LSAT Blogs

As I’ve mentioned in earlier entries, the Admissions Committee takes into consideration every element when reviewing your application: LSAT, undergraduate and graduate GPA and transcripts, letters of recommendation, resume, work experience, life experience, personal statement and addendum (should you have needed to write one). 

I tell my clients right up front that I cannot and will not guarantee that they will be accepted to a specific law school, nor will I guarantee that they won’t be accepted to a specific school.  I do not have the advantage of serving on the Admissions Committee and being able to read your application along with the other thousands that have been received for the upcoming year. 

In researching law schools, you noticed that each school indicates a range of LSAT scores and a range of GPAs for accepted students.  This range covers the 25th – 75th percentiles, which means the school also accepts above the range and below the range:

• Should your LSAT and GPA fall way above both ranges, I’d say that you have a very, very strong chance of being accepted.  As your consultant, I would not guarantee your acceptance because maybe there is something else going on in your application that I’m not aware of, something you haven’t shared with me.  However, the odds are very much in your favor.
• Should your LSAT and GPA fall way below both ranges, as your consultant, I would tell you that it’s going to be an uphill challenge to get in.  However, maybe there’s some other aspect of your file that you haven’t shared with me that particularly attracts the attention of the Admissions Committee.
• Should your LSAT and GPA fall solidly within the middle or near the top end of the ranges, once again, you have a solid chance of being accepted.
• Should your LSAT and/or GPA fall at the lower end or just below the 25th percentile, then the Admissions Committee looks for some other aspect of your application to help compensate for the lower LSAT/GPA.  If one isn’t as competitive, they look for the other to be more competitive. 

Which brings me to the three decisions awarded by the Admissions Committee:

• Acceptance
• Denial
• Deferral or waitlisted.  The Admissions Committee has fully reviewed your application and determined that there are some aspects of your application that are exactly what they’re looking for, and yet, there are other aspects that are not quite as competitive.   They are unable to accept you at this time, but they also do not wish to turn you away.  As a result, you could be waitlisted or receive a defer decision – both of which mean that a final &yes& or &no& will be determined at a later date, possibly in two weeks, in a month, or two months from now.

As you are learning, applying to law school is very much a hurry-up-and-wait process.  You exert much effort in a short amount of time to take the LSAT, request your letters of recommendation, craft your personal essay, and submit your application.  Now comes the hard part…calling upon your patience as you wait to learn one of the three decisions above.

You’ve all been working hard on completing and submitting your applications.  Now what?

I’ve mentioned in previous entries that once you apply to a law school, the Admissions Office sets up a file for your application material and requests your LSAT score, letters of recommendation and transcripts from the Law Schools Admission Council (LSAC).  As you are already aware, you can check your LSAC account to confirm that your letters of recommendation and transcripts have been received.   But you’re not done yet.  You also need to view your account to make sure that each law school to which you applied has requested your material.

I’ve had clients ask me what to do when, for example, they’ve applied to seven schools, and all but one has yet to make the request.  Call the Admissions Office, ask to speak to an Admissions Officer, and say something like: "I submitted my application on [whatever date].  In reviewing my LSAC account, I noticed that a number of the law schools have requested my material.  Is there any other information you need from me at this time in order to do so?"

Once you have verified that a school has put in this request, I suggest waiting about two weeks and then calling the Admissions Office to confirm that your application is complete and has gone to the Admissions Committee.

It generally takes a minimum of six to eight weeks for the Admissions Committee to make a decision on your application.  If it has been six weeks and you haven’t heard any news, it’s ok to call the Admissions Office to check upon the status of your application by saying, "I sent in my application on [whatever date] and haven’t yet received a decision.  Do you have an idea as to how much longer it may take?" 

Your responsibility doesn’t end once you apply to law school.  I encourage you to take a proactive role in ensuring that your application advances through the admissions process.

