Categories: Advice, Reapplying to Law School
Tags: Reapplying to Law School
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While you shouldn’t give up your waitlist dreams quite yet, in the next week it will become apparent whether those dreams will come to fruition. This is often a time when people consider whether to attend law school this year at the school they’ve sent their deposit to, or whether they want to wait and try again (applying earlier in the admission cycle this time).
After spending time as a law school applicant, you may have gotten wiser about how to apply. You might’ve found this blog (or other informative resources) only after submitting your applications for this year, and this may have caused you to realize that you could’ve played your cards better during the Fall 2010 cycle. This is a completely normal reaction, and if you applied in January or February (of a very popular application cycle) it might be a good idea to regroup, re-strategize, and reapply.
I am often asked whether it’s a bad idea to reapply to schools (1) you were rejected from; and also (2) where you were accepted. The answer is, it’s never a bad idea to reapply. The key is to make sure you improve your materials without completing changing how you present yourself because the schools will have the previous year’s application. You want to update whatever is possible to update, re-evaluate the quality of your personal statement, resume, letters of rec, addenda, and optional essays, and apply early. Showing interest in the same school shows likelihood of attending if admitted, and that’s a good thing. You should address reasons for reapplying in your personal statement or in an addendum, and if you were admitted and decided not to attend you should tell the school why you decided not to attend law school the previous year and why your interest remains strong.
Many people who plan to reapply to law school plan to retake the LSAT and/or show improved grades during their senior year. In this case, your schools list will probably change (hopefully for the better) so there’s not a lot of downside to reapplying so long as you plan to do it in a timely manner.
See also:
Top 5 Mistakes Made When Re-Applying to Law School
Take 2: Reapplying to Law School
Re-applying to Law School and the LSAT
Oh – and my US News “Get In: Law School” Blog column starts tomorrow and will post every Monday, so keep an eye out there for tons of tips and advice throughout the Fall 2011 admission cycle.Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.
Categories: Advice, Deferral, Financing a Legal Education, Law School Admission Trends, Re-Applying to Law School, Reapplying to Law School
Tags: interest on student loans, number of February LSAT takers, sallie mae
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There is so much going on in the world of law school applicants right now that I feel compelled to address some of the recent trends. Think of this as a “Super Blog-Post” because it’s going to be long and involved and a little all over the place. I hope it’s also the most worthwhile law school admission related reading you’ve done in a while, and certainly it’s time better spent than reading all the gloating posts on discussion forums from people deciding between Harvard and Stanford.
Topic #1: April Angst
What I like to call “April Angst” is the patent unfairness of having deposit deadlines approaching and still not hearing anything back from many of the schools you applied to. This sucks. It totally sucks. You held up your end of the bargain and applied to law school in a timely fashion and the law schools are not responding accordingly. Be bitter. Be upset. Just don’t do anything rash. This is just par for the course. It happens every year and it happens to everyone. Put in a seat deposit somewhere while keeping an open mind about where you might attend. Don’t sign any leases yet. As schools get deposits back from already-admitted applicants, they will slowly open up spots. Hang in there.
Topic #2. Student Loans.
Please, please, please do your research about the availability of funding options before commiting yourself to an expensive private school in an expensive city. Sallie Mae announced this week that it will be requiring students to pay monthly interest on their loans while in school. This could amount to $500/month, which ain’t peanuts on a student budget when you’re prohibited from working more than 5 hours a week as a full time law student. If this isn’t changing how you choose a law school, then you are probably the person who won’t need any loans in the first place and will simply be writing a check for everything from the get-go. This is a big deal. Don’t underestimate its importance.
Topic #3.Don’t panic.
Right now, many applicants have not heard back from any schools – especially February LSAT takers. Please don’t panic and start thinking about developing a worst case scenario plan. Reapplying for Fall 2010 and/or deferring admission to the one school you’ve heard back from is not necessarily going to be a wise plan this year. Be prepared. Fall 2010 admission is going to be even more competitive than Fall 2009 has been. February LSAT takers were up by 11% and law schools are bracing for a huge influx of applications. Applications will be up overall, applications to top law schools will be WAY up because those schools offer (generally) greater job prospects, and more people will be fighting for scholarships to schools at all levels – thereby increasing the popularity of lower ranked schools. If you get into a decent law school this year and it’s one you can afford, it might be wise to go ahead and start rather than waiting to reapply or defer for Fall 2010 admission.
I will happily address your questions, comments and concerns about this. And, to make sure you don’t miss further updates please subscribe to the blog. Thanks so much!
Categories: Re-Applying to Law School, Reapplying to Law School
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Each year, I work with people who were either unsuccessful in their attempts to apply to law school previously or were unhappy with their options at the end of the admission cycle. There are absolutely things you can to to bolster your applications, but here are some common mistakes people make when reapplying to law school:
1. Sending the same personal statement and letters of rec to the same law school that rejected you last year.
2. Thinking that simply getting an internship/paralegal position in a law firm will make all the difference in the world, even when you have a letter of rec from an attorney.
3. Attempting to “go back to undergrad” to improve your UGPA. It doesn’t work. And getting a paralegal certification isn’t going to impress anyone. But do take care to update your transcripts (see this post about reapplying to law school).
4. Not Retaking the LSAT when you didn’t prepare adequately the first time. (See this previous post for more about how the LSAT factors in when you are reapplying to law school)
5. Failing to evaluate your schools list with a candid view of your credentials.
Re-applicants get into law school all the time, but the trick is overcoming any weaknesses you may have (inadvertently) shown the school in the previous admission cycle. Here’s more about reapplying to law school.
Categories: Low LSAT, Reapplying to Law School
5 Comments »
If things didn’t go your way for Fall 2008 admission and you are retaking the LSAT to apply for Fall 2009 admission (or Winter 2009 admission), here is a post of things to consider as you approach the June 2008 or October 2008 LSAT. (Please forgive the plug at the end – this was one of the first lawschoolexpert blog entries).
And here is a link to a previous post for general LSAT advice. The blogs that linked to this post last July still have worthy advice on the topic.
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,
