Welcome to Step 3 of my law school series: How to be an Attorney. Click HERE for Step 1 and Step 2.
Let’s talk about how to apply to law school.
To apply to law school, you have to take the LSAT exam, write a personal statement, send your completed undergraduate/in-progress transcript, letters of recommendation and fee(s) (depends on the school). Once you pick which law schools to apply to, you attach all of these documents on lsac.org . All the applications happen in one central place.
LSAT Exam
· Everyone says this is the most important part of your law school applications, I’m not sure if I agree. But it is an important test and an important part of your application.
· This test is a beast. It is 5 sections (with only 4 graded): Logical Reasoning (two sections), Analytical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, and an unscored Variable Section.
· In total I studied for almost a year for this exam while being a student or working part-time. I started studying the summer between my junior and senior year of college with Kaplan self-paced LSAT course. I did it at my own pace. I took a diagnostic test and did eh. I studied all summer and finished the Kaplan course, and only had increased by two or three points from my diagnostic exam. I never had a set goal of what score I wanted. I didn’t have my heart on one school I wanted to go to, so I really just wanted to do the best I could on the exam. I planned to take the exam in September of 2019, but life had other plans for me. I then decided to study some more and pushed back my test date for October 2019… still no luck. I then got a recommendation from a friend from college to use the LSAT tutor that she used. So, I signed up with this very expensive 1 on 1 tutor (thanks to my parents) and again pushed back my test date to February 2020. I should’ve started with a private tutor or a class from the beginning, and taken my studying a bit more serious. I learn best with structure and with someone teaching me. I don’t know why I thought I could study by myself without a physical teacher. Figure out how best you learn and follow that accordingly when studying for the LSAT. I didn’t have any set goal, and maybe I should’ve, but I’m not a great test taker, and I just wanted to get into law school. I also didn’t know really anything about test scores or law school, so I just did the best I could do. I took the test, got my highest score I ever got and was so proud of myself and so happy to be DONE (or really just starting).
· Studying for the LSAT and the stress of studying for it was definitely a teeny tiny taste of what law school stress would be like in some ways.
· Moral of the story: take the test seriously, do the best you can and adapt your studying to the way that works best for you.
Transcript
· Grades matter! Do your best, take fun and interesting classes.
· Here are all the classes I took at Wake Forest University. I regret taking Calculus (which tanked my GPA my first semester of college) and I regret taking 17 credits my first semester. My first semester was the lowest GPA I ever had all of college. So besides that, I have no regrets about the classes I took. I graduated cum laude in 2020.
Personal Statement
· Think back to the days of writing your college application essays (or the Common App essay). This statement is very similar to that + the reason you want to go to law school.
· I loved my personal statement. I talked about my love of writing and communicating as an English major and as a blogger. I talked about the light bulb moment I had when I realized why I wanted to go to law school (hint: it was when I was in my favorite class in college: Investigating Innocence).
· My personal statement was two pages double spaced.
Letters of Recommendation
· I had one from my French professor that I went abroad with, that I had a very close academic and personal relationship with.
· I had several others from various English professors (I was an English and French Studies double major). One was from a professor that went to law school, and another was from one of my favorite classes.
· Pick people you trust and that like you!
· Each school will have certain requirements about how many letters of recommendation they want.
I had my personal statement, letters of recommendation and transcript all in my LSAC account, ready to go by March 2020, so when I took my LSAT and got my score back, I could easily send in all my completed applications with the click of a button.
I remember getting my LSAT score sitting at my kitchen table in Florida, while I was on extended spring break when the world shut down in spring 2020 (fun times). And that same week I got into law school! It all worked out!
Stay tuned for Part 4!
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