Once you enter law school, most likely during your first year, you will start to fill out the application for the bar exam.  Why do I bring this up now when you’re working on getting into law school, let alone thinking about graduating?  Because there are similar questions on both the bar and law school application, the bar examiners will compare your bar exam application to your law school application.  If there is any, and I mean any, discrepancy between the two applications, it can be cause to expel you from law school or prohibit you from taking the bar exam.
The bar exam application asks you about every aspect of your life, from marital status to filing tax returns to outstanding parking violations.  I strongly encourage you to check out the bar exam application for the state in which you plan to take the bar.  It’s easy.  Just do a search, for example, on the words "Illinois bar exam."
Today I want to focus on two questions in the bar application called Character & Fitness. To paraphrase:

1. Has any academic institution you attended ever placed you on suspension or probation?
2. Have you ever been convicted of a crime, including/excluding traffic violations, including/excluding speeding tickets?

Maybe your undergraduate school placed you on suspension and later expunged the suspension from your records.  Do not assume that because the occurrence was expunged that it no longer matters.  It most certainly does.  You will need to explain –- in detail — what happened.
Regarding question #2 above, read the correlating question on each law school application very carefully.  I randomly selected schools from around the country to see how they phrased the question on their applications.  Some exclude traffic violations, and others include minor traffic violations such as speeding tickets.  I understand that it may have been ten years since you received that speeding ticket.  You still need to disclose it and do your utmost to find out the exact details.  Either way, call your state’s Department of Motor Vehicles.  It is possible that by doing so, you will be reminded of a violation that you had forgotten.  Once again, you will need to provide a detailed explanation.

1.  If you know the exact details, then include them.  Be very succinct and straight forward.  Provide the date, where the violation occurred, the exact violation and the fine. 
2. If you remember receiving a speeding ticket,  contacted the DMV and learned that it has since been expunged, then you should write exactly that. Here’s an example of how such a concern might be explained: I remember receiving a speeding ticket approximately 7-10 years ago and called the Department of Motor Vehicles to find out the details. The DMV notified me that my record has been expunged. To the best of my recollection, I was driving down Highway 294 and pulled over by the Sheriff’s Department and cited for speeding. I do not recall the amount of the fine, but I paid it. (Or, I remember attending traffic school in lieu of paying the fine).

If you are unsure whether your circumstances require you to answer "yes," it is always much more beneficial to disclose too much rather than not enough. In this particular situation, the giving "TMI" (too much information) is a good thing.

September test scores are out.  Some of my clients do not feel that their scores are indicative of their true ability, and we’re discussing the pros/cons of retaking it on December 5th.  Check out my July 20th post "Thinking about retaking the LSAT?" where I address the topic.

What they are more concerned about, however, is whether the December administration will put them at a disadvantage because it is late in the admissions cycle.  I’ll address that today.

When law schools indicate a deadline date of February 1, March 1, March 15, etc., they understand that the December LSAT is a popular one, and they know that many qualified applicants will come out of that test.  Yes, spots will have already been filled, but spots are still open, too.

To get the competitive edge, you want to make sure that your application is in that first batch that are completed once the scores become available.  Let me explain.

Remember, you can apply to law school at any time.  You do not need to have taken the LSAT.  Your letters of recommendation and transcripts do not need to have been received by LSAC.  You can apply as soon as you’ve completed the application, and written your personal statement, addendum (if needed) and resume.  Once the Admissions Office receives this material, it will request your LSAT score, transcripts and letters of recommendation from LSAC. 

Here is the key…LSAC will send out this information to the law schools to which you applied only when all of the material - LSAT score, transripts and letters of recommendation - has been received.

If you choose to take the LSAT in December, your goal should be to submit your application beforehand or soon afterwards.  If you haven’t already done so, make sure to ask your recommenders to write your letters now.  And, submit the transcript request form to your registrar now if you haven’t yet done so.  You want to ensure that this material is received by LSAC as soon as possible.

A number of Admissions Offices close the week between Christmas and New Year’s.  Faculty are away on vacation.  It’s a very quiet time. By submitting your application before or soon after you take the test, you give the Admissions Office time to request your material from LSAC so that once your score becomes available, LSAC will mail out your packet, the Admissions Office will receive and file it, and your application will be considered complete and go to the Admissions Committee for review come the first of the year when everything picks up again. 

Last week I talked about the possibility of transferring law schools. But did you know that there’s a second way to attend another law school? It’s called being a visiting student.

