Is an applicant's LSAT score really all that important to the law schools?

Many law school applicants grossly underestimate the importance of their LSAT score in the law school admission process. They reason, "Certainly, who I am and what I've achieved in my life so far is vastly more important than my performance on a single standardized test." This is rational, but wrong, because of the enormous market impact of the US News & World Report ranking system. Law schools feel great pressure to produce entering classes with high LSAT scores. Thus, extraordinary weight is placed on one's performance on the LSAT. I caution all of my advisees to first construct a developmental path that maximizes the probability of high official LSAT performance.

Often times, parents—even lawyer parents—get this wrong. Their common sense (and parental affection!) tell them that the law schools cannot possibly weigh their child’s LSAT performance so significantly, when considered against the other achievements in their child’s life. Yet the reality is that small differences in LSAT performance result in enormous differences in the decisions of law school admissions officials. As one example, I’ve seen a three-point rise in an advisee’s LSAT score suddenly cause one respected regional law school to award a three-year, full-tuition scholarship (plus a signing bonus!) to the advisee, and another law school, an elite national one, to move him promptly from waitlisted to admitted. In another case, a truly brilliant advisee with a powerfully competitive record was waitlisted at a Top 5 law school. Why? This advisee lacked just one LSAT point. One point.

For more information about my recommendations, please see my detailed advice on top LSAT performance at PrelawAdvisor.com.

Law schools consider as many as 54 factors in reviewing an application: Do you know them?

While your highest LSAT score and your undergraduate GPA (as officially determined by LSAC) are by far the two most important factors that a law school admissions committee considers, there are actually 54 factors that you should consider in crafting your application. Do you know them? See the full list at my website www.PrelawAdvisor.com.

Should current college seniors take the December 1, 2007 LSAT?

Many college students aiming for law school feel pressure to take the LSAT during their senior year.

In general, I oppose this.

Seniors in college should be focusing on the unique opportunities of their last year of college. College will come to an end--forever--for these undergraduates, in May or June of their senior year. But the LSAT will continue to be available four times a year, every year, on and on into the future.

Seniors, make your final year special, in terms of: (1) academic excellence; (2) extracurricular activities; and (3) creative use of the community around your college. Do not be pressured into a premature LSAT.

It can have a highly negative impact on your ability to reach top law schools in the future. If you put a low LSAT score on your record as a senior, you've damaged your record before top schools. Even a later high LSAT is somewhat diminished by an initial low LSAT (though the law schools are now permitted to report only the highest LSAT of each enrolling law student, rather than the average LSAT score. This change was announced during the summer of 2006.) Thus if you get a mediocre 150 as a senior, and then two years later a brilliant 170, for law school admission purposes, while you are still a 170, your record is not as persuasive if you had earned just the brilliant 170 alone. Therefore, consider the timeline I provide at my website PrelawAdvisor.com.

"Help me find the right law school...for me!"

I am regularly asked this question. I can help you determine the right answer.

Let me begin by asking you a series of non-stressful questions, the answers to which will narrow down the vast range of law schools to some appropriate choices for our further consideration.

1. First, let's think about physical location. Do you envision going to law school in an urban, suburban or rural setting?

2. Do you want to remain in such a setting after law school is over for you?

3. Do you think you want a national, regional, or local law school? National law schools are the toughest in terms of admission challenge, but offer the greatest access to the national job market. However, they are likely to be the most expensive. Regional law schools, often public, can be quite respected in their region or state, and can be less expensive than private law schools, but they often lack a national reach in terms of the job market. Local law schools are the easiest challenge in terms of admission, but typically receive only limited interest from legal employers beyond the local market. And private local law schools can be very expensive.

4. Consider the reach of the school in the job market. Begin to get a sense of who recruits there by checking the NALP Directory.

5. Do you want a law school that is cooperative in its culture? Or competitive?

6. How harsh or friendly is the school's grading policy? Does the school provide class ranking data? Or does it refrain from doing so? An excellent source of information on these issues is The 2007 BCG Attorney Guide to America’s Top 50 Law Schools.

7. How diverse is the student body there? Are you going to feel comfortable there, and part of the community?

8. What about the political character of the professors and students? Does the law school have what you are looking for?

9. Does the law school have a religious affiliation that you might want?

10. What about the law school's cost? Do students really pay the stated tuition cost, or do many receive discounts through aid, grants and scholarships?

11. Does the area surrounding the law school offer you some of the things that you want for recreation, personal growth, fun, learning, meeting people, jobs, and institutions that matter to you?

12. As you visit a potential school's website--or better the actual physical setting of a potential law school--what is your reaction to their facilities? Are they new, or old? How comfortable are the students? Is there convenient internet access for everyone? Adequate library and study space? What about parking? Public transportation? And what about personal safety, in the school and neighborhood?

