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?