Most law schools offer you the opportunity to spend a semester, or at most an academic year, attending classes at another law school. Consider, for example, that you are currently enrolled in a Chicago school, and you’ve decided to live in New York City upon graduation. As a visiting student at a New York law school, you can begin the networking process prior to moving there. Or, maybe you’re concentrating in intellectual property law at a Washington, DC, school, and you find a California school offers classes that your home institution does not. Or, maybe you’re attending school in Florida and a personal matter requires you to be in Minnesota for a short time.

In all of the above cases, I encourage you to contact the Registrar at both your current school and the school you’re considering visiting. You want to make sure that the credits and classes from your visiting school will transfer back to your original school. The application process to be a visiting student can vary from school to school, but generally you will need to submit an application, a letter of good standing from your current law school and your law school transcripts. You may need to also submit letters of recommendation from law school professors.

You will pay the tuition of the school you’re visiting and will receive your degree from your original law school. You should be able to become involved in school organizations and take advantage of that school’s career placement services. However, you may not be eligible to participate in law review or moot court.

I would never guarantee a client that he/she will or will not be accepted to a law school. I do, however, believe it is my responsibility as a Kaplan consultant to make my clients aware of the various options open to them. Visiting another law school can be a very valuable tool depending upon your individual situation. Be sure to check it out.

"What about transferring to another law school after my first year?" It is a very common question posed by my clients.

The Admissions Committee is required to bring in a first-year entering class of a certain size determined by administration) in order to meet budget projections. On the other hand, there is no class size requirement for transfer students. If ten transfer applicants qualify for admission, then the ten will be accepted. If no transfer applicants qualify for admission, then none will be accepted.

The Committee is looking to accept applicants who will enhance its student body; therefore, it is essential to earn strong grades at your current institution. Generally, a transfer applicant must provide the following material to be considered:

» Application

» Letter(s) of recommendation, at least one being from a first-year law school professor

» Certification letter from the law school confirming that you are in good standing and able to continue legal studies there should you choose to do so

» Official LSDAS report

» Final transcripts from all schools attended

» Transcript of first-year law school grades

» Personal statement. Be sure to include your reason for wishing to transfer.

» Application fee

Because it might take awhile for your first-year grades to become available, it is possible that your transfer application will not be reviewed until July. Some schools may allow you to submit copies of your grade reports – or some other documentation indicating your grades – until your official transcript becomes available.

Each law school’s Admissions Committee has set its own transfer application process, such as number of letters of recommendation to submit. Be sure to call each school to learn its specific requirements.

Over the weeks we’ve discussed the various components of the application: the application form itself, the LSAT score, academic history, letters of recommendation and personal statement. This week I’d like to introduce one additional element that some of you may need to submit: the addendum. What is an addendum? Who should write one? What is the objective of an addendum? Keep reading…

While reviewing your application, it is very common for an Admissions Committee member to question something that he/she just read. Most of the time, these questions will center on some aspect of your grades or LSAT. For example, if you’ve taken the LSAT twice, and one score (hopefully your most recent one) is dramatically higher, the Admissions Committee is going to wonder what happened. There is no need to be concerned; you simply need to address the question. And you do so in an addendum. Most likely, you felt that your first score isn’t indicative of your true ability, so in order to make your application more competitive, you retook the test. Maybe the first time you took the test, you weren’t feeling well, or circumstances arose that limited your prep time. Just say so.

The Admissions Committee is going to examine every aspect of your academic transcripts. Perhaps you initially intended to major in mathematics, so a majority of your classes were math related. Then you changed majors to history. The Committee is going to notice the conflicting subject emphasis and wonder what happened. Once again, there is no need to be concerned, but you need to answer the question somewhere in your application. Now here’s the tricky part. Depending on how you frame your personal statement, you may refer to the change in majors there. But if it doesn’t fit in your statement, then you can comment on it in an addendum.

What are your grade trends? Did you start off with a 2.8 your first year, and then earn a 3.5 or higher each subsequent semester? What caused this? Were you homesick? Dealing with a personal issue? Facing an illness? Maybe you drifted your first year and had no direction. It’s ok. Life happens. Know, however, that the Admissions Committee is going to look for an explanation somewhere in your file.

I’ve worked with many clients who transferred schools, and this will be obvious to the Admissions Committee when it comes across multiple transcripts. Why did you transfer? Why did you choose to attend the original school? What attracted you to the school to which you transferred?

