Law school applicants traditionally use U.S. News rankings extensively during their law school selection process. The “tier” system used by U.S. News has become accepted law school applicant lingo, with phrases such as “top 30″ or “T20 school” used as a means of identifying where a school falls within the rankings system. Law school deans and professors often criticize the methodology used by U.S. News, citing that many of the criteria considered important by the publication do not often hold “real world” importance in creating quality graduates. You can see the methodology used by U.S. News by clicking here.

SOUND OFF: Do you use rankings? Do you think they are representative of a school’s quality? How should applicants use them? Would you change the way they are calculated?

And that’s when everybody started panicking.

“What are the law schools going to think?” “Is this going to affect my admissions chances?” “What if I miss the deadline because my scores aren’t out in time?” “Should I write an addendum explaining what happened? Two addendums? Three? Four?” I fielded these calls, emails, and questions for days after Snowpocalypse 2010 hit the East Coast.

The answer is actually pretty simple.

Like you, me, and everyone else in the United States, law school AdComs are aware of the weather situation. As a matter of fact, they would likely be even more aware of it, since they have probably answered hundreds of phone calls from panicked students, all asking them to please forgive them for their late scores. Here is what a lot of students are forgetting though:

1. This was not your fault. It wasn’t even LSAC’s fault. It was Mother Nature’s. Therefore, you didn’t do anything wrong.
2. Schools know this wasn’t your fault. Therefore, they don’t need a groveling explanation and request their forgiveness.
3. This wasn’t an incident isolated to just one test center. Over 70 centers and potentially thousands of students were affected by this cancellation, making this not an aberration so much as the status quo. AdComs will actually be surprised with students that were not cancelled on, since a huge number of students will be taking their February LSAT late this year. Therefore, if you find yourself on the delayed LSAT boat, you’re not the exception–you’re almost the rule.

So take a deep breath. Relax. You don’t need to explain what happened. The good folks at LSAC will do that for you, and the AdComs already know (and they are being very understanding about it). Just look at this note from the Washington & Lee Law School admissions team:

It has been brought to our attention that this most recent spate of snow has resulted in a number of applicants being unable to take the February LSAT on their appointed date. If you happen to find yourself in this category, please do not worry. We are aware of the situation, and we encourage you to contact LSAC with any and all questions you might have about the rescheduling of the test administration. Please feel free to consult lsac.org for additional information. As noted in their post addressing the closings, LSAC will contact you via email as soon as possible (most likely the week after the test date) regarding other options, including a make-up test.

We will do our best to work with you throughout this process. As we note on our website, if your file is complete by March 1, we guarantee a decision by no later than the last week in March/first week in April, and we will make every effort to hold to this standard even if this weekend’s inclement weather results in your sitting for the February LSAT at a later date.

Source: WLU Blog

You’ll be fine. If you find that, for your own peace of mind, you absolutely must send in an explanation, make it very concise. One sentence is all that is needed:

“Due to the inclement weather in the East Coast, my February LSAT test date (and score release date) was delayed.”

Brief, factual, drama-free. Remember that AdComs already know, they’re being nice about it, and will work with you. After all, the snow made them close their offices, too!

The following deadlines are categorized by date due, and then alphabetically. As always, make sure to check with the institutions in questions to ensure the dates listed below are accurate. Although I make every effort to check, things can change, and it’s always good to get the numbers right from the law schools’ mouth.

