Categories: Advice, Law School Admission Deadlines, Law School Personal Statement, Law School Resume Tips, Letters of Rec, LSAT, LSAT; Rolling Admissions
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If you just took today’s LSAT, congratulations on being done. For the next 24 hours make no major decisions and avoid reading any forums or talking to anyone who also took today’s test. You have 6 days to decide whether to cancel your LSAT score and there are no bonus points for rushing to cancel today. Take a deep breath and relax. I always talk to a lot of people who panic on LSAT day, only to feel just fine about their performance the next day. That rarely happens in reverse. However, definitely cancel your LSAT score if any of these things happened to you.
When you wake up tomorrow, decide to be productive. Here are 3 easy things to do this week to move your application process forward:
1. Get out your resume and resolve to polish it up. See this US News post I wrote last year and listen to Chapter 6 of the audio version of The Law School Admission Game: Play Like an Expert.
2. Make sure your LORs are in process – being sent to LSAC or already there.
3. Work on your personal statement. Here are some helpful posts about law school personal statement writing and this one about concluding your personal statement.
Lastly, if you end up being disappointed by your score, is it OK to take the December LSAT and apply in early January? YES. Absolutely. It’s ok.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend and, as always, I’m happy to answer your questions.
Categories: Letters of Rec, Pre-law
No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome!
I confess, I have a stereotype of pre-law advisors at colleges. This involves an old guy who used to practice law and now teaches a class or two and feels he is doing a good service for students by looking over personal statements. He is well-intentioned but off-base in the advice he gives.
Last night, while speaking to an undergraduate law society, I met a good kind of pre-law advisor. The kind who not only cares, but really knows what he’s talking about and who really wants to go to bat for his students. We had a great talk, especially about letters of recommendation.
Most of his students take 2-4 of his pre-law/political science courses and he is asked to write many, many letters of recommendation for law school. Sometimes it’s a pure pleasure to do so: the student is bright, inquisitive, takes initiative, demonstrates responsibility and maturity, and will almost assuredly succeed in law school and in the legal profession. But, unfortunately, many times the student asking for a letter has done one or more of the following:
- Surfs Facebook or texts while in class. Quote from Pre-law advisor: “You’re not as smart as you think you are, and I’m not as dumb as you think I am.”
- Has excuses for not doing work on one or more occasions. Yes, this includes food poisoning (when you’ve really been out drinking), flat tire (he knows you ride a bike and live on campus), and the vague but ever-present “family emergency” (boyfriend dumped you – it’s all over Facebook).
- Fails to show up consistently for class – or, even worse – for an internship (especially if arranged through the Department) making the pre-law advisor look foolish for recommending you for the internship in the first place.
Because this is a good pre-law advisor, when you ask him for a letter of recommendation, he will say something along the lines of, “I don’t feel I can write you a strong letter.” If you are a smart law school applicant, you will smile, nod, thank him for his time, and run as quickly as you can from his office. But what most law school applicants do instead is say, “But I really need an academic letter and you’re the only professor I took more than one class with.” He will then say, “Well, you asked me for extensions twice and you missed at least five classes per term, and that kind of behavior doesn’t leave me confident that you’ll succeed in law school. But, if you really have no other options, I will write you a letter.” The smart applicant will recognize that he/she hasn’t been that great of a student and acknowledge that a fresh start would be beneficial with a new professor, a new class, a new school, a new program …. However, since this person isn’t that great a student to begin with, he or she will probably say, “Yes, that would be great. Thanks.” And of course, this is the same person who wants the letter done within two weeks.
Those readers of this blog who are proactive, on top of things, and really great law school applicants will chuckle at this. Those for whom it hits a bit too close to home may feel sheepish, or may be unable to recognize themselves in the scenario. The most important thing in putting together your law school application materials is to candidly assess yourself. The response you get from a professor when asking for a letter of recommendation may be your first chance to zero in on your weaknesses and think about how you can grow, change, and improve in the future.
Categories: Letters of Rec
Tags: Evaluations, Letters of Recommendation, LORs, LSAC Evaluations
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LSAC just launched a new service – instead of a Letter of Rec you can have your recommenders fill out an evaluation form.
Before you get too excited, however, remember that only a handful of schools have agreed to accept these forms. Because schools will have to choose between accepting traditional LORs and evaluation forms, I predict a very slow transition to this new-fangled recommendation service.
Click here for more about the mechanics of letters of rec and how to fill out the forms.
