Law school admission deans place a lot of emphasis on "numbers", and, because law schools typically do not conduct interviews, the personal statement serves as the applicant’s "interview".   Considering how competitive these factors make the admission process, it’s critical that each applicant think strategically about what schools to apply to.  A common mistake occurs when an applicant builds the school list just by consulting school ranking lists, such as those found on-line or in magazines.  So much advertising ad publicity is given to rankings and marketing, it’s often difficult to separate fact from the PR sound bites. Even if you think you’ve identified the real story about a particular school - meaning you’ve dug around and gotten its bar passage and job placement rate at nine months post-graduation, these things aren’t the whole story.  Too often, law school applicants set their sights too narrowly when building their schools list.

Be flexible:
The more specific you are about where you’re willing to attend law school, the more you will limit your options. Often great applicants will limit themselves to a single metropolitan area when choosing a law school.  Some applicants get hung up on a specific geographic location- say they only want to be in New York City, or Boston, or DC, or California. While it’s certainly reasonable to keep geography in mind when thinking about where you eventually want to set up practice, you should still think broadly enough to give yourself real chances of securing an admission offer. There are many very fine law schools throughout the US. Take the time to investigate a range of great schools.

Know yourself:  what kind of law school setting is important to you?
As you’re already finding, the law school application process is highly competitive.  In turn, law students, in general, can be seen as also highly competitive. That said, there are varying degrees of competitiveness in law school. Some schools will place more emphasis on competition; indeed, in some schools, competition is nurtured mainly by the law students themselves, even though the administration might prefer the setting to be more congenial.  If you know you prefer a more collaborative, team-based environment, then look for a law school that has more of that "feel". Talk to admissions people; talk to faculty. But most important of all, reach out to current students and recent alumni to get their feedback about what kind of learning environment a school offers.  Maybe you thrive on competition; if so, you want to be sure this is valued at the school.  Know yourself and what you want, and get to know as much as you can about the schools you’re considering.

Find and use available resources:
The American Bar Association has a great resource available through the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) web site. There, you can access school-specific information, including details about GPA and admission test scores for recently admitted classes at ABA-approved law schools. Check this out at http://officialguide.lsac.org/ One of the really cool features on this site is a link where you can enter your GPA and LSAT score and do a search to see how your numbers compare to those of recently admitted students at specific schools.  You can compare your numbers to the median, 25th and 75th percentiles of a recent entering class. This search feature will help you build your schools list. You can also access information about each school, to learn more about its educational mission and philosophy, and application and financial aid deadlines, etc. So plug in your numbers and get started on building a list of schools where it your numbers will give you a pretty good competitive edge.

Connect with your Prelaw Advisor at your institution:
Your advisor at your undergraduate institution probably has a copy of the Law School Book of Lists, which is made available to prelaw advisors through their professional advisor organization.  This book provides lots of helpful information to advisors (and which they can share with their applicants) about specific academic and clinical programs at law schools. So, for example, if you have an interest in communications law, or maybe intellectual property law, this book will help you find law schools that have dedicated programs of study in these areas. Additionally, it has information about different student groups and other resources.

The bottom line:
Okay…you’ve done your homework, explored law school web sites, talked to admissions people, networked with current students and alumni, and you think you’ve got a pretty good idea of what the schools are like.  It’s time to put this all together. Use the LSAC UGPA calculator to start building your lists. What’s your dream school? What are some schools where your numbers make admission a pretty "safe bet"? Finally, what’s your "bottom line" school – i.e. one that will provide you a good, solid law school experience?  That is, if the only admission offer you end up getting I from your "bottom line" school, would you accept it?  Remember, as much as this application process is about you, it’s also about the competition.  Especially in a recession, when the job market is particularly tight, more college graduates will apply to professional and graduate school.  Think holistically and creatively as you work on building your law school list. In the end, you should have a list that includes one or two "dream", or "reach", schools; some "safety" schools; and a couple or few "real safety" schools.

Next week:

How am I going to pay for law school?

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.