Categories: Advice, Career, Law School Admission Trends, List: Law School Admission Advice Books
 4 Comments »
 Now Available for Pre-Order! Finally! The law school admission guidebook I wrote based on my Law School Expert blog is only 2 weeks away from being in my hands (and yours!).
“The Law School Admission Game: Play Like an Expert” is now available for pre-order for its mid-May release. It is available on Amazon.com but SHIPPING IS FREE if you buy it through Law School Expert.
The goal of the book is two-fold: (1) to help you present your best self to the right law schools for you, and (2) to help you make well-reasoned decisions throughout the process from whether to retake the LSAT to negotiating scholarships and deciding whether to send multiple seat deposits.
My intention is that the book will serve as a valuable A-Z resource for law school applicants by providing concrete tips and advice for almost every situation. It’s current – I discuss today’s admission trends and circumstances. It’s really detailed – I tell you exactly what should and shouldn’t be shared in your resume, personal statement, addendum, optional essays, and letters of rec. I talk about the important considerations in choosing a school and how to decide where to apply and where to attend. I go into detail about fee waivers, campaigning off a waiting list, and the risk you take in taking on debt to attend law school.
Basically, I took the issues brought up in my blog and the comments of readers, combined them with the questions asked most often by my law school admission consulting clients, and turned it into a 167 page book. Whether you’re still in college and contemplating law school or in your thirties or forties and feeling lost about how to begin the process, “The Law School Admission Game: Play Like an Expert” may become your new best friend…
I look forward to your feedback about the book – both on the blog and on the amazon site. Become a fan of my book on Facebook for updates and discussions relating to the book.
Categories: Law School Rankings
Tags: USNWR law school rankings
7 Comments »
I hate the USNWR Rankings. That’s hardly a secret. It’s not the methodology issues that bug me. Rather, it’s the over-reliance many law school applicants place on the rankings when choosing between offers from law schools.
I loved, after the rankings were released last week, that one of my clients sent me an email that said, “You are so right about the rankings being bogus.” Now, obviously, there is a difference between a top 5 school and a Top 100 school, and I can call the rankings “bogus” without denying there is some truth regarding the quality of the education offered and the job propects faced by graduates. However, the groupings are more valuable than the specific rank. Obviously, if the rankings didn’t change from year to year, USNWR wouldn’t sell any magazines (tragic, really…). No one is really choosing between NYU and NYLS or Georgetown and Catholic. The choice you are faced with is much more subtle than that and a one or two or even ten point drop should not unduly influence your decision about which law school to attend. This is especially true if you fail to understand the reason the ranking changed.
If you’re a new reader of my blog, I recommend you learn more about my perspective on the USNWR Rankings by reading these posts:
Additional Insights About Law School Rankings
What do the Law School Rankings Really Mean?
Fluctuations in Law School Rankings
Two additional thoughts:
1. Part-time programs now count. That means that schools will part time programs were significantly disadvantaged by the new calculations. Did George Washington University become less of a law school in the last 12 months? Absolutely not. It’s sad that the Dean felt compelled to write to all who sent in a deposit to explain how the part time LSAT and GPA stats are the reason for the drop in ranking. Anyone who suddenly decides not to attend GWU for this reason is making a big mistake.
2. For more about the flaws of the rankings, check out this Drexel Law Review article (pointed out to me by Ron Fox who writes the LawyerSatisfaction blog).
Because Brian Leiter is right about the rankings, I’m joining his fan club by not linking to or re-publishing the new 2010 Law School Ranking results here. If you want to know what a law professor thinks is important in ranking law schools, see Professor Leiter’s results here.
And yes, I’m taking questions.
And, read my blog post tomorrow for an exciting announcement!
Categories: Advice, Financing a Legal Education, Salary Trends, Scholarships
Tags: cost of law school, financial aid for law school, law school debt, law school tuition
11 Comments »
I know this isn’t my usual style post, but I have a brilliant idea – not for law applicants, but for the law school administrator who may be secretly reading this blog.
Lower Tuition.
If you’re a private school with a considerable endowment and you’ve been trying to break into the top 50 or top 20 or top 10 for a while, seriously discount tuition.
Applications would flood in. Rankings would soar. Students would be fighting to get in, and wouldn’t be negotiating scholarships. You could actually avoid playing the rankings game and still benefit from the rankings game. You’d get better students knocking on your door. People submitting deposits would be more likely to actually attend. Students would be less disgruntled, and might actually have warm and fuzzy feelings about the school upon becoming alumni.
To the law school applicants out there – to me, more than ever, choosing a law school is about money. It’s a financial decision, and one that will impact a law student’s life for years and years and years to come. I’m 35 and I make a very nice living, but it’s still a 5-year goal for me to pay off my student loans. I chose a private school (and one I felt offered a fantastic education, by the way) instead of a public school. I’m able to pay my loans, and 10 years post-graduation I really don’t feel the payments, but that wasn’t always the case.
