Advice for College Career Center Professionals about the Law School Admission Process

Tips for Advising College Students and Recent Grads about Law School

Brad Dobeck, JD, President, PrelawAdvisor.com

College career center professionals should consider these answers to questions commonly asked by current college undergraduates or recent grads, when they knock on your door seeking advice about the challenges of the law school admission process. Law school admission rates, particularly at the elite level, are quite low. It takes a carefully constructed package of achievements to interest tough-minded law school admissions decision makers. This information can help you provide positive guidance to college students and graduates.

“When should I start law school?”

The commonly-held view of many college juniors and seniors is that one should begin law school immediately after college. If you graduate in May, begin the following September.

As a prelaw advisor and advocate to many in the law school admission process, I strongly dispute this view. Many brand-new college graduates should not go immediately to law school. Let me tell you why.

First, prelaw students must understand that they need to develop a strategy not only for law school admission, but one that prepares them for:

• Success in law school, particularly during the challenging first year.
• Success at the right law school, one located in a setting appropriate for the student's future plans, and a law school with a track record and an alumni network that will meet the student's future objectives.
• Success in professional job hunting, which is greatly affected by prior law-related work experience, choice of law school, and performance in law school (especially first-year performance).
• Success in one’s future professional career, which ideally is founded on an outstanding performance in the law school best suited to the student's objectives.

A student strategy that focuses on immediate admission alone creates significant risks for the student's future professional plans.

Remember, only about one third of American law students now go to law school directly out of college, and I believe that this number will continue to fall. It is now quite common for college graduates to have two to five years of work experience before starting law school.

“Should I take off time before law school?”

That kind of thinking has it exactly backward. You've been "taking time off" from the real world to go to college instead of starting work right after high school. Propose instead that the student or grad go back to the world of work after college, before "taking time off" in the future to invest it in law school.

“If I don't go to law school right after college, what should I do?”

Law-related work; LSAT study and practice tests; law-related reading; visits to law schools, law libraries and law school bookstores; and preparing your law school applications—in short a comprehensive effort in all these areas, activities you probably don't have enough time for as a full-time undergraduate.

“Do I really need law-related work before law school?”

Yes. Life experience after college and law-related work help you develop an informed basis for the study of the law. You want to enter law school with a personal understanding of the nature of legal work, and the world of lawyers and law firms. You need an appreciation for the standards and pressures in legal work. Post-college life experience and law-related work experience will reveal to you whether or not law school and the legal profession are right for you. You want to make that decision before you enter law school, not after.

“What exactly is law-related work?”

Working as a paralegal or legal assistant in a law firm, legal department or with a lawyer in solo practice. Working with lawyers in advocacy or public interest organizations. Working on a political campaign. Such work experiences might come in the form of externships, part- or full-time jobs, internships, or through volunteering time. Seek work experiences that have law-related content and that expose you to lawyers and their activities.

“How do I deal with the LSAT?”

The LSAT is your adversary. Deal with it accordingly. This test disappoints, in varying degrees, 95% of LSAT test-takers, because everyone wants a score in the top five percent. Law schools, in effect, use the LSAT like a form of IQ test. The major law schools fiercely compete against each other by way of the publicly-available LSAT results of each enrolling law school class. A high LSAT score does not guarantee your admission, but a low score can make it very, very difficult to win admission.

The most important rules to remember in dealing with the LSAT are as follows:

• Don't take the official LSAT test until you are consistently scoring in practice the score you need for the school you want.
• Students who practice the test frequently generally get a much better official test result.
• Plan to take the official test only one time. Ideally, you want to show only one official, high, result.

If you wisely choose to work before going to law school, you don't need to do anything with the LSAT while you are in college. LSAT preparation should become one of your most important post-college tasks. Start this process by taking the free diagnostic LSAT test offered by both the Kaplan and Princeton Review organizations. (There are other, excellent, less well-known LSAT tutoring organizations as well.) Pick the program most appealing and affordable to you and work hard in it. Then when you finish, purchase a series of old, official LSAT tests and answers. Take many practice tests. Learn from every mistake. When you are consistently achieving the score you need for the school you want, then take the June or October test one year before the year you will start law school.

“What do you mean by law-related reading?”

Many prelaw students operate under the assumption that there really is nothing that they need to study in particular prior to starting law school. The reality is that there is a great deal one can read and study profitably in advance of law school. Remember, your goal is not just law school admission, but achievement of academic success while in the right law school for you, through a plan of self-development that includes reading books and materials that you will never have time for once you are actually in law school.

