Law School: A Right Time To Apply?

Law School Grads Share Applications Dos And Don’ts

 
Law school application deadlines are rapidly approaching. And there are many ways to tackle the law school application to put the best version of yourself in front of the admissions committees. Do you take the LSAT multiple times to wow committees with high scores? Do you emphasize your personal and professional statements—drafting copy after copy and having your connections edit for you? Do you track down your most impressive recommendations? Or did you do all of these?
In a recent U.S. News article, four recent law school graduates  reflected on their application experience and gave their opinions on what they’d do over.
For Candace Carter, who graduated from Belmont University, the decision on where to apply was easy as she wanted to be in her home state of Tennessee. She suggests applying to smaller schools that often have fewer students and more tuition dollars to dish out. Also, Carter believes a unique personal statement helped her stand out for those scholarships. “It was the recipe for a sweet potato pie,” she told the U.S. News when describing her personal statement. “The different pieces of the recipe I related to a different part of my life that pushed me to go to law school.”
Alex Civetta of Harvard Law School suggests scoring as high as possible on the LSAT—even if it takes a dozen or more practice tests—and taking advantage of the personal statement. “Think of each question a school asks you as another opportunity to show them a part of you that they wouldn’t see otherwise,” he observes. “Give them a sense of you as a person because it’s kind of your only chance to do so.”
Landon Dais of Hofstra University was patient and applied to Hofstra twice, hoping to get as much of his tuition bill covered by the school as possible. The second time around, he was awarded a partial scholarship. However, he also applied for and was awarded a fellowship at the law school to cover the rest of his tuition. He suggests a unique approach to the personal statement. Instead of the traditional written essay, he put together a Prezi presentation that included video of him doing community service in Harlem, New York. Dais says it takes that type of aggression to get money from the school. “If you’re asking someone for money, you want to go above and beyond,” he argues.
Finally, Makda Fessahaye of Marquette University warns readers not waste time and take care of applications sooner rather than later. “The timing in which you apply to law schools, especially during that time, can affect your admission to the law schools, and even scholarship money,” she said. “If you apply later, they’ve probably already admitted ​because a lot of these schools are rolling admissions.”
Source: U.S. News
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