Law School Application Tips

Applying for law schools is one of the more intimidating and nerve-wracking components of the pre-law school student experience. How many applications should you put out? When should you apply? Do you really have a decent chance of acceptance to a school with a higher median LSAT than yours?

I have learned overtime that nothing about law school is inexpensive. As soon as you make that fateful decision to attend law school and begin studying for the LSAT you are bombarded with expenses from all sides. Once you have the LSATs out of the way the process to decide what law school you attend begins, and this is rarely inexpensive. Most law schools charge an application fee just to take a look at your application. The fee varies from as low as $20 to as high as $100 an application.

Luckily for you, law schools will frequently offer fee waivers for students with matching or higher median LSAT scores. This is great, but then you discover that LSAC charges a report fee for each application regardless of whether or not you received a fee from a school. That report fee was $35 when I was applying to law schools, but it appears to rise every year or two.

With that being said, students can easily blow through $500 or more on law school applications. It’s very important that you spend your money wisely, and have a plan of action.

When Should I Apply?

The earlier in the process you can apply the better. Unfortunately I did not have the luxury of applying early when I went through the process. I didn’t think about attending law school until October, and I didn’t want to wait an additional year so I could get in the process early. I took the LSAT once in December, but I wasn’t happy with my score until the February LSAT. By that time, most top schools wont even accept a February LSAT, and the ones that do have already filled up most of the available spaces.

Law Schools run on a rolling admissions cycle. This means that law schools review and accept applications as they come in. If you wait until February or March to apply, your chances of acceptance decline. To make matters worse, 2018 saw an enormous uptick (8%) in law school applications, and 2019 is on track to continue with that trend. Higher numbers of applicants mean more competition, and it makes it all the more important to get your application in early.

When is the earliest that you should apply? It depends on a few factors. Is there a school that you want to attend above all others? Many schools have an early decision program that offers a binding decision if you are accepted. The advantage of this is that it is early in the cycle, and offers applicants who are set on that school a better opportunity to attend.

If your not interested in early decision and you want to feel out your options. Than anytime from September to December is great, and significantly better than waiting until January or February.

How Many Applications Should I Send Out?

I applied for ten schools during the application process, and I mixed it up between safety, neutral, and reach schools. A safety school is one where your LSAT score is above the target school’s median. A neutral school is one where your numbers pretty much match the target school’s median. A reach school is traditionally one where either your GPA or LSAT score is below the target school’s median.

If your heart isn’t set on a certain law school, I would argue that more applications is better, to a point. Mix your applications up between safety, neutral, and reach schools. My method was four safety, three neutral, and three reach schools. Yes, I understand that its expensive to apply to so many schools, but at the end of the day your going to end up with a few different options.

I did not have a very good GPA coming out of undergrad, I screwed around a lot. I found however, that law schools care about your LSAT score so much more than your GPA (for the most part). Pretty much every school I applied for had a higher median GPA than I did, and I was accepted into the vast majority of them.

Do I Really Have A Decent Chance of Getting Accepted into a Reach School?

Yes and no. If you apply later in the cycle I can almost guarantee that unless your dad is the Dean or your family makes a nice donation, your not getting accepted in a reach school. Maybe that worked a few years ago, when enrollment numbers were down and many schools were trying to ensure their classes were filled up. Nowadays though, the ball is in the Law Schools court and they cant be significantly pickier.

That being said, most students with below median scores get in early and that should be your strategy. Knock your LSAT out in June or whenever they offer it earlier in the year. Fine tune your application, and beat the rest of those late-comers like me to the punch.

Essay Considerations

Every law school does their admissions a little bit different, and the essay requirements differ as well. Its inadvisable to write an essay and then send it out with every single application. Some schools ask specific questions, and then some ask for an optional diversity statement. My diversity statement was on my American Indian heritage, and how I became a member of my tribe several years back. I had to change the statement several times, because some schools wanted a shortened 300 word version and then others had a two page maximum.

If you have a school that your set on, mention that you are set on that school and the reasons why in the personal statement. Please don’t say that your set on an individual school because of its rank.

Conclusion

That’s it for my tips on law school applications! Hope this article helped out and cleared the air for you! LSAC is making a lot of changes right now to LSAT administration, and the coming GRE wave is certain to make some changes to the admissions game. Overall though there is no foreseeable change in the timing of your application, and the number of schools you should apply to.