Making the decision to pursue law school is not one that many students make lightly. With the rising costs of law school and increasing competitiveness of the applicant pool, even students who have been dreaming of law school since they were eight often find themselves intimidated by the road to securing their place as a future attorney.
There are a few things that we can do as independent educational consultants (IECs) to ease some of our students’ worries about the law school application process, whether they are still in high school, in college, or a working professional.
Combat the Myth That They Are Behind
For most schools, law school admissions operate on a rolling basis. What this means is that some law schools begin sending out acceptances as early as October or November, even before many applicants have even applied. This creates an interesting and often confusing timeline for the application process. Some students start working on their application materials as early as the beginning of their junior year of college, while other students start planning in the fall that they plan to apply. Both groups think they are behind in the process, and while there are the benefits to applying early, both groups are in okay shape. As IECs, it’s our job to help them understand the timeline of the law school application process, and to reassure them that they are exactly where they need to be.
There are some students that start trying to plan for law school in freshman or sophomore year of college (or even in high school!), and for those students there really isn’t a whole lot for them to do. The goal in those two years should be to make sure they are in a major that they enjoy (and it’s really okay to take a semester or so to figure that out!), and to make sure that they are working on getting excellent grades in those early classes. It’s also important to remind them to enjoy their time as a college student (just don’t get into trouble). Law school doesn’t need to consume their entire college career. There’s no need to force a major or an extracurricular activity or student organization simply because it will “look good on a law school application.” Having the reassurance that they’re on the right track, as long as they are figuring out what they want to study and they’re choosing activities that speak to them, goes a long way.
By junior year, students should be doing two major things: starting to plan an LSAT schedule and starting (or continuing) to build relationships with professors that may make good recommendation writers. Typical advice on the LSAT is to plan to take it during the summer after junior year. As for professor relationships, it’s a lot easier to start building these earlier, especially once the major area is chosen.
Ensure Proper LSAT Planning
While the landscape of law school admissions testing is still, admittedly, in flux, having a good plan for the LSAT can relieve lots of the stress and anxiety that often accompanies the test. Students should begin to prepare early, but there is such a thing as starting to prep too early. There is rarely a situation where a student should begin LSAT prep more than 9-12 months before they plan to take the exam. There is so much value in starting any preparation with a diagnostic test. Knowing where they are starting from not only allows students to track their progress, but it also helps them set reasonable score expectations, and gauge if the current prep plan is continuing to help them improve. It also helps to reassure them that they are making progress when you can point back to where they started.
In addition to starting LSAT preparation early, taking the test early (usually June of the year they plan to apply) gives applicants opportunities to take the test again if they aren’t happy with the score while still allowing them to apply early in the application cycle! Law schools typically look at the highest test score taken, so you should reassure your students that it is okay to take the test more than once.
Encourage Positive Self-Talk and Mindfulness
When talking about the LSAT exam, it is important to note to your students that they are more than a test score. While law school admissions aren’t quite as holistic as undergraduate admissions, and numbers are still very much a large factor in admissions, students do benefit from knowing that their work experience, their essays, their GPA, and their letters of recommendation do count in the law school admissions process. Often, stress over the LSAT exam is one of the top triggers for student anxiety attacks and emotional damage during their law school admissions process. We see this especially with students who are already Type-A Achievers. Obsessing over getting the highest LSAT score can become an unhealthy cycle and can demoralize, discourage, and otherwise thwart the dreams of students who would make fantastic attorneys.
While we would not begin to suggest that students “don’t worry” about their LSAT score, encouraging students to increase their self-care during their LSAT preparation through intentionally planned breaks or a system of rewards can help counterbalance their stress levels. We have seen students benefit tremendously from incorporating mindfulness and meditation into their LSAT prep journey and have recommended Headspace, the Mindfulness for Academic Achievement® course, breathing exercises, and other spirituality practices (if they have them). Anxiety and stress can actually cause your student’s LSAT score to decrease while remaining calm and confident during the test can drastically improve a student’s score. More importantly, we want students to be happy, healthy, and whole people at the end of the law school admissions process so they can succeed in their first year of law school.
Create School Lists Based on Realistic Career Necessities
Law school rankings can be a helpful tool but choosing law schools solely on the school rank isn’t always a good plan. Similar to the stress surrounding the LSAT exam, focusing on prestige for prestige’s sake can create an unhealthy equation of self-worth to school acceptance. While the notion of “fit” is not the same in law school admissions as it is in undergraduate admissions (where your student attends law school has more of a direct impact on employment opportunities than undergrad), a T14 law school may not be the best career or financial fit for every applicant, and we can encourage students to examine the factors that may be more important in choosing law schools. Building the school list with things like realistic career necessities in mind can help alleviate some of the stress that often comes with applying to extremely competitive schools.
If your student is interested in joining or starting a small firm in their hometown (and that hometown isn’t NYC or Cambridge or Stanford), they could likely be better served by a local or regional law school. Regardless of ranking, if a local school has good employment and bar passage statistics, it could be a better option than even a higher ranked school that’s far away.
Focus on the Parts of the Application They Can Control
It’s really easy for applicants to feel like most of the application is out of their control. By the time applications are being put together, it’s hard to change a GPA much, there’s no promise that recommenders are going to write as strong a letter as students hope, the LSAT is what it is, there’s no telling how long the admissions committee will take to render a decision, and the list could go on. Of course, there are some things that are beyond their control, but being able to show our students that they do, in fact, still have quite a lot of control in the process can often take some of the pressure off.
First, our students can set their own timelines (with advice from us), and they can build them in a way that will allow them time to continue living their lives while also still submitting applications early in the cycle. Our guidance in creating a timeline that will take their specific considerations into account and allow them time for activities, applications, work, LSAT study, and—most importantly—self-care can be the difference between a total meltdown and just taking a day (or week) to regroup.
Our students also have complete control over their writing. Personal statements, optional or supplemental essays, addenda, resumes, and more are all chances to showcase how well an applicant writes. Understanding what each piece of writing is supposed to do will also remove some of the stress of the application process. Overall, breaking the process up into bite-sized pieces that feel manageable, having structure and a good timeline for completion of each application component, and having a plan and understanding of the nuances of the law school admissions process will go a long way in making your students feel more in control of their applications and ultimately less stressed about the process (and less likely to spiral on Reddit!).
By Sydney Montgomery, JD, IECA (MD) and Alice Foley, JD, IECA (NJ)