CHAPTER 2: APPLICATION BASICS

Now that you have committed to applying, the good news is that the law school application process is one of the simpler ones out there. Everything is run by a single organization– the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC). LSAC serves as an aggregator for your application materials and then sends everything to the schools when you are ready.

But simpler doesn’t necessarily mean easier– applying to law school will certainly require a great deal of effort on your part. You will still have to spend massive amounts of time and energy studying for the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), writing personal statements, creating your resume, filling out the application forms, and obtaining letters of recommendations. But LSAC does make your life easier when it comes to compiling and submitting your application materials.

The first thing you should do is set up an account on LSAC and register as a “Future JD Student.” This will be your portal for the entire law school admissions process. Once you have registered, you can browse the site to become familiar with the application process, gather information about law schools, and download LSAT practice materials. You will also receive your LSAC account number, which is your primary identifier for all LSAC services. You should then pay the $195 fee for LSAC’s Credential Assembly Service (CAS), which compiles your academic transcripts, LSAT score, and letters of recommendation. Most schools require that you use CAS, and doing so allows you to submit all documentation only once regardless of how many schools you apply to.

There are six major components of the law school application: the LSAT, an Academic Summary Report (GPA/Transcript information generated by LSAC), a personal statement, optional essays or addenda, a resume, and letters of recommendation. In addition to these six components, some schools will add other requirements such as a Dean’s Letter stating that you are/were a student in good standing or an additional essay on a specific topic. We will now give an overview of the six components, addressed in roughly the order in which you should complete them. In subsequent chapters, we will go more in-depth and discuss strategies for completing each section of the application.

LSAT

The Law School Admission Test (LSAT) is the standardized test required for admission to the majority of law schools and is meant to provide a standard measure of an applicant's reading, critical thinking, and reasoning skills. While some schools accept the Graduate Record Examination (GRE), the bulk of applicants apply using the LSAT. The test is completed using an electronic tablet and consists of five 35-minute multiple choice sections, broken into three types– reading comprehension, logical reasoning, and analytical reasoning. You will have four scored sections– one reading comprehension, one analytical reasoning, and two logical reasoning– as well as one un-scored experimental section that is used to test new questions for future exams (you won’t know which section is the experimental one when you take the test). There is also a 35-minute writing section, which, while un-scored, is sent to the schools to which you are applying as a writing sample. The test is scored on a 120-180 point scale and based on a curve, with an average score in the 150s.

The test is administered by LSAC eight times a year at designated testing centers across the country and worldwide. You should plan to take the LSAT no later than October of the year in which you plan to submit your applications (June, if feasible, is even better). This allows you to apply early in the cycle and leaves the December date as a back-up option if you want to retake the test to try to improve your score. LSAT scores are good for up to five years, so if you know that you are a couple of years out from applying, it may be a good strategy to take the LSAT well before your intended application date and just hang onto your score until you’re ready to apply.

We strongly recommend you start studying for the LSAT at least six months before you plan on submitting your applications. Studying for the LSAT can be very time-intensive– a good study plan can take up 2-3 hours a night and 8-10 hours over the weekend for some people. We also recommend taking a good prep course either in person or online, as your location and schedule allow. Your S2S ambassador can give you information about free or discounted test prep options.

One note of caution– you can't take the LSAT more than three times in any one-year period, so make sure you are properly prepared before you register to take the test. Don't waste one of your chances (as well as your time and money) taking the test before you're ready.

ACADEMIC SUMMARY REPORT

One of the first things you should do is have an official transcript from each undergraduate and graduate institution you attended sent to LSAC through the Credential Assembly Service. LSAC provides detailed guidance on how to submit your transcripts here. Once it has received your transcripts, LSAC will generate an Academic Summary Report (ASR) that shows trends in your academic performance over time and gives context to your numbers.

Law schools know that not all undergraduate GPAs are created equal. A student with a 3.3 GPA in Astrophysics from MIT or one of the service academies is probably a better law school candidate than a student with a 3.7 GPA in Leisure Studies from a less rigorous school with rampant grade inflation. Since LSAC has collected undergraduate GPAs and LSAT scores from nearly all applicants since 1976, it can compare your numbers to those of previous applicants who attended your institution and provide a better picture of your relative merit.

In addition to your grades from your primary undergraduate institution, LSAC will also factor in any summer school or study abroad courses taken for credit, and any transfer credits you received from other undergraduate-level institutions. As a result, your LSAC-calculated GPA may turn out to be different than the GPA calculated by your primary undergraduate institution. All you have to do is submit the correct transcripts; LSAC will crunch all the numbers for you.

