There is no surefire way for getting into the right law school.
Some applicants take the LSAT numerous times to get a competitive score. Others apply to schools more than once, waiting for just the right financial aid package to come with their acceptance letter.
Some J.D.s did all of these things and more when they were applying. Four recent law school graduates spoke with U.S. News about what worked well for them as applicants, what they’d do differently and how future applicants should think about financing a law degree. Their advice is below.
Understand [how to apply to the right number of law schools.]
Candace Carter, Belmont University , Class of 2015: Carter knew she wanted to attend law school in her home state of Tennessee, which made choosing where to go that much easier. Belmont was a fit for multiple reasons.
“They offered me a half scholarship, and it was also a new school,” Carter says. “We’re the second graduating class.”
She’s an advocate for newer schools that let students institute change. “I just felt like I could make more of an impact on that program than I could on another school that had been established forever, which is one of the things I really liked,” she says.
She encourages applicants to consider smaller schools, which may be more generous with financial aid, she says. Her graduating class had about 90 people, she says, which is a fraction of the students at places such as Northwestern University, her alma mater, which she also considered for law school.
Schools that are bigger and more competitive can come at a cost. “They’re very limited and selective about who they give their money to,” Carter says.
She was offered scholarships for more than one school and believes making her personal statement unique helped her to stand out as an applicant. “It was the recipe for a sweet potato pie,” she says. “The different pieces of the recipe I related to a different part of my life that pushed me to go to law school.”
Think [about how a law school’s location can impact where you’re hired.]
Alex Civetta, Harvard Law School, Class of 2015: Focusing on the LSAT and personal statement were a major part of the admissions strategy for Civetta.
He spent about two and a half months studying for the LSAT, without the help of a class, and took about 15 practice tests, he says. “Studying really hard for the LSAT paid off,” he says.
For his personal statement, it took him about a month to push through his writer’s block, write and get feedback. He believes the personal statement is one of the few parts of the application where prospective students can be selective about what they share with an admissions team.
“That’s like the one part of your application where you have control over what part of yourself they get to experience,” he says. When it comes to application essays, he encourages applicants to choose their words wisely.
“Think of each question a school asks you as another opportunity to show them a part of you that they wouldn’t see otherwise,” he says. “Give them a sense of you as a person because it’s kind of your only chance to do so.”
Consider [these law school scholarships.]
Landon C. Dais, Maurice Deane School of Law at Hofstra University, Class of 2015: Dais says he “lucked out” with getting a full ride to Hofstra, but some could argue that it took a great deal of work.
During his second go-round as a law school applicant, he was awarded a partial scholarship to Hofstra that still left him with a bill of around $40,000 per year in tuition and fees. Dais applied for a fellowship through the school to make up the difference.
Instead of including the usual typed essay with his application, he put together a multimedia presentation with online tool Prezi, which he describes as “PowerPoint on steroids.”
Between snapshots of Dais’ resume and YouTube clips of his community service in Harlem, New York, he stated in the presentation why Hofstra Law was the next step in his effort to be a good lawmaker.
For applicants who not only want to be admitted to law school, but also get scholarships, he encourages them to be aggressive.
“If you’re asking someone for money, you want to go above and beyond,” he says.
Makda Fessahaye, Marquette University , Class of 2014: Like many others, Fessahaye also received some scholarship money to attend a J.D. program. But she believes she could have done a few things differently as an applicant that could have helped with paying for school.
“I would have applied earlier,” she says. Fessahaye worked two work-study jobs while in college at Northwestern and applied to law school based on when she got a paycheck, which made her delay her applications for certain schools.
“The timing in which you apply to law schools, especially during that time, can affect your admission to the law schools, and even scholarship money,” she says. “If you apply later, they’ve probably already admitted because a lot of these schools are rolling admissions.”
Fessahaye is more in debt because of law school than she is because of college, she says. If applicants are able to save some money before attending school, she encourages them to do just that. “It’s expensive,” she says.
Searching for a law school? Get our complete rankings of Best Law Schools.
More from U.S. News
4 Factors for Picking the Right Law School
10 Ways to Get Financially Ready for Law School
Law Schools With the Most Competitive LSAT Scores
Law School Grads Share Application Dos and Don’ts originally appeared on usnews.com
