Good marks and good intentions are only the beginning of getting into law school. Before the would-be applicant can even hope to hear from the school of their choice they must first jump through the hoops that are the law school application process. Bellow I address some of the larger aspects of the application process, like the LSAT and admissions essays. Everything I suggest is, of course, based upon my own personal experience and is, therefore, hardly official. What it is, however, is an eye-witness account of the process from the 2008-9 application cycle. I make no guarantees as to how this information will serve you in your own application, but I did begin receiving acceptances as early as the January after I applied – whatever that means.
The information bellow has been garnered from the application process in Ontario, through the Ontario Universities’ Application Centre’s (OUAC) Ontario Law School Application Service (OLSAS). As such, the most accurate information available about what each school requires and expects can be found on the OLSAS website in the form of a PDF that is updated each year and released in late August. For schools outside of Ontario, each has its own requirements and each application must be submitted separately and directly to each school. In these cases, the relevant faculty’s website is the best resource.
LSAT
If there is one thing I would recommend it would be doing the test as early as possible. Now, this is obviously qualified by the statement ‘as possible’ given that your score is only good for 3 years and, contrary to popular opinion, I’m convinced that the skills tested on the LSAT are developed, in large part, during your undergrad education. That is to say that logical reasoning and reading comprehension are core parts of just about any undergraduate course of study and it would be rather naive to say that those with three years of undergrad under their belt are on the same level as those with only one or even two. That said, leaving it until the year in which you apply, in either the September/October or the December cycle, is not always the best choice either as many find it tough to simultaneously maintain their marks and study appropriately for the LSAT.
What I did and what I would suggest is, if you know by the end of the academic year that you are going to be applying in the coming fall, that you sign up for the June LSAT and for a prep course that is offered at some point in May. First, I suggest the prep course, if you can afford it, because it will allow you to get the most out of your first LSAT attempt. There is some evidence to suggest that taking the LSAT a second time will increase your score, but many subscribe to the hypothesis that the higher score on the second test is merely the result of a familiarity with the procedure and the types of questions asked. This to say that many simply find the process itself stressful and the questions confusing. If this is true, then it suggest that, perhaps, if those who took the test a second time had instead taken the time to properly prepare, then they might have done better the first time around and saved themselves the trouble of a second test.
Second, taking the test early in the application cycle provides two benefits itself. Primarily, if you are unhappy with your score, you have the option of writing it again in the fall. The other major benefit of writing the LSAT early is that simply it gives you a chance to see your score before you have to submit your application. If you write the test in late September or early October, and certainly by December, you run the risk of not seeing your score before the law schools do. If you do well, this does not really matter. If you do not, however, it can complicate things. Namely, there are certain schools who will not accept anyone with an LSAT bellow a certain cutoff. If you score bellow that cutoff, it won’t change the status of your other applications, but it will mean that you have, perhaps, wasted your time on applications to schools at which you are not eligible when you could have spent more time on the applications to the schools at which you are.
Essay
This is probably the single hardest part of the application process or at least it was for me and those I know. Its difficulty probably stems from the fact that it is so open and yet so limited. It is limited in the sense that you both have a very definite word limit (varies by school) and a very specific audience. That said, how you address them, what examples you use, and your language and style are all up to you. Some schools do provide a list of things they are looking for, like why you want to study law and what personal characteristics you think will make you a good law student, however, how you tackle them is entirely up to you.
While it is best to write a separate essay for each school to which you are applying, you will probably discover that a great deal of what you have to say would be much the same. This is not because you are lazy, but merely because most schools ask the same questions or, if they don’t, you can assume they would probably like to know all the same. A faster, and saner, way would be to target your introduction and conclusion to each particular school. Be aware, however, that much like sending the wrong cover letter with your resume, telling Queen’s that you are very excited to attend UofT because of its extensive clinical programs will not go over well. It might not be the end of your application, but it certainly won’t fast-track it.
What I would suggest, then, is that you write a school-specific introduction and conclusion and keep the body generic – but not too generic. For example, if you know what kind of thing a particular school is looking for (like community involvement or if you have a preexisting connection to the school) it might be in your interests to be more targeted. If you have no idea, however, it can’t hurt to keep it general. The reason you should customize your introduction and conclusion is so that you can direct at least some of the essay toward the school it will be sent to. You can talk about what drew you to apply (other than the shotgun approach to higher-education). Perhaps they have a particular concentration, clinical program, professor, exchange program, etc. that interests you. Or perhaps its the school’s location that is most attractive. Whatever it is that brings you to spend the time and money to apply, you should share that here.
