Don’t Rush to Apply to Law School

It has been a while since I last posted, and I’d like to say that I’m sorry I’ve been away so long.  As the resident 0L, I’ve been working on law school apps myself.  It’s been a dizzying process, but thankfully I’m done and waiting to get accepted everywhere, get huge scholarships, and get really awesome Federal Loan offers.  While I may be deluding myself a bit, I’m using the delusions to avoid the stress of having to confront reality.  Speaking of confronting reality, I’ve decided to write a short post about applying to law school late in the season.

The problem with applying late in the application season is that you will not be among the first applicants to be reviewed by the admissions committee.  There will be a number more spots filled in the entering class by March than there would be if you sent your app in September.  Unfortunately, many people take the LSAT in February.  If you took the LSAT in February, I’m writing this for you.

Having just gotten your scores recently, you must have come to some determination about which schools you’ll be applying to.  Most people have no real gauge of which schools they could reasonably apply to until they get a look at their scores.    Even more unfortunate, most people who received their scores back last week will have done zero prep work in getting their apps together.  The deadlines for many schools have already passed, and the difficulty of getting into schools this late in the game is high.  It’s also very much in your best interests to gain any advantage possible in one of the most competitive application pools in history.  You can take the upper hand easily though.  I recommend waiting to apply next year.

I decided to put applications off for a year, and it was the right decision.   If you have an LSAT score you can admit to in early March, you can either rush to apply now, or wait til next year.  The following descriptions will shed light on the intricacies of each of these plans.

Applying Now:

You are probably already late to apply to some of the schools you like, the likelihood that you will get into the schools that you would be able to get into based on their admissions stats is lower because so much of the class has been chosen already, and you have missed most of the FAFSA priority deadlines for these schools.  Unless you had chosen your schools already, registered for the LSDAS, completed all of the applications before even taking the LSAT, done your taxes, filled out the FAFSA and submitted it to the schools you chose, and still studied for the LSAT, you will be spending the next several weeks locked up in all of those tasks.  Once you get all of those things done, you can finally get an application in, but you’re way late.

Applying Next Year:

If you don’t like your scores, you can take another test in June.  This will not delay you at all.  You know which schools will be within your reach as safety schools, and you can get started on writing and brainstorming for the essays.  You have months to get recommendations and transcripts submitted.  The entire process will be spread out over a longer period, and it will be less stressful as a result.  You have all of this time to pad your resume with internships, actual jobs, and volunteer positions as well.  When July rolls around, you can start making a concrete list of schools you’ll definitely be applying to, and you have almost a month and a half before most of the applications will even be available.  Most importantly, you can get almost every part of the application done before the actual application sheet comes out, and your application can go in before the vast majority of applicants for the coming year will have even looked at schools they like.  Your application will be one of the first to be looked at, and this will help you.  You’ll also be able to spend January and February getting your taxes together for the FAFSA without having also had to study for the LSAT.  Maybe you’ll even be able to meet priority FAFSA deadlines, and this could save you some serious dough.

I hope that you all understand the vast difference a year can make to this process.  Good Luck!

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