13. If you are physically there, stroll into a public bathroom for a quick look. This might sound odd to you, but it can reveal something important about the culture of the school. Is the bathroom dirty or clean? Supplied adequately, or missing important things? Is the bathroom covered with angry student graffiti, or are the walls and stalls clean?

14. Consider the average age and life experience of students at this law school. Are they mostly fresh from college, or do they have some work experience? Which do you want?

Also consider the information at PrelawAdvisor.com as you begin to make your law school plans. For more information on how I can assist you, or to answer your questions, please send an e-mail to BradDobeck@aol.com.

Top 10 Tips for Parents of Future Law Students

1. Don’t accidentally contribute to mistakes in your child’s strategy through your own ignorance of the law school admissions process.

“Just take the LSAT. See what happens.”

“You’ll be going to law school straight from college.”

“I’ll bet you can get into this (fourth-tier) law school. Just go there. It can’t matter too much which law school you go to, can it?”

“The deadline for applications is tomorrow. You’ve still got time today to apply.”

“Don’t worry about getting a job now. Just go to law school.”

I regularly hear from parents who’ve pushed their child (they belatedly realize) onto the wrong path for LSAT preparation, the wrong timing for submittal of the applications, the wrong school choices, and the wrong developmental steps before law school. Parents, please spend some time at my website, PrelawAdvisor.com.

2. Understand your child’s need for law-related work before law school. Don’t rush your child off to law school too early.

You want your child to have a successful year during the critical first year of law school. Law-related work--after college, before law school--can greatly contribute to a law student’s competitiveness in the first year. It can also benefit the student in second-year job hunting, post-second-year job performance, and in the transition after law school to the graduate’s first attorney position. Help your child by getting information about suitable law-related work choices before law school.

3. Don’t push your child into the LSAT prematurely.

Don’t push your child to take the LSAT in college. For many, the LSAT can be a beast. People can need time, energy, resources and the ability to focus extensively if not exclusively on this challenge. Often this cannot occur in college, and if it can, LSAT prep and work still can come at too high a price. The college years should be spent on uniquely college-related activities--study, service, sports, volunteer work, and internships. There is plenty of time after college for the LSAT. In contrast to the unique time and place for college, the LSAT is given four times per year, every year. It is always available.

4. Understand the market served by any law school you propose to your child.

Where does your child want to work as a new attorney, immediately after law school? Once you know that, ask yourself if a proposed law school is really good at projecting its graduates into such market(s). You want a law school that is effective in helping your child reach his or her geographic goals.

5. Understand the ranking of any law school you propose to your child. Understand the reality of local, regional and national law schools.

Think of law schools as essentially three types: local, regional and national. Local law schools are easiest to get into, but serve a narrow job market. Their graduates can struggle the most to get jobs, in some cases. Regional law schools may be very well respected in their region, such a state, but not as effective in the broader national market. Regional law schools can be difficult to win an offer from, particularly in the case of public law schools, which make admission decisions in great measure based on the applicant’s GPA and LSAT, as well as legal residency. National law schools are the most prestigious. They can be very difficult to win an admission offer from, but they offer they students the widest range of initial job opportunities. Think of US News & World Report’s (2008 edition) top 18 law schools as national law schools. (Recognize that many law schools claim to be “national.”)

6. Brainstorm with your child to help him or her understand the riskiness (or lack of riskiness) of the proposed strategy.

I’ve seen applicants who refuse to apply to any law school but one. This is bold, but risky. Brainstorm about other acceptable choices as well. Today applicants may submit ten or more applications. (I’ve seen as high as 25!)

7. Brainstorm about ways to reduce law school cost.

Two ideas: (1) Winning numbers—coupled with strong applications—can result in aggressive scholarship offers from some lower-tier schools. I’ve seen law schools make full-scholarship offers—with lavish additional perks in some cases—to applicants they really want (those with a great story, a high college GPA and a high LSAT score). (2) Going to law school at night can both reduce the challenge of getting into a law school, while allowing the student to work during the day (ideally in law-related work) to make money while becoming a lawyer.

8. Don’t seek to be the editor of your child’s law school personal statement and related documents.

Such writing may be too personal for your child to share with you. But if you are invited, fine. Still, it’s probably going to be difficult for you to be objective and dispassionate about your own child’s life, work, and story. You can be certain that the admissions reviewers at top law schools will be tough and demanding.

9. Celebrate admission successes. Be consoling when rejections happen. Gently suggest time and thought before the final decision is made. Encourage visits to several of the law schools offering admission.

Encourage your child not to rush to judgment when the offers come in. “Try on” different schools. Take the time offered to you by the schools to consider the pros and cons, before the child picks the winner. And if a school waitlists your child, find a prelaw advisor.

10. Encourage your child’s use of a prelaw advisor, well in advance of the start of the process. An experienced guide can really help. For more information about my work for law school applicants, please see my website www.PrelawAdvisor.com or send an e-mail to BradDobeck@aol.com.