Step one: Decide whether or not you want to be a lawyer.
Presumably if you’re reading this, you’ve already made that choice. Being a lawyer can be an especially fulfilling profession where you can make a real difference in the communities, issues, and fields that you are passionate about. A JD also provides unique flexibility in career choice as the law touches all aspects of our society. That being said, life as a lawyer is not easy. A career in the law is time-intensive, high stress, and, at times, emotionally challenging. Much of your work will be reading and writing dense text and developing complex lines of arguments for your clients. This is not to dissuade you from pursuing a career in law, but what you see on TV differs vastly from what 99% of being a lawyer is like.
Georgetown Professor Jonah Perlin hosts a great podcast called How I Lawyer, where he interviews all kinds of lawyers about their work and life which provides unique insight on the reality of a wide variety of legal careers.
Step Two: Study for the LSAT
Note that step two is not “Take the LSAT”. This is on purpose: you should prepare to study for at least two months (likely more) before taking the LSAT. Head here (INSERT LINK) for my full advice on approaching the LSAT, but the short version is here:
Set aside 1-2 hours a day to study. Better to be consistent than to spend 4 hours once a week binging LSAT materials. Take 1 or 2 practice tests a week, but focus more on reviewing answers you get wrong–that’s where the most growth will happen. Lastly, don’t sign up for the LSAT until you’re consistently getting practice test scores you’d be happy with.
Step Three: Create a school list
When developing your school list, the primary factors you need to consider are location, cost, job outcomes, and likelihood of admission.
Location varies for each individual applicant, but is affected by things like proximity to family, cost of living, weather, job market, etc.. Depending on the school, the location of the school can be highly relevant to the location of your job prospects after graduation. Do not neglect this factor.
Cost again varies for each school. Don’t be scared by the price you see listed for tuition (aka “sticker price”): most students end up receiving a scholarship to bring that price down. You’ll be able to make a more accurate assessment of tuition cost after receiving an offer. That being said, schools in large cities are going to tend to be more expensive than their counterparts in smaller towns. Law school is already very expensive and debt stays with you long after graduation. It will impact your disposable income as a young lawyer. Think about whether the type of law you want to do will justify taking on a higher tuition cost and/or cost of living. There is no one right answer for “How much debt should I take out?” as it depends how debt-averse you are and your job outcomes, but taking on hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt is not a decision to be made lightly.
Job outcomes are an extremely important factor to consider. Apart from many schools having specializations in certain programs, alumni networks can be the difference maker in landing the job you want. Every school is mandated by the American Bar Association to release a report that details their graduates’ job outcomes. Look into the ABA employment data for the schools that you’re interested in to figure out which schools have the best fit for your desired careers.
Likelihood of admission is the elephant in the room. Everyone wants to know their odds for getting into a certain school based on their LSAT and GPA, which are the two most important factors on an application. Don’t self-select out of any school, but you need to be realistic. If you have a 2.8 GPA or 150 LSAT, your odds of going to Yale are practically zero (unless you have significant accomplishments to compensate for this). This is where we’re going to introduce the ever-relevant topic of medians. Every school releases their median GPA and median LSAT each year, and you need to research the medians of the schools on your list. You can see any school’s medians and other admissions data through the ABA admissions disclosures.
Common wisdom says to have three tiers of schools: Reach, Target, and Safety.
Reach Schools are your dream schools. These are schools where you have a lower likelihood of admission and/or you may be below their medians.
Target Schools are the schools where you’d be a competitive applicant. Your GPA and LSAT should be around/above the medians for these schools.
Safety Schools are the schools where an admission seems likely. Your GPA and LSAT will be above median for these schools.
The Splitter Disclaimer: Medians are generally less helpful if you have a super high LSAT and a low GPA, or vice-versa. In this case, safety and target schools are going to be mainly measured by the margin your higher number clears the median. (i.e. how much higher is your GPA/LSAT than their median, and how much will it help to offset the below median number).
If you are a splitter, your admissions results will have more variance. You need to apply to a larger volume of schools and be open to more options if this is your situation. Your essays will also carry more weight in getting you over the line from an admit to a rejection.
