carlken (2009 – 2010)

Student Government President
Senior Editor of School Newspaper
6 Years Non-Profit Experience

LESSONS FROM THIS CYCLE:
Thought I'd start posting lessons/revelations that I have had from this cycle for future applicants in case they are helpful. I'll update this as I learn more.

1. LSP is not 100% accurate. It's definitely a good tool to gauge chances, but if you have work experience, life experience, a story to tell, etc. you should take those into consideration. Especially if you are a non-traditional applicant.

2. Ask for fee waivers. Since I was denied an LSAC fee waiver (likely because I am employed full time), I thought I'd try contacting the schools directly to get the fees waived. 75% of the schools I contacted waived the application fee. You'll notice that I only paid to apply for two schools.

3. I found these sites particularly helpful when completing applications, deciding where to apply, what to emphasize, etc.

http://www.deloggio.com/admproc/what.html
Info on what schools look for aside from #'s. Very outdated, but still somewhat useful.

http://www.hourumd.com/
This was a little more accurate in my case than LSP.

4. Apply early!

5. Write a good - no great - personal statement. I get really annoyed when I see applicants with lower GPA's and LSAT scores admit that their personal statements were "ok" or "average". The personal statement is one of the few qualitative factors that an admissions committee considers. And you have more than enough time to work on it. I also had a few friends read mine and give feedback.

6. Take the application process seriously. Being a member of this site is a good start.

7. Yes, soft factors do matter. Had I paid attention to the #'s and ranking queens on TLS and other social forums I would've decided against applying to law school because my #'s weren't good enough. In the end my #'s were fine and ad comms saw that my #'s weren't representative of my potential as a law student.