Oh, and spelling counts. Again, a typo probably won’t sink your application, but it is certainly awkward in the extreme and suggests that perhaps you are not taking that school as seriously as they would like you to. So, as with anything written for a serious audience, edit, edit, and edit some more; and then get a friend to edit it again. Print it and read it again and, if its absolutely spotless, copy and paste away.
Autobiographical Sketch
First, on an eminently practical note, before you write anything concrete, please log in to the OLSAS website and determine how many characters you are allowed for each entry. In a rare instance where too much preparation can be a very, very bad (read frustrating) thing, I wrote, in its entirety, my autobiographical sketch prior to checking how it was to be recorded on the OLSAS website. I then discovered that the character limit would prevent me from entering my finely tuned and perfectly flowing paragraphs.
Instead, you had to enter only 40 or so characters per line and, if you needed more space than that (and really, who wouldn’t) you had to enter it into the next line while keeping the same title and date and such. Needless to say, this complicated things. It turned out not to be the end of the world, but to save yourself some time, check before you write. Also, this is much harder than it sounds. It is not only extremely tedious, but almost impossible to include anything of great length. Whether or not this is to encourage a quantity of, rather than the quality, of activities I know not, but it is something to bear in mind.
All in all, this is a pretty easy step (if you don’t jump the gun). The best preparation is to list anything that comes to mind under the headings of:
Full-time Employment; Part-time Employment; Volunteer Activities; Extracurricular Activities; Academic Honours and Achievements; Research/Publications; and Other
Then, of course, you will want to consider and contact anyone who you could use as a verifier of each of those activities. While there is a total limit as to how many entries you can provide, you are unlikely to reach it, so in this case less is probably not more.
References
There are two types of references, academic and non-academic, and you would be well advised to ascertain how many of which type each school requires. In Ontario, the norm is two references (Windsor being the obvious exception), where one must be academic and the other is left to the applicant’s discretion.
The advice I have received regarding academic references is both contradictory and without much by way of feedback. It is contradictory insofar as I am told that one should seek as a reference someone who is at the same time an established professor and who knows you and your work well. This advice need not be an oxymoron by necessity, but it does come fairly close, at least in my experience. The problem would seem to be that the more established a professor, the less courses they teach or, at least, the less courses they teach year after year, in a cumulative way. That is, not very often, in my experience at least, do you find a tenured professor teaching International Relations 1, then IR 2, and then IR 3 in your second, third, and fourth years respectively. Instead, those who are most established teach a few courses and there is no guarantee that you can get even two years in a row with them. As a result, those who are mostly likely to best know your work are those who are not as high up in the academic food-chain. How you resolve this dilemma will depend on your own circumstances, indeed, for some this will not present a problem at all. A point to keep in mind, however, is that, whatever you think of the matter, those who administer law schools seem to think of themselves as just as academic as any graduate program and, as such, you should be mindful of the pedigree of your academic reference. That said, a form letter reference is pretty close to useless.
All is not lost if you have not yet made the sustained acquaintance of a couple professors by the time you apply (though it is worth the effort if you are not quite there yet). Many schools in Ontario only require one academic reference and allow the other reference to be of another kind, though most likely work related. In fact, this is the approach I took, as I only knew of one established professor who had any knowledge of my work from more than one class and I had an excellent relationship with my supervisor from my student government position. While your non-academic reference cannot, with any credibility, speak to your ability as a student, he or she can speak to other aspects of your character and work habits that admissions committees may still find interesting. Do not forget, law schools are in the business of creating lawyers, not just academics. Even if they weren’t, it would still be true that your ability to effectively manage your time, your peers, and your work all speak volumes about your ability to survive your first year of law school.
In short, pick people who know you and your work. Given the option, obviously the more famous/impressive the person, the better, but do not let their relative lack of fame prevent you from receiving a stellar reference.
Conclusion
You should now be a little better equipped to approach the application process and hopefully, all other things being equal, secure a spot in your law school of choice. One last thing to keep in mind is that all this takes quite a bit of time to do properly. As I indicated above, specific information for each new cycle is available sometime toward the end of August, but the completed applications, references and all (though, not necessarily your LSAT) are due by the close of October. This does not leave you much time, especially if you are writing the September/October LSAT. You can start certain aspects of your application as early as you like, but take my case as a warning: there is such a thing as being too prepared.
Applying to law school probably isn’t the hardest thing you’ve ever done and, if it is, it won’t hold that distinction for long I’m sure. With a little bit of preparation, it certainly doesn’t have to be the most stressful thing you do in your last year of your undergrad (or masters or work, etc.) either.