Step Four: Speaking of Essays
Essays are the 3rd most important part of your application. They’re going to be what sets you apart from another applicant with similar stats. While essay prompts vary from school to school, the main essay for law school applications is the personal statement. The personal statement should be about 2 pages, 11 or 12 point font, double-spaced, and should show the admissions committee who you are and why you want to go to law school. Try not to simply recite your resume–be sure to use your own voice. Personal statements should reflect your personality and should be unique to you. Tell your story, and try to incorporate a sense of progression, where law school is a logical next step. Spivey Consulting and 7Sage have great podcasts on the personal statement topic here:
Spivey
7Sage
Optional/additional essays vary from school to school, so be sure to research the specific topics that the schools on your school list ask for. You should probably write at least one optional essay if they provide optional prompts. These essays should illuminate parts of your personality and character that the personal statement might not have the space to touch on. Remember that you control the narrative of your essays, and you want your essays to work together to tell a cohesive story that accurately and compellingly reflects who you are.
Be sure to set aside plenty of time (months) to write these essays. They involve a great deal of introspection, drafting, and revision, and are going to take longer than you think to land on a final version. To reiterate, do not be afraid of rough drafts. You are not going to write a perfect personal statement on a first, second, or third draft. Have a few trusted friends, mentors, and/or colleagues proofread the essay, and be sure that if you’re altering the essay for each school to have an organized file system so you’re not switching essays.
Step Five: Letters of Recommendation
Most schools require at least two letters of recommendation. You should select professors or bosses/supervisors, and they should know who you are. A recommender’s ability to speak to your personality and character is far more important than their title. Do not have friends or family act as your recommenders.
Coordinate with your desired recommenders sooner rather than later–they are busy people and have other things on their plate to attend to. Give them (and thereby yourself) plenty of time to submit the letters so that you’re not waiting on their submissions to complete your application.
Step Six: Applying to Schools
Once you’ve taken the LSAT, written your essays, and received the letters of rec back from your recommenders, you can begin to submit applications to the schools of your choice. Remember, admissions are rolling, so the earlier you can get your application in the better chance you give yourself. Law school admissions are extremely competitive! A good target for getting your applications in is by Thanksgiving. Many applicants are students and submit their applications over Christmas break, so by getting your application in a month earlier, you’re ahead of the curve.
Mind you, the difference between an October application and a January application is fairly marginal in most cases, but you want to give yourself every advantage you can. Especially if you’re a splitter.
Applications are submitted through LSAC’s Credit Assembly Service (CAS). The CAS sends each school your undergraduate transcript, your LSAT score, and your other application materials to each school. It is nice to have a centralized platform for this, BUT: it is expensive. The CAS requires a $215 one time fee and then $45 per school you apply to. This expense is largely unavoidable, as CAS is the only way to apply to most schools. If you need financial assistance LSAC & individual schools offer fee waivers to alleviate these costs for those who need it. You can find out if you qualify here.
Step Seven: Waiting
What may seem like the easiest step of the Law School Admissions process is often actually the most anxiety inducing. Law schools receive thousands of applications a year, and it takes admissions officers time to sort through those. As a result, you will likely be waiting at least two months to hear back from schools. If you are a particularly strong applicant, this might be a shorter wait; however, do not read into no responses from schools. They are just busy with other applications, traveling to law fairs, and other application cycle responsibilities.
That being said, if you have been waiting a remarkable amount of time (3.5+ months, unless you applied in September) or you are on the waitlist, you can write a Letter of Continued Interest (LOCI). A LOCI is simply an email to the admissions office letting them know that you are still interested in a school, maybe listing a reason or two why you’re interested. Keep it short, and thank them for their time/consideration. 7Sage has a more in depth explanation on LOCIs here.
Step Eight: Picking a School
First off, congratulations! Picking a school comes down to rehashing those same considerations as when you were initially creating your school list, but with more details on your options and, critically, the finances. The most important thing in considering how much debt you can feasibly stomach is what your likely income will be after graduation. Law graduates’ incomes are bimodal; salary averages and medians can be misleading. Some first year lawyers make north of $200,000 working for Big Law, but many others outside of Big Law make a salary of around $90,000. If you can’t envision yourself working in Big Law, your debt tolerance will be less. This Forbes article has good information on the reality of lawyer’s incomes vs. the cost of a JD.
The Law School Admissions cycle is lengthy, stressful, and confusing. Each one of the 8 steps above can take months of work to complete, and admissions outcomes depend on thousands upon thousands of variables. The most frequently repeated advice from admissions officers is to be your authentic self. There are hundreds of applicants with your GPA and LSAT or better, but there is only one you. Focus on crafting a cohesive application that highlights what will make you a strong law student, and ultimately a strong lawyer.
For more in depth advice, check out our deep dives on each of the above steps. Good luck in your cycle!
