Law school is like no other graduate school program found on today’s college campuses. Law school offers a difficult and competitive atmosphere that can at times overwhelm even the strongest of students. In short, law school can be tough, and the attrition rate due to the law school’s culture is quite high.
In most cases, law schools that are rated highly in the U.S.
News Best Law Schools rankings have low acceptance rates. These schools
typically admit students with excellent grades and test scores.
For instance, the No. 1 school in the 2019 Best Law Schools rankings – Yale
Law School– had an acceptance rate below 8.4 percent in the fall of 2017. The
median LSAT score among entering students was 173 out of a maximum of 180, and
the median undergraduate GPA was 3.91 on a 4.0 scale.
With that in mind, experts say that J.D. applicants with these 5 key attributes
have a better shot of getting admitted to top law schools than their peers.
Without solid college grades it's extraordinarily difficult to get
accepted to competitive law schools, alumni say.
No matter how extraordinary an applicant's extracurricular activities are, it
will be hard for them to compensate for a low GPA.
"Having activities is helpful when applying to law school because they show
a well-rounded approach to life," Masters explains. "However, top law
schools need to determine whether you can succeed while there and afterward and
good undergraduate grades are the best indicator of that. Schools have no way
of knowing how challenging or beneficial your activities were, but good grades
indicate that someone did what it took to succeed, despite the challenges of
being a student."
Joe Masters, a Yale Law Student, says that academic performance is the primary
determining factor for admitting a candidate to a top law school.
"First and foremost, above everything else, you have to have a very high
GPA, and you have to have as good of an LSAT (score) as you can get... That's
obviously years of work and years of preparation even before the application
process starts," Joe says.
Masters says someone who applies to law school during college is
typically less competitive than someone who applies to law school after college
since J.D. admissions officers value work experience.
Masters explains that during college, his pre-law adviser persuaded him to wait
until after college to apply to law school.
"He advised me that working makes a person an entirely different
candidate," Masters said. "Not only are you older and more mature but
working allows you to bring real-world experiences to law school."
Another way a law school applicant can distinguish themselves is if their
application has a striking theme, Masters says. He highlights a compelling
application he read where every component of the application addressed the
candidate's interest in and commitment to an immigration law career.
Masters says that when law school applicants tell a consistent story throughout
their application, they are more likely to admit them.
"Sometimes letters of recommendation are a missed opportunity, because the
recommender may not know what the theme of the student's essay is, so if the
applicant can work closely with the recommender to have some synergy, they have
the chance to stand out even more."
Compelling personal statements about why you want to become a lawyer
can boost your chances of getting accepted at your dream school, Masters says.
He adds that he doesn't expect law school applicants to write about which area
of law they want to practice since most of them will not know yet what type of
lawyer they intend to become.
However, law school applicants should be able to give a sophisticated argument
for why they want to attend law school. Applicants who can communicate their
interest in law in an engaging way, without using clichés, can impress
admissions officers, Masters adds.
One personal statement Joe Masters enjoyed reading is one where an applicant
explained how his interest in board games with complex rules led him to
discover his desire to be a lawyer.
"That essay really stood out for us, because he didn't tell us exactly
what area of the law that he was looking for, but he knew enough about the
skills that lawyers need – analytical thinking, arguing, being able to analyze
arguments, listening to clients – that we knew that this was the right
fit."
Masters states extracurricular activities that demonstrate voluntarism,
leadership or athleticism may help law school hopefuls compete in the J.D.
admissions process. He adds that law school hopefuls who take rigorous
undergraduate courses and do interesting academic projects will have a
significant leg-up in the J.D. admissions process.
For instance, Joe says that a history major who gets straight A’s could
assemble a strong law school application regardless of his or her
extracurricular activities. However, someone who has the same stellar academic
record and who also has produced an honors thesis and published articles would
have an even better application, he says.
Conclusion
Law school is for those who aren’t afraid to think and react to potential legal
situations much different from the majority of society that is not in the least
bit connected to the field of law.
This doesn’t make the law a better or more superior profession worthy of higher
standards. It does, however, make the law a very specialized profession that
requires a much different skillset from a person than other professional
callings. To that end, the above 5 top traits should lay the groundwork for any
post-graduate who might be entertaining a legal career. In short, if you have
the above traits, it is almost a certainty that law schools will seek you out
to be part of their academic present and future.
