m pretty interested in using data to get insights into not only what factors might affect law school admissions decisions, but also to what degree those factors have an impact, as well as the differences in the ways different facets of an application package do (or do not!) affect admissions decisions at different law schools.So far, I have explored whether the timing of the application makes a difference, the benefits (or lack thereof) of binding early decision options, which schools are relatively more welcoming … [Read more...]
Why You Should Take the LSAT in June (and Not in September)
When taking the LSAT, timing when you should take the test is a big factor. A lot of students plant to the June LSAT, but when that test swiftly approaches, you may start to question postponing. Maybe you take a prep course, buy the Bible Trilogy, or invest in tutoring. If you see an uptick in your PT scores, that's awesome. If you aren't, then taking the June test becomes daunting. So, you may think that putting it off until September is a good idea. It's easy to rationalize this decision! You're still in school, you can focus on your finals without the added aggregation of yet another test. … [Read more...]
Do Underrepresented Minority (URM) Applicants Have a Law School Admissions Advantage?
Law school admissions decisions are often thought to be formulaic and assume LSAT and GPA are the only important elements. We cannot deny that those numbers play a huge (and important) part in most admissions decisions. But, they aren’t the only factors that matter. We’ve previously discussed other key ingredients in the admissions decision factors, such as timing and applying through early decision (ED). There are other factors that make a difference, and some of them are quantifiable factors with user-reported data. These include an applicant’s gender, traditional or non-traditional status, … [Read more...]
Which Top 50 Law Schools Accept the June LSAT?
In the last few years, there has been a seismic shift in application deadline dates, which greatly benefits current applicants. A decade ago, only a few schools accepted the results of the February LSAT for fall admission later that year, and many application deadlines were in January (if not December). Fast forward to today, and the situation is much changed! Almost every school now accepts the results of the February LSAT, and, as the table below shows, a significant number of schools in the Top 50 now accept the results of the June LSAT (and many more outside the Top 50 accept June … [Read more...]
Are There “Reverse-Splitter Friendly” Law Schools?
We cover which law schools are "splitter-friendly" in this blog post. The analysis of the data in that post also gives us some insight into which school might also be "reverse-splitter friendly." For the uninitiated, check out What Are Splitters, Reverse Splitters, and Super Splitters. It breaks down the differences to help you determine which one you are if any.There are a couple things worth mentioning before we dive into that analysis, though. First, it may be true that splitter-friendliness is more of a “thing” than reverse-splitter friendliness and this certainly makes some sense. The … [Read more...]
What to Do to Prepare for Law School as a High Schooler
We answer a lot of law school admissions questions throughout the year. One of the most prevalent comes from the younger crowd of aspiring law school applicants. "I'm only a junior/senior in high school, but I already know I want to go to law school. What do I need to do to increase my chances of getting into [law school]?" First of all, kudos to you for pre-planning! Here are some pointers to help you on your path. Basic Requirements These are the two basic requirements you need to apply to any U.S. law school.Finish high school and obtain a four-year undergraduate degree at a college … [Read more...]
The Secret Behind a Stellar Letter of Recommendation
You're working on your law school applications, do you know where your recommenders are? If you don't, you should. We see it every year, the poor LOR gets forgotten until the last minute, never getting the attention it deserves. Applicants seem to consider it a painful and relatively useless part of the application. So, why worry about it until the absolute last possible moment? So sad, and so very mistaken! Letters of recommendation, although they won't likely sway the balance in your favor, it can definitely sway the balance against it. As such, you need to take them very seriously. A bad … [Read more...]
Should I Add an Addendum for a 2nd, Higher Score?
Sometimes students wonder what a drastic jump in LSAT score from one test administration to the next relays to admissions officers when considering applications. In this discussion on the PowerScore LSAT Forum, Dave Killoran provides advice for a student who is wondering if their score jump will raise suspicion and whether or not they should provide an addendum in their application. Here's a quick preview. Make sure to check out the full thread to read the entire explanation Dave provided to this student:The Forum posts selected for this series are chosen because they have a … [Read more...]
Law School Applications: Every Word Counts
The other night I co-hosted a free PowerScore online seminar on the basics of the law school admissions process. This seminar, known as Admissions 101, covers each step of applying to law school, and it discusses how to approach the application process and what the law schools are seeking from you as an applicant. During this seminar I spend a lot of time answering questions about two things in particular: letters of recommendation (LOR) and the personal statement. Due to the large number of LOR questions, I later did a special seminar on just the letters of rec, which is now available here. … [Read more...]