The Ultimate Guide To Law School Application
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Page 7
-Find Advocates- Glaring Mistake #6: Failing to Find Advocates
(and Forgetting that Law School is a Crapshoot) Law schools are selfish. More importantly, they have very limited resources when it comes to evaluating applications. As a result, they take shortcuts. The most common shortcut:
Based purely on grades and test scores alone, most law schools will eliminate many applications from the pile. |
If you don't have the grades and test scores that match a particular school's expectations, your application won’t even get looked at. Law schools aren’t going to learn all about you, read your essay, watch your Youtube channel, then find out that your LSAT score is terrible. They look at the scores and the grades first as a shortcut. If they don’t stack up, you have 0% chance of admission, regardless of how strong the rest of his application is. UNLESS…..
You can find influential law school “advocate(s)!”
If you find them and get them to vouch for you, you’ll get your application reviewed, EVEN IF you don’t have the scores and grades necessary.
I’ll fill you in on what an advocate is very shortly. However, I want to make a quick point:
If you don’t have the grades or scores necessary, you need one heck of an advocate.
But, assuming that you do have the grades and scores necessary (and I hope you will), there’s still another issue:
I’ll fill you in on what an advocate is very shortly. However, I want to make a quick point:
If you don’t have the grades or scores necessary, you need one heck of an advocate.
But, assuming that you do have the grades and scores necessary (and I hope you will), there’s still another issue:
Law School Admissions is a Crapshoot
One of my students recently got into Berkeley, Columbia, and Stanford, but rejected from NYU, Michigan, and Harvard. Why? At face value, there is literally no explanation.
She was totally qualified for all of the above schools (3.75 GPA, 172 LSAT score, chief editor of her school paper, multiple articles published in major US newspapers and magazines, founded a charity for improved literacy and writing skills in her community, and helped it to raise over $125,000), but yet she still got rejected by multiple schools ranked LOWER (on the almighty US News and World Report rankings) than Berkeley, Columbia, and Stanford .
All of these law schools are top notch. But sometimes, no matter how high your numbers are and how awesome your writing is, you just can't predict which schools will accept you and which will reject you. Law school is a huge game of crap. Once you've put together an awesome application and submitted it on time, crossing your fingers is the best thing you can do. UNLESS....
She was totally qualified for all of the above schools (3.75 GPA, 172 LSAT score, chief editor of her school paper, multiple articles published in major US newspapers and magazines, founded a charity for improved literacy and writing skills in her community, and helped it to raise over $125,000), but yet she still got rejected by multiple schools ranked LOWER (on the almighty US News and World Report rankings) than Berkeley, Columbia, and Stanford .
All of these law schools are top notch. But sometimes, no matter how high your numbers are and how awesome your writing is, you just can't predict which schools will accept you and which will reject you. Law school is a huge game of crap. Once you've put together an awesome application and submitted it on time, crossing your fingers is the best thing you can do. UNLESS....
You can find influential law school “advocate(s)!”
Despite the admissions game being a crapshoot, my aforementioned student knew that she was most likely going to get accepted at Columbia and Stanford. Why? Because she had an amazing advocate vouching for her acceptance at both schools - a super-star law professor, with whom she had done research. He not only wrote her a recommendation letter, but also personally dropped it off at the BOTH admissions offices.
If you don’t have someone speaking on your behalf to the admissions committee, you are JUST A NUMBER.
Admissions committees don’t care about you. They don’t have the time or attention to do so. I’m not saying they’re heartless – I’m saying that they have to sort through thousands of applications in a short time period, and they want to get it done quickly and efficiently.
If your application is just a folder full of paper, then that’s all you are to admissions officers.
I don’t care how amazing you are – if there’s no one behind your application, you’re just another stack of papers.
So, whether you have the grades and scores or not, there’s something you should realize right away:
If your application is just a folder full of paper, then that’s all you are to admissions officers.