PERSONAL STATEMENT

Generally speaking, the personal statement is an open-ended essay that can be written on any subject of your choosing– its purpose is to give admissions officers a window into who you are beyond your LSAT score, transcript, and resume. Though some schools will give specific requirements for the essay, such as a word limit or theme, many schools leave it open to your judgment. For instance, a law school’s personal statement prompt might sound something like:

“The Personal Statement provides an opportunity for you to present yourself, your background, your ideas, and your qualifications to the Admissions Committee. Please limit your statement to two pages using a minimum of 11-point, 1-inch margins, and double spacing.”

With thousands of applications to sift through, admissions officers will look to the personal statement to help differentiate you from the crowd. A great personal statement will tell a good story, highlight important personal attributes and/or experiences, and provide color and context to the rest of your application. As a veteran, you have a real opportunity with the personal statement to set yourself apart from many other applicants and show how you will bring something unique to the law school community.

The truth is that the factors given the most weight in law school admissions decisions are your undergraduate GPA and LSAT score. However, there is a common adage that “while your GPA and LSAT will open the door, your personal statement will allow you to walk through it.” Conversely, a poorly constructed personal statement and/or careless errors elsewhere in the application can derail even the most qualified applicants.

It is very important to start the personal statement early in the process so that you have plenty of time to develop ideas, produce drafts, get feedback from trusted mentors/friends/colleagues, and revise until the essay is perfect. Good topic selection and lots of revision are the keys to perfecting your personal statement. We will discuss the personal statement in more depth in Chapter 6.

ADDENDA AND OPTIONAL ESSAYS

As the last part of your application, schools will allow you to submit addenda or optional essays. Traditionally, these are offered as an opportunity to explain certain negative aspects of your profile (a large gap between multiple LSAT scores, a bad semester or bad grade in a class) or to bolster your application with additional important information. Many schools offer an optional “diversity statement” essay in which you can describe aspects of your background that would enhance the diversity of your law school community. Optional essays often provide an opportunity to express interest in a school and a “Why X law school” optional essay should always be written as long as it is the same quality as your personal statement. However, other addenda should only be included if there is something clearly necessary or beneficial to explain. Otherwise, you may raise more questions than you settle.

Let’s start with addenda. Some are required if you have certain things in your background. Specifically, you will be asked if you have ever committed a misdemeanor or a felony, been charged with academic dishonesty or plagiarism, been arrested or convicted, received speeding tickets, placed on probation or suspension, etc. These issues are lumped together in a section called Moral Character and Fitness issues. It is much better to be honest, forthright and clear about any possible negative issues. If you do not come forth with any issue and it is discovered later, you will most likely be expelled or have your acceptance revoked. And even if the law school doesn’t catch it, the bar membership committee might, and then you might not be permitted to join the bar if you failed to disclose something in your applications. Treat those as required addenda.

An addendum can also be used to explain multiple LSAT scores, low undergraduate GPAs, and reasons for choosing certain references for your recommendation letters. Because these kinds of addenda are not required, you should exercise judgment in deciding whether or not to submit them. Many “blemishes” in a profile don’t merit an explanation, they just are what they are, and you can let the rest of your positive profile speak for itself. Your S2S ambassador can help you decide whether you should submit an optional addendum.

When it comes to diversity statements and optional essays, our advice is that you should submit one only if the topic reasonably applies to you and you have something interesting to say that’s not already obvious from the rest your application. A well-constructed diversity statement about your personal background or military experience can be a tremendous asset to your application, but on the flip-side you don’t want to make extra work for an admissions officer by including extra, unnecessary information. We recommend discussing with your S2S ambassador whether or not one of these optional essays or statements would be appropriate.

RESUME

Many law school applications require that you submit a resume. Even for schools where it’s optional, you should still submit one. You should spend as much time as is necessary to craft a comprehensive and easy-to-read resume, as it is your chance to show schools a compelling snapshot of you on a single page. The resume is where you present the most important aspects of your record, such as the leadership impact you have had or the intercultural experiences you have gained in the military. We will go into resumes in much greater detail in a later chapter, but we’ll leave you here with three main rules of resume writing:

Use action words to describe your impact.

Quantify your accomplishments to the extent you can.

Always use the third person and past tense (unless the job is still ongoing, in which case you can use the present tense).

We recommend you start working on your resume as soon as you begin considering leaving the military and no later than six months out from your application deadline. This gives you the opportunity to fix any holes you might have in your career or extracurricular sections, get feedback from advisors (like your S2S ambassador) on content and presentation, and make it perfect.

LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION

Every law school will require that you to submit at least one letter of recommendation, and most schools require two. The entire recommendation letter process is run through LSAC, which compiles all of your letters and then allows you to pick and choose which letters you want to send to each school. You simply fill in your recommenders’ information and then LSAC will email them directly with guidance on submitting their letters.

(LSAC used to offer an "evaluation" option as an alternative to letters, but that has been discontinued as of March 2016.)