Categories: Letters of Rec
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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: Law School Resume Tips, Letters of Rec
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During my first phone consultation with prospective law school admission consulting clients, often a parent or applicant will tell me they’ve had “great internships.” These invariably include things like UC-DC programs, interning with a Member of Congress (which really just means answering calls and giving tours of the Capitol building, right?), or perhaps something in the business world like being a marketing and promotions intern for a sports company (which is really just throwing t-shirts into a crowd).
So, where do internships come into play when building the strengths of a law school application?
1. Internships are better than working at the GAP. Unless, of course, you had to work at the GAP to pay your rent and tuition. Then, working at the GAP – if explained the right way in your application – shows a lot more about you than an internship would.
2. On the other hand, an internship in a law-related field shows you are not just applying to law school to avoid looking for a job.
3. It’s even better, however, to have had 2 or 3 internships in quasi-related fields. If you’ve had 2-3 internships in totally (seemingly) unrelated fields (public relations and finance, for example) then it can look like you lack direction and haven’t found your stride yet.
The same goes for job history – if you’ve been out of college for 2-3 years and have held 2-3 jobs that weren’t promotions within the same company or industry, then applying to law school can appear insincere – it can look like you’re floundering.
How do you counteract some of these assumptions?
First, don’t assume your experiences are more amazing than anyone else’s. Choose to emphasize your internship in a personal statement only if you learned something specific in a unique situation or were able to contribute meaningfully, or – in the alternative – if you learned something significant from having a negative experience at an internship. Think about what makes the experience interesting because simply having the internship on your resume probably isn’t impressive enough to a law school admission officer or law faculty member.
Second, stay away from LORs based on internships unless you did take the lead on a project or acted in some way above and beyond the standard intern. The letter should be written by the person who most closely supervised your work and can add the most substantive detail to the letter, and not necessarily the most famous person in the office.
Categories: Letters of Rec
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I tell my clients that the first thing they should be thinking about right now is letters of recommendation. It takes time to consider the right person, ask them, supply them with the appropriate information and materials, and then you have to wait until that (very busy) person gets around to writing your law school LOR, and then you have to wait even longer for LSDAS to process it.
So, in the spirit of helping with this process, here are 3 of my previous posts that will help you through choosing someone to write your letter of recommendation:
1. A common problem for non-traditional law school applicants is finding the right person to write a letter of rec when you’ve been out of school for more than a few years and you also don’t want your current boss to know you’re thinking about leaving for law school. Here’s a post with LOR tips for non-traditional law school applicants.
2. A lot of undergrads (especially those at large public universities) really don’t have close relationships with their professors. Here’s some advice about what to do when you get a lukewarm reception from a professor whom you’ve asked to write you an LOR.
3. This week alone I’ve had 3 clients tell me they were considering asking family friends to write LORs. I don’t care if the person is your dad’s best friend and the mayor, or if the person was a dean at a nearby college, the answer remains the same. It’s just not what law schools are looking for in evaluating your potential as a law student and a lawyer. Here is a post about the Family Friend Letter of Rec.
I hope this is helpful. Have a fantastic weekend!
Categories: Letters of Rec, Non-Traditional Applicants
1 Comment »
Pete left me this comment and I wanted to answer his question so more people could benefit from the response:
“Do you have any tips for older folks (30+) who are still working their way through their undergrad degrees on applying to law school? As an evening student with a full-time job, I don’t have the same opportunity to build relationships through “face time” with my professors that more “traditional” students have. (Usually everyone’s ready to go when class ends at 10PM, the professor included!) I’m sure all hope is not lost, but what alternatives are there?”
First of all, understand that your efforts to get your degree are well appreciated by law schools. They understand that it takes self-financing and additional motivation and hard work to complete a degree while working full time.
Also, a lot of traditional college students suffer from the same lack of “face time” with faculty. It’s not just you. You need to think about what else you bring to the table – is there someone from work? A supervisor, a client, a vendor who can speak to your accomplishments and abilities? A community service organization that you’ve served? Also, remember it’s not too late to get to know a professor. If you did well in a class, call up that professor and see if he/she can meet you for coffee and get to know you and whether he/she would be willing to write a letter on your behalf based on your classroom performance.
Your situation is not unique, and law schools are prepared for it. It should help to know that Letters of Rec are the least important area of your application (unless they are terrible, then you are in trouble)….
P.S. The comment below is from a former client, currently attending U. of Florida School of Law. I solicited his input because it sounds like he and Pete are/were in similar circumstances.
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Ann K. Levine, Esq., former director of law school admissions for two ABA approved law schools, is a law school admission consultant and owner of Law School Expert,
