There’s a new law school ranking out this week, and it’s not the dominant and ubiquitous U.S. News & World Report Law School Rankings. Rather, Above the Law has released their own yearly law school rankings: The Above the Law Top 50 Law School Rankings of 2018.
When it comes to the LSAT, knowledge is power. And what better way to acquire that knowledge than through two free webinars that you can watch from the comfort of your own home (i.e., with pajamas on)? Next Tuesday, you can power up with two of the free webinars we’re hosting on the LSAT and law school admissions, pajamas and all.
The American Bar Association has been taking it on the chin lately, getting sued by a shuttered law schools, students from said shuttered law school, and other law schools for how it enforces its accreditation standards. This is happening as the ABA prepares to remove the standardized testing requirement for law schools and use different requirements. Whatever system it ends up using, I think this string of lawsuits makes clear that the ABA won’t be as good at keeping an applicant away from a bad law school as that applicant will be. So this post is designed to help applicants familiarize themselves with the various research tools available to assess the strengths of law schools.
Are you thinking about applying to law school this cycle? It’s getting to be time to stop thinking and start doing. If you want to apply on the early side (and you do), you should target the September LSAT at the latest. And if you want to take the September LSAT, you don’t have too long to wait before it’s time to start preparing.
Recently, after law professors and law students brought to light that some firms make summer associates sign arbitration agreements for employment-related claims, including sexual harassment claims, law students banded together and got a bunch of law schools (including all of the T14 schools) to ask that firms participating in campus recruiting disclose such policies. Hearing about this story made me start thinking about what else the collective bargaining power of law students could accomplish.
If you’re anything like me before my LSAT studies, you know that “webinar” is one of those techy, 21st century words, but you don’t know how it’s relevant to you. Put simply, a webinar is a seminar conducted over the internet web. And in the case of the webinars put on by Blueprint on May 16, they give you *free* LSAT and law school info *and* give you a discount on Blueprint LSAT courses.
In 2012, President Obama told a group of college students: “Check this out, all right? I’m the president of the United States. We only finished paying off our student loans about eight years ago.” That means the President and First Lady were well into their careers, with a combined resume of civil rights attorney, law professor, politician, author, nonprofit director, dean of students, big-law lawyer, and more before they paid off their law school and undergrad loans in their forties. If you needed a clear picture of how law school loans could hang over you, even throughout a successful career … there you go. During my own law school application process, I was deeply concerned about how law school loans could inhibit me from pursuing a public interest law career, but I’m here to share my own success in the law school scholarship application process to encourage you to take advantage of the same programs.
Interviews — they’re a necessary part of any career, and particularly in the career of an aspiring lawyer. My own law school application adventure included numerous interviews related directly to my law school apps, and later on for scholarships. You reach a point where interviewing really does become a better experience and you learn something about what it takes to be truly effective when you have your moment to shine.
More people are applying to law school this cycle. Maybe it’s an improving job market. Maybe it’s a bunch of idealists inspired by politics. Maybe it’s both, and maybe some other things, too. But regardless, the law school admissions game just got a little more competitive.
By now, this year’s law school applicants have been through the most trying elements of the application process and are finally (hopefully) coming out the other side with acceptances from some of their schools of choice. Law schools are welcoming their prospective students to visit for specific events or to simply take a tour to see what they’re all about. And while it should be fairly obvious why you would want to go and visit a school in person before you decide to start sending them your $180k worth of tuition checks, let’s take a look at some of the ways you can be sure you get the most out of a law school visits as an admitted student.