I was in line for BigLaw jobs, and clerked for BigLaw, but BigLaw didn’t agree with me. Instead, I took a job offering $35,000/year. A year later my salary doubled, and it continually grew from there. I share this information with my readers because I want you to remember that the $160,000 or even $100,000/year job probably isn’t going to be there for you when you graduate from law school. You need to make decisions right now that prepare you to start making $50,000 and then going up from there. It will go up, and you will have to hustle for every salary increase and bonus, but being a lawyer is hard work. Know that going into it.
Someone gave me sage advice (too late) when I was in law school: “If you live like you’re a lawyer while you’re in law school, you’ll live like a student when you get out.”
Some helpful and interesting links:
The Financial Aid Blog at CUA
The Law School Debt Trap
Loan Thread
Tuition Secret: It Pays to Be Above Average (read the comments on this one!)
Categories: Advice, Law Careers, Uncategorized
Tags: twitter
No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome!
I’ve been on twitter for a while, and I encourage you to follow me there. Sometimes I find great blog posts and information to forward to others that I can’t always make time to formally blog about here. Sometimes you might also learn about my activities unrelated to law school admission, but for the most part I think you’ll get some helpful tips, tricks, trends and be introduced to others within the legal profession who provide in-depth information about becoming an attorney and what’s involved in applying to law school and choosing a law school to attend.
Among my twitter friends, you will find law school applicants/hopefuls, law students, and lawyers. Some of the most interesting to follow include:
Lawyers:
Ron Fox
Brad Greenberg
Aaron at Equal Justice Works - promoting public interest lawyering and student debt relief
Recoveringlawye (and that’s not a typo)
Darlinghill
LawyerCoach
DinaYin
Gerkmana
Law Student:
Rex7
Lawyer Info:
Legal Authority
ABA
The Lawyerist
CALI
Black Book Legal
The Complete Lawyer
Law1234
LegallyMinded
GetLawyerJobs
LSAT:
LSAT Tweet
Law Schools:
NYULaw
Categories: Letters of Rec
2 Comments »
In the past, it was incredibly frustrating for law school applicants to attempt to customize which schools received which LORs. Last week, the LSAC announced a new policy in this regard:
Announcing Upcoming Change in LSAC Letter of Recommendation Procedures
Beginning April 25, 2009, all letters of recommendation must be assigned to each law school to which you want them sent. Please check the LOR area of your LSAC online account to make sure all of your letters are assigned. Unassigned letters might delay the production of your law school report. Unassigned letters will not be sent to the schools to which you apply. To avoid delays with your law school reports, please assign all of your letters as soon as possible.
Categories: Transfer Applicants
Tags: Law school transfer, Transfer applicant
21 Comments »
Law schools are finding creative ways to make it hard on students who hope to transfer after the first year of law schools. See this post on Blackbook Legal.
Categories: Joint degree
Tags: JD/MBA, joint degree program
2 Comments »
Just as I was composing great material for a post about the benefits of obtaining a joint JD/MBA degree, the Legal Authority blog beat me to it and posted a great one.
I’ll just add to it by posting some remarks from two people I interviewed on the subject, Lisa Cummings, President of the International Association of MBAs and author of The MBA Blog and Dean Beck Taylor of Samford University Brock School of Business.
Lisa Cummings wrote the following assessment of the benefits of obtaining and MBA and provided advice for those considering the degree: For some business enthusiasts, it’s tough to decide whether to pursue a JD or an MBA. Both provide an obvious depth of business acumen. Having earned my MBA, the advice I offer is to have three to five years of work experience before starting an MBA program. If you enroll right after undergraduate work, courses feel purely academic with little to stick to. I am a fan of Executive MBA programs for that reason. They allow you to apply the concepts immediately in your workplace.
Three Benefits Unique to an MBA Degree
- Credibility for The Executive Suite. Of course, you can earn a c-level post without an MBA. Still, it’s a price to entry for many jobs. Having MBA credentials removes roadblocks at companies that highly value the degree.
- Business Contacts. We all have a specialty. Whether it is accounting, finance, marketing, operations, law, or HR, we can get stuck with a narrow network of colleagues. MBA programs help us develop deep working relationships with colleagues across all disciplines. Building a rich business network pays big dividends throughout your career if you nurture it.
- Mobility and Access to Jobs. Most large companies have a University Relations (UR) department inside of their recruiting group. MBA graduates are targeted by these University Relations recruiters for leadership track roles. UR job fairs and recruiting events make it easier to land a new career. Having an MBA also gives you mobility because employers view the breadth of knowledge as transferable to other disciplines. In short, you’re viewed as a business generalist rather than a narrow specialist.
Three Things You Won’t Get With an MBA
- Interpersonal Prowess. Many hiring and firing decisions are based on behaviors that are not taught in business school. Few MBA programs focus on influencing and communication skills.