Albany Law School – 3/1
American University – 3/1
Baylor University (Umphrey) -3/1
Boston College – 3/1
Boston University – 3/1
Brigham Young University (Clark) – 3/1
Charleston School of Law – 3/1
College of William and Mary (Marshall-Wythe) – 3/1
DePaul University – 3/1
Emory University – 3/1
Fordham University – 3/1
Illinois Institute of Technology – 3/1
Indiana University, Bloomington (Maurer) – 3/1
Indiana University, Indianapolis – 3/1
John Marshall Law School – 3/1
Lewis & Clark College (Northwestern) – 3/1
Loyola University Chicago – 3/1
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge (Hebert) – 3/1
Northeast University – 3/1
Pace University – 3/1
Pennsylvania State University (Dickinson) – 3/1
Quinnipiac University – 3/1
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Camden – 3/1
Seattle University – 3/1 (priority deadline)
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale – 3/1
St. Mary’s University – 3/1
Suffolk University – 3/1
Temple University (Beasley) – 3/1
University at Buffalo, SUNY – 3/1
University of Akron – 3/1
University of Baltimore – 3/1
University of California (Hastings) – 3/1
University of Cincinnati – 3/1
University of Connecticut – 3/1
University of Denver (Sturm) – 3/1 (priority deadline)
University of Hawaii (Richardson) – 3/1
University of Iowa – 3/1
University of Kentucky – 3/1
University of Maine – 3/1
University of Maryland – 3/1
University of Memphis (Humphreys) – 3/1
University of Mississippi – 3/1
University of Missouri – 3/1
University of Missouri, Kansas City – 3/1 (priority deadline)
University of Nebraska, Lincoln – 3/1
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill – 3/1
University of Oregon – 3/1
University of Pittsburgh – 3/1
University of Richmond (Williams) – 3/1
University of South Carolina – 3/1
University of South Dakota – 3/1
University of Tennessee, Knoxville – 3/1
University of Virginia – 3/1
University of Wisconsin, Madison – 3/1
University of Wyoming – 3/1
Vermont Law School – 3/1
Villanova University – 3/1
Wake Forest University – 3/1
Washington University in St. Louis – 3/1
Willamette University (Collins) – 3/1

University of Utah (Quinney) – 3/10

Catholic University of America (Columbus) – 3/12
University of Montana – 3/12

Howard University – 3/14

Georgia State University – 3/15
Mercer University – 3/15
New England School of Law – 3/15
Ohio State University (Moritz) – 3/15
Roger Williams University – 3/15
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Newark – 3/15
Stetson University – 3/15
Tulane University – 3/15 (priority deadline)
University of Colorado, Boulder – 3/15
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign – 3/15
University of Kansas – 3/15
University of Nevada, Las Vegas (Boyd) – 3/15
University of Notre Dame – 3/15
University of Oklahoma – 3/15
University of the District of Columbia (Clarke) – 3/15
University of the Pacific (McGeorge) – 3/15 (priority deadline)
Vanderbilt University – 3/15
Wayne State University – 3/15
Western New England College – 3/15
Whittier Colelge – 3/15

CUNY (Queen’s College) – 3/16

George Washington University 3/31
North Carolina Central Univeristy – 3/31
Texas Wesleyan University – 3/31
University of Alabama – 3/31

1. Schools that accept February LSAT scores
2. Schools that accept February LSAT scores but strongly suggest taking an earlier LSAT
3. Schools that don’t accept February LSAT scores
4. Schools that don’t specify a preference regarding February LSAT scores

Keep the following in mind as you use this list:

• If a school is listed as not accepting February LSAT scores, this doesn’t imply that they do not accept any February LSAT scores. If, for example, you took the February LSAT in 2009 and are applying in 2010, the school would have no problem accepting this score. “February LSAT,” as used in this list, is defined as the February LSAT taken in the same year for which the applicant is seeking admission.
• For schools that do not specify a preference, many times they have application deadlines that fall before the score release dates of the February LSAT. If this is the case, make sure to contact these schools to ensure that you can submit the rest of your application by the deadline and your LSAT score once the scores are ready.
• In all cases, it is always a wise choice to take the LSAT in June or October of the year prior to which you are seeking admission. This will allow you to retake the LSAT in either October or December if you feel the need to increase your score, and it will also allow you to submit your application by the middle of the admissions cycle, which will have a beneficial effect on your chances within the rolling admissions process.

SCHOOLS THAT ACCEPT FEBRUARY LSAT SCORES

American University
Arizona State University
Boston University
Brooklyn Law School
College of William and Mary
George Washington
New England School of Law
North Carolina Central University
Ohio State University
Pace University
Rutgers University, Newark
Santa Clara University
St. Mary’s University
Stetson University
Suffolk University
Temple University
SUNY Buffalo
University of Connecticut
University of Hawaii
University of Kansas
University of Maryland
University of Montana
University of Pittsburgh
University of Wisconsin, Madison
University of Wyoming
University of the District of Columbia
University of the Pacific
Vanderbilt University
Villanova University
Wayne State University
Western New England College
Whittier College
Yale University

SCHOOLS THAT ACCEPT FEBRUARY LSAT SCORES, BUT STRONGLY RECOMMEND EARLIER LSATs

These schools accept February scores but suggest earlier LSATs because seats may no longer be available in the incoming class by the time the applicant’s file is complete, competition for seats (if available) will be fierce and will drastically diminish the applicant’s chances, and/or scores become available too late for applicants to be considered for financial aid, scholarships, or Early Decision or Notification.

