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.

Today I’d like to talk to those of you who applied last year, were not accepted and wish to reapply this year to some of those same schools. You can do it, and here’s how:

First, call each school’s admissions office and inquire what the reapplication process entails. You might need to complete a new application, submit an updated personal statement, and reregister with LSAC.

Second, ask if you can speak with someone about why you were not accepted and what steps you can take to improve your chances. Generally, either your LSAT or GPA (or both) were not as competitive as the school was looking for. I recommend reapplying as long as you change something in your application. Take a look at my July 20th post to read about whether to retake the LSAT.

Lastly, you definitely want to make sure to alert the admissions committees of any honors, awards, or achievements that took place since you last applied. An addendum essay is a perfect opportunity to showcase these new accolades.

I encourage you to go for it!

I’m going to address an easy topic today: your academic transcripts.

As you know, you need to submit your transcripts to the Law School Admission Council (LSAC). For complete instructions on how to do so, please check out the LSAC website: www.lsac.org. On the home page on the left, click on the "Transcripts" button, and you’re on your way.

Now is a good time to request your transcripts. It takes very little effort to do so, and during the time it takes for your academic institution(s) to mail your transcripts to LSAC, you can be working on the rest of your application. As I mentioned in an earlier entry, it is your responsibility to track online that your transcripts have been received by LSAC.

Once LSAC receives your transcripts, it recalculates your GPA. Sometimes the LSAC GPA differs from the one noted on your official transcript. A common occurrence is the university that allows you to retake a class and will use only the more recent grade when determining your GPA. On the other hand, LSAC may include both grades in calculating your GPA, creating a discrepancy between the two.

If the two GPA’s differ, call LSAC to inquire why. Then all you need to do is write a brief addendum, pointing out to the Admissions Office why the two don’t match.

Ok, let’s start at the top…

The Admissions Committee has a two-fold goal: to bring in as competitive of a class as possible, while bringing in as diverse of a class as possible.

There’s no question that each school is looking for the strongest LSAT and GPA. At the same time, the last thing the Committee wishes to do is bring in a class in which everyone is from the same hometown, same high school, same college and same major. It makes for very boring classroom discussion. Instead, they’re looking for applicants who:

• Are in-state and out-of-state
• Attended private universities, state universities and community colleges
• Majored in biology, math, music, accounting, history, engineering, English, foreign language
• Just graduated from undergraduate school, as well as those who’ve been out of school one year, five years, ten years and twenty years

So what does this mean for you? Be comfortable knowing that there is no mold that you have to fit. A common mistake made by applicants is crafting an application that reinforces what the applicant thinks admissions committees want to hear. The committee doesn’t expect you to be an expert on the legal system, nor do they want to hear you pontificate on what your views are of the law (a major turn-off). Use your application to embrace your uniqueness, and combine that with your passion for earning a JD. Each stage of the application process (from writing personal statements to securing strong letters of recommendation) allows you an opportunity to showcase your unique story and your drive. We’ll address each piece of the application further in future blogs.

You may be curious as to how the application process works, so here goes…

I view the application process as containing five different pieces:

• The application form itself
• Undergraduate GPA
• LSAT score
• Letters of recommendation
• Personal statement

Over the course of the next few blogs, I will address each piece individually. In the meantime, I feel it is important for you to understand the overarching sequence of the process.

You will need to submit your transcript(s) and letters of recommendation to LSAC. It is your responsibility to make sure that LSAC receives both, and the good news is that you have the ability to track their receipt online on the LSAC website. And, obviously, LSAC will have your LSAT score(s) on file.

Even if all of this information is in, the law school doesn’t know that you are applying until you submit the actual application form. After you complete the online application and before you hit the "send" button, upload your personal statement, resume (if you have one) and addendum (if you’ve written one – the purpose of which I will discuss in a later blog) as attachments.

Once you click "send", your application will be forwarded to that respective law school. When the Admissions Office receives your application, it will set up an internal file and request your LSAT score, transcript(s) and letters of recommendation from LSAC. Only when all of the material is received by the Admission Office will your application be considered "complete" and be forwarded on to the Admissions Committee for review.