LSAC also lets you choose between general letters and targeted letters. A general letter is a recommendation that can be sent to multiple schools, while a targeted letter is tailored and addressed to a specific school. For the most part, schools expect to receive general letters, so you won’t be at a disadvantage for using them. However, if you have a first choice school or a recommender who has a special connection to a particular school, a targeted letter could be helpful to your application.

Choosing recommenders can be easy or difficult depending on your unique personal and professional experience. For the typical applicant, law schools prefer that letters come from academic references: professors that have taught you in class, faculty advisors, etc. However, since you have been out of school for a significant amount of time, it is acceptable (and encouraged) to include a recommendation from a military supervisor. The ideal combination would be one academic letter and one professional letter. That said, if you are struggling to find an academic reference, most schools will accept two professional recommendations. What really matters is your recommenders’ enthusiasm for your candidacy and how well they know your work. Having a strong, personalized letter of recommendation matters much more than your recommenders’ title or professional prestige. We will go in depth into picking recommenders and getting them to write great recommendations in Chapter 9.

THE APPLICATION TIMELINE: ROLLING ADMISSIONS

Most law schools use a “Rolling Admissions” system for the application process. This means that schools will begin accepting applications around early September and will continue to review applications and admit students until the class is full. Most schools have application deadlines in February and make their initial notifications (accepted, waitlisted, denied) by April, but be sure to verify the particular deadlines/cycles of the schools to which you are applying.

There isn't a clear consensus on how much advantage you gain by applying early in a cycle, and some schools (at least publicly) say that you stand an equal chance of admission regardless of when in the cycle you apply. Nevertheless, we recommend applying early as competition may not be as stiff and admissions officers may not be as stingy with offers. This comes with the big caveat that is better to submit a perfect application in December/January than to submit a mediocre application in September. Although you should absolutely shoot for an early submission, it is worth taking a few extra weeks if it would result in a significantly improved application.

So this brings us to the application timeline. As we recommended earlier, you should begin preparing your application at least six months out from when you want to submit it. You will need all of this time to write your essays, create your resume, and (most importantly) study for the LSAT.

You should try to take the LSAT in June before the application cycle so that you can submit your application in September. If taking the June exam isn’t an option, another strategy for submitting an early application is to prepare the rest of your application ahead of the October LSAT, so that your package is complete as soon as you receive your LSAT score. And as we said above, you should build into your timeline enough room to retake the LSAT if necessary. Below is a sample timeline for planning your applications.

January: Create LSAC account, register for credential assembly service and request transcripts

February: Begin studying for LSAT, sign up for LSAT prep course

February-May: Register for June LSAT (if feasible), request letters of recommendations, complete first draft of personal statement, resume, and addenda/optional essays

June: Take LSAT, decide which schools to apply to, get feedback on application materials

July-August: Revise application materials, register to take Oct LSAT (either first time or re-take), follow up on letters of recommendation

September: Finalize application essays and resume, begin submitting applications

October: Take LSAT if necessary, prepare for interviews

November-April: Receive decision notifications, apply for financial aid

SELECTING SCHOOLS

To begin your school search, start with what matters most to you: reputation, location, Yellow Ribbon options (see appendix A), concentrations, clinics, etc. When deciding how many and which schools to apply to, keep in mind how competitive the schools are and be realistic about your chances of admissions. We recommend considering roughly 5-10 schools, with a mix of reach, match, and safety schools. Just know ahead of time that applying to schools can be expensive, with each application costing between $60 and $100 (though some schools offer application fee waivers for veterans).

Only you know what matters most to you for your legal education. You might decide, for example, that it’s worth it to you to invest in law school only if you get into specific schools that are long shots. That’s fine. Or you might decide that you are definitely going to law school, so you’ll want to round out your list with some safer options. Bear in mind that for roughly the top 14 schools, location does not significantly impact your future job prospects. Once you’re outside the T14, pick by location first (where you plan to settle and at least start your legal career, even if you eventually end up somewhere else), then look at ranking/reputation within that geographic area.

How do you determine if a school is a reach, match, or safety school? Admissions offices wouldn’t have you write personal statements and submit recommendation letters if it were only about the numbers, but the numbers matter a lot more than anything else, no matter what the law schools’ marketing pitches say. So the best way to figure out your chances are to match your GPA and LSAT scores against the median scores at the schools you are looking at. Those are often published on the schools’ websites. You can also use the GPA and LSAT calculator on the 7Sage website to calculate your odds (that should really be your first stop). If you don’t have a score yet, you can use hypothetical scores and see how they move your odds accordingly.

This should give you a good sense of your chances at the schools you are interested in. Will you get an admissions boost for being a veteran? Probably yes. But you still have to be at least in the running for a particular school.