Albany University
Baylor University
Boston College
Catholic University
Charleston School of Law
Cornell University
CUNY (Queen’s College)
DePaul University
Duke University
Emory University
Georgetown University
Illinois Institute of Technology
Lewis & Clark College
Loyola Marymount University
Loyola University Chicago
Northeastern University
Northwestern University
Pepperdine University
Roger Williams University
Texas Tech University
University of Akron
University of Alabama
University of Arizona
University of California, Davis
University of California, Hastings
University of California, Los Angeles
University of Chicago
University of Colorado, Boulder
University of Florida
University of Georgia
University of Houston
University of Idaho
University of Iowa
University of Kentucky
University of Maine
University of Memphis
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
University of Mississippi
University of Missouri, Kansas City
University of Nebraska, Lincoln
University of New Mexico
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
University of Notre Dame
University of Oklahoma
University of Oregon
University of Pennsylvania
University of Richmond
University of San Francisco
University of South Carolina
University of South Dakota
University of Southern California
University of Utah
University of Virginia
University of Washington
Wake Forest University
Washington and Lee University
Willamette University

SCHOOLS THAT DO NOT ACCEPT FEBRUARY LSAT SCORES

Columbia University
Harvard University
New York University
Stanford University
University of California, Berkeley
University of Texas, Austin
Indiana University, Indianapolis

SCHOOLS THAT DO NOT SPECIFY A PREFERENCE REGARDING FEBRUARY LSAT SCORES

Although these schools do not specify a preference outright, many of them specifically state that their applications must be complete by a certain date (a complete application, by default, includes an LSAT score). Make sure to contact each school to obtain their stand on submitting the rest of your application materials prior to your LSAT score.

Brigham Young University
Fordham University
Georgia State University
Howard University
Indiana University, Bloomington
John Marshall Law School
Louisiana State University
Loyola University, New Orleans
Mercer University
Pennsylvania State University
Quinnipiac University
Rutgers University, Camden
Seattle University
South Texas College of Law
Southern Illinois University
Southern Methodist University
Southern University
Texas Wesleyan University
Tulane University
University of Baltimore
University of Denver
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
University of Missouri
University of San Diego
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
University of Tulsa
Vermont University
Washington University in St. Louis
West Virginia University

The following is a 10-month plan that will have you ready to submit your applications in October of 2010, at the start of the rolling admissions process, with room to spare. This plan will allow you to spend two months taking an LSAT course or studying for the LSAT on your own, as well as provide you with plenty of time to get all your law school application components done.

Keep in mind two important points:
1. Ideally, you should not try to do your applications and study for the LSAT at the same time.
2. You should have your applications ready for submission as soon as your LSAT scores are released.

Be careful: Don’t underestimate the amount of time and mental resources studying for the LSAT will take. It is likely to be an all-consuming effort, and trying to balance the LSAT with all the different elements of your application will likely result in your doing too many things at once. Separate your LSAT prep from your applications and you will increase your chances of doing well on both.

The following plan assumes an October LSAT date. Should you take the June LSAT, the months can be tweaked accordingly. Remember, however, to give yourself at least two months to study for the LSAT–you’ll need the time!

January: Start thinking about which schools you want to apply to. Of course, this will vary over time, and will ultimately be honed down by your GPA/LSAT combination, but it’s always good to have an idea of where you want to go and why. Also, since you’re not taking the LSAT until October, knowing which schools you want to apply to will also allow you to know around what number your LSAT score should be. Spend the month of January investigating schools and potential specializations, and putting together a “potential school” list.

February: Sign up for LSDAS (which you can do either on its own or when you sign up for the LSAT). Then thoroughly complete all the biographical information required on your profile. This is just one of those things that you can do ahead of time, and since the information you  enter there will be auto-populated into your applications later on, you’ve already technically completed at least one part of your applications. Also, start thinking about potential recommenders. The sooner you can let them know that you will want a letter from them, the better. Make sure to pick your recommenders carefully and be involved in the writing of the letters. Check out this video to learn about who to pick and why.

