Highly-regarded law school admissions expert, Peg Cheng, is the author of The No B.S. Guides for applying to law school and the founder of Prelaw Guru, where you can find law school admissions tips, videos, books, and more.Because fall always seems so busy for everyone, I recommend asking for letters of recommendation (LORs) for your law school application during the summer, September at the latest.Make an effort to meet with each … [Read more...]
Personal Statement Advice from our LSAT Discussion Forum
This PowerScore LSAT Forum Post of the Day comes from this past weekend (found here). One of our students posted a second draft of her personal statement, and PowerScore LSAT Bible author Dave Killoran weighed in on that draft in detail (and lots of it!). The link above leads to her second draft, and Dave’s extended comments immediately follow her post. If you are working on your personal statement or your applications in general, his post gives … [Read more...]
I Messed Up One Semester… Can I Still Get into Law School?
We get a lot of questions from students on our forum and in our law school admissions counseling programs. Many of these questions sound something like this. My freshman year of college I had a 3.87 GPA. Then, my first semester of sophomore year, my grades suffered and I ended up with a 2.73 for the semester. If I were to achieve great grades (straight As) for the rest of my undergraduate career, would I still have a shot at a decent law … [Read more...]
What Are My Law School Admissions Chances?
A genie appears and grants a law school applicant one wish. What do they wish for? Chances are, wanting to know their chances of getting into a certain law school is near the top. It’s likely followed by having a stellar GPA, LSAT score, and personal statement. Unfortunately, there isn’t a magical genie that can help you figure out your chances. Although it’s almost impossible to predict with any certainty your chances, there are things you can … [Read more...]
The LSAT: Why Those 3 Sections?
When students begin their preparations for the LSAT, their questions generally concern how to go about maximizing their scores. Given the importance of the LSAT in their law school applications, this is completely understandable. But it can be worthwhile to understand the perspective of the test makers. Let's talk about why you're working so hard to break down the complexities of this test. Reading Comprehension Reading Comprehension is perhaps … [Read more...]
Applying to Law School Early: What’s the Deal?
A lot of students contact us well in advance of the year they plan to attend law school. For some, they merely want to get a head start and fully formulate their admissions plan. Others are even more ambitious and deciding whether or not it's worth applying Early Action or Early Decision to their top schools.Many schools offer the EA and ED options--candidates often don't take advantage of them because they don't really understand them, but … [Read more...]
Over 30 and Applying to Law School?
This comes from special guest, Ann Levine. Ann is the former Director of Admissions for two ABA-approved law schools and the author of the bestselling law school admission guide The Law School Admission Game: Play Like an Expert. Since starting Law School Expert in 2004, Ann has personally helped over 2,000 law school applicants, providing supportive and candid law school admission coaching.Some of my favorite clients to work with are those … [Read more...]
Is it Okay to Embellish My Law School Application Personal Statement?
Short answer: No. The long answer? Law school prepares you to serve as an advocate and representative of the legal system. You will be expected to abide extremely high ethical standards throughout your career. Misrepresenting yourself on your application sets an awfully poor precedent. If an appeal to ethics doesn't convince you enough, let me demonstrate how embellishment is strictly against your own self-interest. When considering a risky … [Read more...]
Who to Ask for LORs if You’ve Been out of School for a Long Time
One of the aspects of applying to law school that poses the most trouble for older applicants is obtaining letters of recommendation. This is due to two reasons:Schools stress that they prefer academic letters of recommendation. So, letters that come from someone who has worked closely with you in an academic capacity, preferably in a classroom. Older students typically don't keep in touch with their college professors and/or haven't … [Read more...]
How Do Law Schools Look at Graduate Work?
Although the majority of law school applicants are coming straight from college, there are many that are just coming out of graduate school or have a graduate degree in addition to their Bachelor's. For those students, their grad school degree and grad school grades can sometimes be a source of discomfiture. How are these grades considered? Are they included in your GPA calculation? Can they make a not-so-great undergraduate GPA better? Do they … [Read more...]
Law School Personal Statements You SHOULDN’T Write
I've been working with law school applicants for years. Every year I see some absolutely unique essays and I see essays that I swear I've seen before (sometimes many, many times). Some of them are strikingly good, while others are jarringly bad. In an effort to shed some light on essay topics that could quickly go from mundane to radioactive, I've compiled a list of a few of the topics that I wish would go away—or, at least, get done by fewer … [Read more...]
Useful Resources for Law School Applicants
If you're thinking about applying to law school, you should also be thinking about your applications. If apps are on your mind, you may also be researching schools and quickly overwhelming yourself with the multitude of websites and publications out there that give out (sometimes not-so-reliable) information. To that end, here's a list of some of the best, "must-have" resources for applicants. We regularly help students with their applications! … [Read more...]
Hoping to Apply to Law School Early? What Actually Is Early?
Many people know that law schools use a rolling admissions process, which means that schools consider applicants in batches as the applications arrive. Thus, when an application comes in at the beginning of the application period (in the fall of each year), there are the fewest number of competing applications completed and the greatest number of available spaces in the class.As time goes on, more applications come in. Towards the end, there … [Read more...]
Do I Have to Wait Until After I Take the LSAT to Get My Letters of Recommendation?
There's a big misconception students have about the law school admissions process. Many believe that in order to do anything application/admissions-related, you have to take the LSAT first.Now, don't get us wrong. Taking the LSAT before you do anything else is not a bad thing. On the contrary, it's a great starting point. Your LSAT score determines so much when it comes to your application:Where you'll have the best chance of … [Read more...]