I Need Legal Services...well sort of

[Mr. Tony Margaritatime]

I was wondering if we have any attorneys in the house. I've been out of school and in the working world for nearly 8 years now. I'm looking at going to back law school, and I was wondering if anyone can give me some recommendations in terms of good LSAT study guides, resources for statement writing, or any good advice in the application process (getting the right letters of recommendation, etc). There are a lot of expensive materials and classes that I'm getting mixed reviews on. I'm excited about going on this adventure, but I scared to death at the same time! Any advice will help, so I can develop a strategy!

 

Thanks,

 

Jonathan

[Duck-Billed Catechist]

I was fully immersed and obsessed with this process a few months ago. I got some acceptances, but had to put it off for a few years.

 

I read http://www.lawschooldiscussion.org/prelaw a lot. I digested the numbers at http://lawschoolnumbers.com/.

 

I probably didn't study for the LSAT as much as I should have. I probably studied the logic games section 10-20 hours (using the Power Score Logic Games Bible). The rest of the sections seemed pretty intuitive to me--they're all about reading comprehension and understanding how arguments are put together. These are pretty basic parts of a liberal arts education.

 

Anyway, the Logic Games section seemed foreign to me. I could do most of them given the time, but given the time constraints I could do a little more than half. I missed very few questions on the rest of the test.

 

First thing's first, you should take a practice test under timed conditions to find out what you need to work on. The most striking aspect of the process, for me, was how much the LSAT matters. Undergrad grades, recommendations, work and life experience, and a good personal statement all can help put you over the top, but the LSAT is sooo important and can not be over emphasized. For the schools that publish their admission formulas, the LSAT makes up about 85% of the pie (GPA making up the rest of it). The good news is that it IS learnable. There were lots of stories of people who significantly improved their score.

 

Regarding recommendations: conventional wisdom is that academic recommendations pull a lot more weight than professional ones. Since it's been a matter of years, you'll want to give your recommenders lots to work with (papers from their classes, if you have them, your personal statement, and possibly transcripts).

 

The process also seemed to favor early applicants, although there were some tricky things that schools seemed to do with Early Admission applicants that I forget--some of them were in limbo for quite a while. It's also good to apply to a high number of schools (hope for fee waivers...those things can get expensive, but they're a good investment).

[Guest ScottHoward]

You should also be sure to study up on having paralegals draft 65 page documents for which you bill people over $10k.

 

My attorney does have a sweet haircut though.

[watch me fall]

Tip o' the day: Don't apply to the University of Charleston's law school.

[Mr. Tony Margaritatime]

Wow! Thanks for the info! It's funny, but I just ordered that very same PowerScore Logic Games book this morning. I'm definitely looking at hitting the LSAT studies hard over the next few months. I think self study is the way to go. I hear the Kaplan courses are a big rip-off,too. At any rate, I appreciate it!

[Elixir Sue]

It's been almost 5 years since I went through all that, but here's what I remember:

 

The Law School Admission Council will handle your LSAT registration as well as most (all?) of your applications (i.e. they'll send your apps, resume, writing sample, etc. to the schools for you). Most importantly, they'll hold your hand and walk you through the process.

 

As for studying for the LSAT, I just walked into a bookstore and picked up an LSAT study guide that looked halfway decent. Then I proceeded to half-ass it, occasionally working some problems, and I think I did one timed practice exam. Don't stress over it...it's not much different than any other standardized test you've been subjected to along the way, except reading comprehension and logic are all that matter. I guess if you've struggled with tests like that, you'll want to spend some more time with the study guide.

 

How much your LSAT score matters really does depend on your undergrad GPA. If you have a really strong GPA, you won't need as high an LSAT score as somebody with a less impressive GPA. Colleges' admissions sites have charts that reflect this, if you're curious as to what score you should be going for to get in to a particular school.