March: Approach your recommenders formally and have them start working on your letters. Give them a deadline of June, so that they have plenty of time, and make sure to check on them periodically to ensure they’re keeping on track. Start thinking about potential personal statement topics. Check out this video to learn a little more about what AdComs are looking for in a personal statement.

April: Start writing your personal statement. Once you’ve written your first draft, walk away for a few days. Then come back and revise the draft.  Then walk away for a few days. Then come back and revise the draft. And so on. This will allow you to have some distance between you and what you’re writing. If you’re having trouble narrowing down topics, write rough drafts of various topics and have someone else read them (preferably someone that knows you well, but not too well), and tell you which one is the most powerful. Then work on that topic exclusively. Also, work on your résumé. Get it updated and cleaned up. Many schools will ask for one in your application materials, and so it’s important to have a good, solid, updated résumé ready for submission.

May: You should have your personal statement almost completed. Now is the time to write a “diversity statement.” Although not all schools ask for one, many do, and it’s always good to have one on hand. The diversity statement basically answers the question, “What will you bring to XYZ Law School?” Many students believe that the diversity statement is reserved for those applicants of a specific racial background or who are members of an underrepresented minority. While it is true that these students should definitely write diversity statements, that doesn’t mean other students shouldn’t. Think about what makes you unique (Are you the first in your family to attend college/law school? Are you the youngest of 12 siblings? Are you a first-generation American? Have you worked in unusual positions or locations?); when law schools say “diversity,” they’re not just talking about race, they’re taking about diversity of experience. If your experiences make you see life and your surroundings in a different way, then you’ve got “law school diversity”–and you should talk about it.

June: Talk to your recommenders and make sure they are done with the letters. Give them the required LSDAS LOR forms and have them send in your letters to LSDAS for processing. Finalize your personal statement, diversity statement, and résumé. Look into whether the schools you are applying to require a Dean’s Certificate–if they do, obtain the form and submit it to the appropriate office at your undergraduate institution. Obtain LSDAS Transcript Request forms, submit one to every undergraduate and graduate institution you’ve attended, and have them send in the forms to LSDAS for processing.

July, August: Study for the LSAT.

September: Most ABA-approved law schools make their applications available on LSDAS on September 1st. Log into your LSAC account, pull up school applications, and check them over carefully for any “supplemental essay” opportunities (i.e., “optional” essays or long-answer questions that you can use to present another aspect of your candidacy or of your personality). Check the status of your LORs and transcripts on LSDAS–if any are missing, contact the appropriate people/offices and get it fixed ASAP. Continue studying for the LSAT.

October: Take the LSAT. Once you’ve taken it, take a week off and relax. Score are usually released 3-4 weeks after taking the test, so you’ve got some time. Work on any supplemental essays, upload your personal statement and diversity statement to LSDAS, and start going over the applications to the schools you’ll submit. Once scores are released, if you’re pleased with your score and won’t take the LSAT again, send your applications in! You’ll be sending them at the beginning of the rolling admissions cycle, which will improve your chances, and you should be able to hear back before the end of the year for many schools.

Click here to view the embedded video.

TRANSCRIPT

[OPENING SEQUENCE]

DAVE: Alright. Let’s get an overview of the entire process we’ve just talked about and make sure we all know who’s supposed to do what. Anne?

ANNE: It’s very important to understand who is responsible for what in the application process, because a lot of things that are actually essential components of your application are ot up to you at all, or are on somebody else’s timeline entirely. [...]

[For example,] Think about this: If you submit a request for a transcript to your undergraduate school today, some schools have a month-long waiting list, and if you don’t take care to take care of these things immediately [...] you may be submitting your application late, or not get it considered until very late in the game because of a simple time/scheduling oversight.

Transcripts [See video 3 of 4] are dependent upon your undergraduate or graduate organizations and schools. The letters of recommendation [See video 4 of 9] are completely on somebody else’s timeline–even though you may have some control over their content, they are on somebody else’s timeline entirely. Dean’s Certificates (if you know what those are–some schools require them) actually need to go through the Registrar’s Office, in some cases the Office of the Dean, and they get hundreds of requests for these every year and may take [up to] a month-and-a-half to even get it out the door. The LSDAS Report [See video 5 of 9] is very much up to someone else, in this case Law Services. At the very minimum, they take two weeks to process everything. That’s why we recommend, if you’re going to submit anything to LSDAS, that you do it four to six weeks from when you know [the documents] need to be in and, ideally, try to do it three months in advance, because then you give yourself time to fix things that might go wrong or to fix things that you might not initially see as problems but do turn [out] to be problems.

