Getting into Law School
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Anonymous
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Recent story:
174, Phi Beta Kappa can’t break higher than Georgetown unless you bring something else to the table like geographic diversity, race diversity, military or unique work experience, very unique life experience (like fleeing a war torn country), or LOR from someone powerful But, they can get scholarships at #15-30. |
Anonymous
| Good essays, a clear idea of why they want to go to law school, but they want to do afterwards, some work experience or leadership experience. But maxing the LSAT and having a great GPA are definitely key. |
Anonymous
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OP here, thanks for the info on getting into law school.
How important are recs? My niece is taking a couple of years off, so she will not be able to ask college professors. what kind of ECs "dazzle" the law school admissions folks? |
Anonymous
She’ll get a work reference. I don’t think ECs dazzle them in any meaningful way. They should have ECs that are related to their career/legal interests, and leadership is always a plus. Awards, publications are very good. Summer internships in law firms or for politicians are a plus. But unless these lead to LOR from a former president, it’s just a bonus. The younger you are, the more you need to prove that you really have your mind made up and know what you’re getting into. Move to the middle of nowhere for the huge boost of geographic diversity. |
Anonymous
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GPA and LSAT.
I know the law school I attended (ranked 30-something) liked that I had attended a college they hadn’t ever had anyone from. But I imagine they would have accepted me anyway. Being full pay probably helped as well. |
Anonymous
She can still ask; she will just have to provide them with a lot of info. |
Anonymous
None. It isn’t undergraduate. The only exception might be a clearly demonstrated interest in helping the less privileged through law. I think my volunteer work with wrongful convictions was looked on favorably. But that was years of volunteer work, not some “EC.” |
Anonymous
Recs aren’t the most important factor (LSAT and GPA are by far the most important). But they are still important since they can be a deciding factor when weighing applicants with similar stats. Since your niece is still in college, she should ask a professor to write their recs now and submit them to LSAC (the law school admission version of College Board/Common App that basically is charge of submitting law school applications on an applicant’s behalf). That way, once she does decide to apply, she’ll have the letters ready, and won’t have to ask a professor who may have forgotten about her to write a letter two years later after she already graduated. Law school admissions officers tend to really like ECs that are “institutional” like NCAA college athletes, Teach for America, AmericaCorps, Fulbrights (although the future of the program is dicey), competitive post grad scholarships (e.g. Truman, Goldwater, Marshall, Rhodes scholars who turn down Yale Law, etc.). There is a growing trend of weighing in work experience more, following the model of business schools, but again, LSAT and GPA are by far most important. |
Anonymous
| Sometimes peace corp is looked at favorably but even one single LSAT point will 9/10 times be better than 5 "wow" extracurriculars. |
Anonymous
Not true. I know a WM with 3.9 GPA (from top 5 SLAC)/great LSAT score, no interesting work experience or "diversity" who picked between Duke, Penn and NYU. |
Anonymous
Yes to a certain extent. Ivy/t15 are overrepresented at the very top, T14 and especially traditional T5 law(yale stanford harvard chicago penn) |
Anonymous
There is no dazzle. However, real, full time work experience in the business world for a couple of years may be somewhat advantageous at certain T14s. |
Anonymous
Don’t tell me my experience isn’t true. This is what I saw with kids applying right out of undergrad recently. |
Anonymous
Not one bit. The valedictorian of my law school class went to Midwestern Directional State University for ug and went on the clerk in SDNY/2d Cir. |
Anonymous
Came here to say Teach for America. It helps law school assuage their guilt over largely providing laborers for the corporate grist mill. Write your applications about your passion for education law. Don’t mention that you will probably spend your legal career writing ERISA plans. |