The short answer is "it doesn't matter that much." As we have blogged about here [https://blog.spiveyconsulting.com/how-long-does-it-take-for-law-school-applications-to-be-read/] , applications aren't read in date stamped sequential order, but rather by strength. They do, of course, have to be complete, and not having a test score will render them incomplete. Still, the lack of a score (or another attempt at a higher score) does not mean that you can't actually submit an application. Should you
First, a quick disclaimer (get used to writing these, future lawyers): when we say “law schools” we do not mean to speak for every single law school. There likely are a few outliers. But at the macro-level, here is what is going on. Most law school Early Decision (ED) programs don’t provide the substantial boost that applicants believe. An analogy I often use is that a Las Vegas casino wouldn’t have a blackjack table that loses money. In blackjack, if a player follows perfect betting strategy,
Introduction We were asked to write about choosing between a T14 school at sticker (full tuition) versus a T20 to T30 school with merit aid. The below constitutes our best stab at that, but please keep in mind that, as always, these are arbitrary cutoff points based on one flawed rankings system and not designed for you as an individual. Point being that a school ranked 18 may be much more valuable to you for any number of reasons that a school ranked 13, etc. If you want to read or watch more
We’ve been asked to write a bit on how to choose between similarly regarded and ranked law schools — and there’s good news from the start – namely that while a decent number of applicants are not yet in this situation this time of the cycle, the vast majority of applicants will eventually find themselves with choices on where to attend. In other words, unless you only swung for reach schools, you should have a matriculation decision to make this fall between competing schools, and the balance of
It's that time of year again — law schools are beginning to place applicants on the dreaded waitlist. Luckily, we have two helpful resources if you've been waitlisted this cycle.
This is an applicant question, and a timely one due to the recent USNWR rankings release and upcoming seat deposit deadlines. The applicant asking the question, I believe, uses “desperate” to mean, will a school that just dropped in the rankings suffer applicant pool consequences and thus need to go deeper into their own pool to admit? I will get to that a bit later in this post (and there is available data that anyone could look up by looking at schools that have dropped in the rankings in past
It's the time of year when some people are making decisions they're not 100% happy about on what law school to attend. They might be consoling themselves with the thought that, "Well, if I do poorly, I'll just transfer up." Some people might be using this thought as a way of justifying going to a school with overall poor employment prospects, or as a way of keeping alive their hopes of [insert dream career outcome here]. Or maybe you're a 1L who's wondering if transferring is a good idea for you
1. They stay positive and engaged for the entire admissions cycle. 2. They pay attention to every little detail of their application. 3. They are genuine and write from the heart. 4. They are self-aware. 5. They are actively involved with things that are important to them outside of the application process. 6. They have a very clear reason why they are applying to law school and they can articulate verbally and in writing. 7. They are adaptable. 8. They utilize every op
Registration for the June 2019 LSAT closed yesterday. Most people who are signed up for that LSAT administration are going to be using it to apply in the 2019-2020 cycle. But as law school applicants become increasingly savvy to the importance of LSAT scores in admissions, many applicants are re-taking the test in June to improve their chances of getting off a waitlist. Last year alone an additional 7% of June LSAT takers were retaking the test over historical averages—many presumably in hopes o