Now, as far as the personal statement, supplemental essays, addenda, and résumé go, I can’t stress enough the importance of beginning to work on these things early. You need to give yourself time. You don’t want to be working on your personal statement three days before the application is due. You’re not doing yourself a favor at all, you’re actually doing yourself a disservice by doing this; you want to let things marinate. One of the most powerful pieces of advice I can give you is: When you’re writing your personal statement, write your draft, and walk away for a week. Then come back to it. Once you’ve done revisions, walk away again. It’s only when you separate yourself from what you’re writing that you can really see the effect it has; you can see it with fresh eyes. The same thing happens with supplemental essays, addenda, and with résumés.

Look at the line that’s bolded in the middle of the screen. It says, “Your application won’t be considered until it is complete.” And “complete” is everything on that screen: personal statement, supplemental essays, addenda, résumé, transcripts, letters of recommendation, everything. This isn’t like college [applications]. In college, sometimes an application will be considered piecemeal, as it comes in: They’ll wait for your SAT scores, they’ll wait for your grades, there’s a mid-year school report. That’s because colleges–most colleges–don’t work on rolling admissions. Law schools do work on rolling admissions, which means that people that are complete first, get first dibs. People that are complete first get assigned first, get their letters first, get their notifications first. And if your application is not complete, it doesn’t matter that everything but one thing is sitting [in your file]–it’s going to sit there, gathering dust, until everything is in there.

Don’t leave things til the last minute, and always, always, always follow up. Don’t assume that just because you’ve handed something off to someone, that they’re going to do it. It is your responsibility to follow up on every single aspect of your application. After all, this application only affects you, not them. If they don’t follow up, it doesn’t really do anything to them, or for them.

DAVE: If you think about what’s happening with these applications, there’s more or less a big long checklist and, as each item comes in, [LSDAS] just checks it off. But they don’t send it on until every single thing is checked off and so you don’t have the luxury of saying, “Oh, yeah, they’re reading my essay right now.” No, because maybe you send in a few things and then you decide in the middle of the process, “I don’t want to go to law school, I want to go to business school instead.” [Law schools] don’t want to waste their time, so they don’t look at you until everything is in.

Sometimes people think, “Well, I’m just waiting for one more thing, I’m sure they’re looking at it.” No, they’re not. They won’t be looking at it until that last thing is in. That really underscores the idea that Anne was talking about: Start early. You don’t want to be furiously working on your personal statement (which is going to have to have a huge impact on what law school you get into) the night before it is actually due. You need to have this come off as a very well-written, well-reasoned, well-thought-out piece of writing, and the same goes for everything else in your [application].

One of the things that we really try to do [in this series] is give you an overview of the different elements that are actually present in your application folder. We’ve talked a little bit about our admissions counseling, which is something that we do year-round, but obviously [heats up] in the fall and early winter. One of the offers we make to our students is that if you do have questions about things that we’ve talked about or things that are troubling you, send us an email. Send an email to admissions@powerscore.com; you’ll probably hear back from Anne or one of her assistants. And if you want to take a look at the programs that we offer, you can go to our website here: www.powerscore.com/lsat/admissions. [...]

So, as we talked about all these ideas, we talked about when you should do them, and we said, “Do them early.” In the next module, we’re actually going to give you a timeline that shows you when you should start working on each of these elements and hopefully, now that you know what each of these elements are, you’ll feel more comfortable knowing when you should start working on each one of those. [Editor's note: Next module coming soon.]

On Anne’s behalf, I would to say thanks so much for listening. We hope that you enjoyed it, and you found it useful. Thanks so much.

[CLOSING SEQUENCE]

Click here to view the embedded video.

TRANSCRIPT

[OPENING SEQUENCE]

DAVE: Let’s talk about another type of supplemental essay, and that is the addenda. Anne has mentioned the addenda a few times already, so I’m going to let Anne expand upon that idea a little bit more.