Start by looking at the Internet Legal Resources Guide at www.ilrg.com. Next, check the bibliography in the ABA-LSAC Official Guide to ABA-Approved Law Schools at www.lsac.org. How many of these books have you read? You could spend years profitably reading from this list. Pick a book of interest to you and get started.

Third, visit a good law bookstore, such as one associated with a top law school. Note that in examining the materials there for first-year students, you see two major categories of materials-official texts and handouts from law school professors for use in first-year classes, and a vast and varied assortment of unofficial materials that are commercial study aids for law students. My recommendation is that you start learning about the law now by purchasing some of the commercial study aids, one for each first-year course, and master them now before law school starts. One example would be the "Nutshell" series (such as "Contract Law in a Nutshell"). Such materials can give you a better perspective on the field of law you will shortly be studying.

You might also consider contacting the BAR-BRI organization, which offers post-law school bar exam preparation. BAR-BRI prepares and sells useful outlines on all areas of the law that are covered by each state's bar exam. These outlines, typically not used by law students until after they finish law school and are in a six-week cram study period for the bar, are actually quite useful as legal introductions for the pre-law student.

Understand that many law school professors hold such commercial prep materials in low regard. However, I am not proposing that you use such materials for legal research, but only as broad, general and useful introductory materials, read before law school starts, to give you a more informed basis on which to build your learning in law school.

“Do I need to go visit a law school I'm interested in?”

Absolutely. You wouldn't consider a car purchase, an apartment rental, house purchase, marriage or other significant decision without careful evaluation. The same applies to law school. Show up, walk around, and talk to students. Begin to get a feel for how happy they are, and whether they would choose to attend if they had the decision to make all over again. Then visit the Admissions Office. Tell them of your interest. Be polite and respectful. Take the official tour. Arrange to sit in a number of classes.

Ask and get answers to your questions, including the following tough ones that law schools aren't eager to discuss. Remember, be polite and friendly.

• Tell me the type of student your law school is seeking from the current marketplace of students.
• At what point in terms of GPA and LSAT is a graduate of my school likely to be offered admission to your law school?
• What is the grading philosophy of your law school, particularly during the first year? A "B" mean? "C" mean? Something else?
• How do students earn an invitation to your law school's most respected law review?
• What is the drop-out rate at your law school during the first year? Second and third years?
• Are financial aid awards "front-loaded" for 1L's? In other words, are 2Ls and 3Ls likely to receive less in financial aid? And is financial aid increased each year for inflation and higher costs generally?
• What is your law school's bar exam passage rate record?
• Does your law school offer purely merit-based scholarships? If so, how many? For what percentage of total costs? At what GPA/LSAT level are they offered?
• What percentage of the most recent graduating class is employed currently in law-related positions?
• What are the most prestigious clerkships offered to your recent graduates?
• Which schools does your law school regard as its direct competitors?
• What is the geographic distribution pattern of your law school's alumni?
• What is the loan default rate of graduates from your law school?

Answers to these questions will greatly assist you in making the decision of whether to invest your time, money and reputation with a particular law school.

“How do I persuade the admissions decision makers in my application?”

The goal in your personal statement is an interesting story that creates an immediate positive mental image of you. Don't waste the opportunity of the personal statement to attempt to explain away any negative factors. Don’t write a “confessional,” expecting law school “justice.” Plan to test your personal statement on friends, family and your prelaw advisor. Winning formulas are as varied as each individual. Obviously, grammar and spelling must be impeccable. Do not follow the well-worn path of "Why I Want to Go to Law School." Remember that law school admissions reviewers have read literally thousands of such personal statements.

Purchase and read The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White, if you don't already have a copy. This slim volume is the best compilation on effective writing that I've ever seen. Employ in particular the concept of omitting needless words. You want your writing to be concise, vivid and effective, with every word contributing to the result you desire.

Follow the directions carefully that each school provides. Aim for the earliest point in the admissions cycle. The optimal timeframe typically for application submission is between Halloween and Thanksgiving (sometimes even earlier). Understand each school's cycle. Seek to be there early in line for admission consideration.

Tell your top school that it is your first choice and that you will definitely attend if offered admission (if true). You cannot ethically make this commitment to any other school.

Be scrupulously honest in all your application work. Your future reputation as a lawyer includes what you've said in your law school applications. If you have any doubts on this issue, meet with your prelaw advisor.

Consider the use of brief addendums to provide any additional information necessary to persuade the admissions committee. Consult with your prelaw advisor before employing this approach, as it is sometimes overused.

Attorney Brad Dobeck, formerly Georgetown University’s prelaw advisor, is president of PrelawAdvisor.com, where he works as a consultant to law school applicants nationally. He has J.D., M.S.F.S, and LL.M degrees from Georgetown, and has worked in law firm and corporate legal department practice.