- Fast ROI. If your two year MBA program costs $50,000 and you’re leaving a $75,000 job to go to school full time, you just ‘paid’ $200,000 for the MBA. If you return to an $80,000 job, it takes a lot of years to break even financially. For most MBAs, the financial reward portion is a long term play.
- Doctoral Level Stature. No MBA can call herself a ‘doctor’ on her business cards. If you like the ring of that term, or if you want a career in academia, the JD may be a better route for you.
Below are the contents of my interview with Beck A. Taylor, Ph.D., Dean & Professor of Economics, Brock School of Business, Samford University Between the J.D. and the MBA, would you say one degree was more marketable than the other? In what way?
The demand for a lot of professional positions is down significantly because of the current economic recession. Law firms and corporations are curtailing hiring right now, so it is not a great time to come out of school with either degree. That said, most MBA programs are 2-3 years long, and JD programs are 3 years, so by that time, hopefully we will be out of this mess.
2. What are the benefits of a JD/MBA joint degree and why did Samford feel it’s an important addition to the university’s curriculum?
Business knowledge and skills are important to today’s lawyer, especially in the area of corporate law, and legal knowledge is important to many business managers. The two degrees complement one another very well. Additionally, lawyers who expect to be in practice for themselves one day will need solid business skills to run their organizations. Samford University decided to marry two great schools, Cumberland and Brock, to offer the joint JD-MBA for precisely those reasons.
3. Are there benefits to obtaining one degree and then the other versus a joint degree program?
How long do you want to be a student? Once you’ve committed to taking the plunge and spending 3 years out of the job market, you might as well get both degrees. At Samford, an industrious student can obtain the joint degree in 3 years, the same amount of time it would take to finish a basic law school curriculum. Students can accomplish this because of some creative scheduling and the sharing of some courses between the two programs.
4. What kind of students will benefit in the marketplace with both degrees? What careers will these students be likely to pursue?
Corporate lawyers or those who decide to open their own practices benefit greatly from the joint degree. Business students with law degrees can pursue any career of interest.
I welcome additional information, comments, and links about the benefits/detriments of obtaining a joint JD/MBA.
Categories: Career, Financing a Legal Education, Law Careers, Salary Trends
Tags: law career, law school student loan debt, tuition debt
1 Comment »
As if you didn’t already know that it’s better to keep student loan debt under control, here’s an article pointing to the realities of pay trends for BigLaw Jobs.
Categories: Humor
No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome!
Perhaps because it’s the Friday of spring break and my clients just aren’t working me hard enough, but this is my third blog post today. I thought I’d make it a funny one.
See this link of things that will help you be better prepared for your 1L year in law school.
Categories: LSAT, Multiple LSAT scores
Tags: averaging LSAT scores, highest LSAT score, Multiple LSAT scores
4 Comments »
I don’t know who this person is or how credible the list is, but I just came across this list of schools that average multiple LSAT scores versus schools that take the highest of multiple LSAT scores.
Categories: Advice, Application Timeline, Low GPA, Low LSAT, Multiple LSAT scores
Tags: applying to law school, DUI, Low GPA, Low LSAT
10 Comments »
I get versions of this question almost every day of the week. I want to thank J. for agreeing to allow me to address this question in a blog format. I think that the response will benefit many readers of my blog, even if it’s not the news people were hoping to hear.
“I’m wondering if it’s possible (or what the likelihood is) of getting into law school with a 2.5 GPA, 138 on the LSAT twice, and a DUI on my record. Is there anything I can do at this point to get into a law school? Going back to undergrad and increasing my GPA? Taking the LSAT over? Anything?” – J.
The answer for J. is that there is an incredibly small likelihood of his acceptance to an ABA law school right now. Even if we give him the benefit of the doubt about diversity, being president of everything at school, having a few years of significant work experience, and a fairly reputable undergraduate college (a combination of which is highly unlikely), law schools have no incentive to take a risk on him. He brings nothing of value to a school, from a law school’s perspective. Any law school would have to sacrifice its numbers to admit him and probably sacrifice its first time bar passage rate and employment statistics as well.
Going back to undergrad doesn’t work. It doesn’t change your LSAC computed GPA. If J. could get himself into a graduate school program of repute and do very well (not just a 3.0, but in the neighborhood of a 3.7 GPA) and get some solid academic letters and significantly increase his LSAT score, then I think he might have a better chance of being admitted to law school. This would show maturity and seriousness of purpose.
One DUI is problematic, but if J. can show he’s changed and grown and learned from the experience, this alone probably won’t keep him out of law school. J. needs to put some real and metaphorical distance between himself and the DUI incident for law schools to be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
I anticipate some questions and comments on this one, so fire away. And happy Friday!
Categories: LSAT
Tags: Anna Ivey Blog, LSAT Rule Change
No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome!
New rule about LSAT dates – just saw Anna Ivey blogged about it and described it as well as I could so here is the link to her blog.
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Ann K. Levine, Esq., former director of law school admissions for two ABA law schools, is a law school admission consultant and owner of Law School Expert,