I don’t care how amazing you are – if there’s no one behind your application, you’re just another stack of papers.
So, whether you have the grades and scores or not, there’s something you should realize right away:
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If you can get someone affiliated with the school to speak on your behalf, you are VASTLY going to improve your chances of admission.
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This is a human process. Humans relate to humans. If someone (that the law schools respects) likes and trusts you, and decides to pay the admissions office a visit on your behalf, it will make a big difference.
While dropping off his letter of recommendation for my student, the distinguished professor probably made some small talk with the dean of admissions to this effect:
While dropping off his letter of recommendation for my student, the distinguished professor probably made some small talk with the dean of admissions to this effect:
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“Listen, A____ is really great, and it would make a big difference to my research if she came on board. Can you earmark her application and make sure to give it an extra look? I’d hate to miss out on her.”
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And….voila! She was in. Would she have gotten in otherwise? Maybe. But did she get into every school where she had someone speak on her behalf to the admissions committee? Yes. Did she get rejected from multiple schools without advocates? Yes.
If you have sub-par scores and grades, you need to have a really powerful advocate.
Certain “insiders” are more powerful than others. My law school experience is a prime example. I attended Middlebury College, a small and extremely tight knit community. Fortunately, I found "heavy hitting" alumni from my college willing to advocate on my behalf. These advocates ranged from students serving on law review, influential faculty members, and wealthy donors/alumni. They wrote letters of recommendation or spoke on my behalf with the admissions offices. As a result, I got into many of the top schools even though I had mediocre grades.
Big time faculty and heavy donors are some of the best advocates.
Unless you’re a celebrity, an award-winning musician/writer, or a highly sought-after minority (this last one is becoming less and less powerful), you want to secure one of these “mega advocates.” But most people are not so good at networking. This means that you probably need incredible grades and test scores regardless of who you have speaking on your behalf.
If you’re a Rhodes Scholar and your father is the President of the United States, you can send law schools a bowl of jello instead of an application – you’ll still get in. For everyone else, listen carefully:
The only way to ensure that law school is not a crapshoot is to ensure that SOMEONE is writing or speaking on your behalf to the admissions committee. Who? That’s up to you to find out.
If you’re really into philanthropy, contact the heads of the school’s biggest charity organizations, share your plans with them, and then see if they can put in a good word. If you’re really into Intellectual Property, see if you can chat with a faculty member who is well published in that area.
This is why extensive research is so important. If you don’t know anything about the schools to which you’re applying, you certainly won’t know anyone at the schools to which you’re applying, and that’s a big disadvantage.
Law schools like to maintain that “who you know doesn’t matter.” That is a hilarious bunch of rubbish.
Get the grades. Get the scores. Have a passion. Then, do your research and find advocates.
Before we get into the biggest mistake of law school applications, there’s another thing I can’t forget to mention that you absolutely MUST not do:
If you’re a Rhodes Scholar and your father is the President of the United States, you can send law schools a bowl of jello instead of an application – you’ll still get in. For everyone else, listen carefully:
The only way to ensure that law school is not a crapshoot is to ensure that SOMEONE is writing or speaking on your behalf to the admissions committee. Who? That’s up to you to find out.
If you’re really into philanthropy, contact the heads of the school’s biggest charity organizations, share your plans with them, and then see if they can put in a good word. If you’re really into Intellectual Property, see if you can chat with a faculty member who is well published in that area.
This is why extensive research is so important. If you don’t know anything about the schools to which you’re applying, you certainly won’t know anyone at the schools to which you’re applying, and that’s a big disadvantage.
Law schools like to maintain that “who you know doesn’t matter.” That is a hilarious bunch of rubbish.
Get the grades. Get the scores. Have a passion. Then, do your research and find advocates.
Before we get into the biggest mistake of law school applications, there’s another thing I can’t forget to mention that you absolutely MUST not do:
Including “Fluff” (i.e. Bulls$%&) in Your Application…