If you’ve determined that you need to write an addendum, the next question is how to do so. Whereas the personal statement is just that – personal – the addendum is very straight forward and succinct. You clearly state what issue/problem you wish to address and provide the explanation. If it applies to your situation, emphasize the learning experience and accentuate the positive. Be concise. When you are ready to submit your application, be sure to attach the addendum in addition to your personal statement and resume.

The Admissions Committee offers you the advantageous opportunity to explain any discrepancies in your application by utilizing the option of writing an addendum. If you don’t address the issue, you allow the Admissions Officer to assume, and you want to avoid that at all costs. Take advantage of the addendum. It is definitely worth it.

Ok, it’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty of writing the personal statement.

Two entries ago, I explained that there are two different types of essays: the open topic vs. specific questions. In this entry, I’d like to further delve into what it takes to develop a first-rate "open topic" essay.

You can be successful in business without an MBA, but you cannot be a lawyer without a law degree. Therefore, the Admissions Committee is not able look at your past legal experience as a predictor for law school success. Instead, the Committee wants to see what successes in the past indicate that you will succeed in law school and beyond, hence, the personal statement.

Very few law schools offer official interviews, so the papers in your file need to stand on their own and reflect why a law school should accept you. It is through your personal statement that the Admissions Committee learns who you are, and what makes you special and different from the other thousands of applicants. This is the place to brag about yourself…the key is to not sound like you’re bragging.

I’m going to take a brief break from discussing the personal statement to reiterate an entry I wrote about a month before the June LSAT administration. Only this time I’m addressing those of you taking the September LSAT.

I know you’re eager to submit your application as soon as possible. For the next few weeks, however, I encourage you to concentrate all of your efforts on the LSAT rather than thinking about what to write for your personal essay(s), or what schools you should apply to.

Consider: What if the time you spent working on your statement could have resulted in your scoring one point higher on the LSAT? What difference can one point make? The difference between being accepted…or not. Everyone is on the bubble somewhere. Said differently, everyone is competitive for a certain range of schools. But what’s also true is that the next level of schools can be brought into reach with a more competitive LSAT score or a more polished, introspective and engaging personal statement.

Encouraging you to spend the next few weeks focusing on improving your LSAT score is said not to discount the importance of well written personal statements and addendums (when necessary), rock solid recommendations and the various other components of the law school application. All these are critical pieces of your overall application, but you’ll be best served to devote your post-LSAT time to these aspects. It is much more advantageous for you to use the time now to earn a higher LSAT score than it is to be the first person to apply to a school. Click here to learn more about our LSAT prep options.

If you haven’t already done so, you should submit your transcripts to the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) as well as select your recommenders and ask them to write your letters. It doesn’t take too much time, and you’ll be advancing the application process while preparing for the LSAT.

Good luck!

There are generally two types of personal statements. I call the first one a general or "open topic" essay. The application may limit you to formatting or space requirements (no more than two pages double-spaced, or no more than 500 words, no smaller than 11 pt. font) but does not limit you to a specific topic. You can write about anything you wish.

The second type of essay may ask specific questions such as: Why do you want to go to law school? Why do you want to go to this law school? What kind of challenges have you overcome, how have your overcome them, and how has that shaped you into the person you are today? What three words best describe you? What do you consider your greatest achievements and disappointments in life?

Even if you’re crafting a general statement, the above questions are important ones to consider. It’s a very logical question to ask an applicant why he/she wishes to attend law school, and why mine? You could be applying to an MBA program. Why did you choose law? I do want to know if you’ve faced any challenges and how you’ve overcome them. What did you learn from the experience? Your answers show me your character.

In the following blog entries, I will:
→ Pose additional questions and suggest themes for you to consider when writing your essay
→ Suggest possible ideas as to how to format your essay
→ Discuss potential essay pitfalls

I would say that as consultants, we devote the most time in helping our clients write the personal statement. As I tell my clients, I want you to get frustrated but not so frustrated that you’re ready to throw your computer out of the window. You have the more challenging job: you have to take your life and condense it into three pages double-spaced, or 500 words. I get the easy part; I get to read it. And as I wrote in my previous entry, I looked forward to reading every one.