ANNE: Absolutely, and I’m a big fan of addenda for a reason: It is your opportunity to explain what happened. It’s why I bring them up often. Now, I know that a lot of law school applicants can get “addendum-happy,” and add an addendum for every single teeny-tiny thing that is negative in their application, and that’s not what their purpose is. Their purpose is to provide an answer to the question, ”Why? ” If there is ever anything in your application where you perceive that the Admissions Committee might stop and go, “But why did that happen?” that’s when you add an addendum. The best way to do this is to get a friend, someone who knows you well but not too well, and have them read your application. Say to them, “Every time you don’t know why something happened or you’d like a little more information, just highlight it, put a little checkmark next to it,” because that means that, if they want more information, you can bet the Admissions Committee would probably like more information on that as well.

Some of the most common types of addendums are the low LSAT or low GPA addendums, explanations for your criminal record, or explanations for your academic probation or dishonorable discharge from the military. That’s why I mentioned [addenda] when we were talking about the points in the biographical information regarding conduct–that’s when addenda really come into play.

The big thing about addendums is this: Addendums are not your personal statement. They’re also not your supplemental essay. They’re not given to fiction, they’re not given to fictional writing, they are not given to flair or drama. They are clear, they are straightforward, and they are brief. No Admissions Committee wants to read 250 or 500 words on why you had a stomach ache on the day you took the LSAT. If that is what happened, then it’s two sentences long: “I was diagnosed with the flu shortly after taking the LSAT, I can provide doctor’s records if necessary.” Done. Period. It needs to be brief, factual, and absolutely drama-free. No flights of fancy. No “exploding fireworks in my intestines” if all you had was a stomach ache. Absolutely not. It’s very, very, very drama-free.

[They are also not] excuses. They are not “pity parties.” It’s very factual, matter-of-fact: “This is what happened, I take full responsbility for my actions, I wanted to let you know so that you could have all the information on hand when making your admissions decision.” Moreover, don’t tell the Admissions Committee how to do their job. Don’t tell them how to interpret your LSAT score, don’t tell them how to interpret your grades. Simply provide them with the extra information they need in order to make an admissions decision. [Addendums] are explanations, not excuses.

The biggest thing I can tell you is brief, factual, drama-free. If I could bold that, and make it shine, over in over, in bright red neon, that’s what I would do. [Remember:] Brief, factual, and drama-free.

DAVE: Let me just add something to what Anne said, all of which are completely valid points. When you think about addendums, be careful: You don’t want to try to address every other thing out there. [On the other hand,] A lot of students don’t realize they have the chance to write one or more of these. One of the most useful [to understand] is: If you have something that’s negative that you need to address, you don’t want to address it in your personal statement. [...] If you can’t get a letter of recommendation person to address it, then you can put it into an addendum, and actually talk about it there; it’s really a great place to take care of problems.

But, as [Anne] said, it’s not a “pity party.” There are many different things that you can talk about. Sometimes, it’s going to be your LSAT score. Maybe you have a long history of doing very poorly on standardized tests, but actually excelling when it comes to schoolwork. Well, you can talk a little bit about that. Do they want to see three pages of it? Definitely not. But if you have a valid point and can say, “Look, I got a 1200 on my SAT, 400 on each section, and yet I have a 4.0 [GPA] in college,” well, obviously, that could show [the Admissions Committee] that maybe you’re just not a good standardized test taker. And if your LSAT score is not where you want it to be, but you feel that you can do the work in law school, that’s worthwhile for them to hear. But you can’t complain, you can’t whine, you can’t create drama about it. You simply have to be very cold, reasonable, and analytical in terms of how you disclose this information and how you talk about it.

Another thing that I really want to mention that applies not only to these short essays, but also to the supplemental essays, and even your personal statement is: Don’t ever leave the Admissions Committee wondering. Don’t leave them asking the question, “Why?” or “What just happened?” When you are writing and speaking to the Admissions Committee make sure that, if something could or should be explained, that it is explained. [The addendum] can be a great place to do that, but not everybody needs to. This is something that, again, when we do admissions counseling, we counsel people and help them decide if they should submit an essay like this. For some people, it’s almost a necessity; we can take care of a problem in this type of essay that we don’t want to take care of in the personal statement. For other students, they don’t have any issues that really need to be addressed this way. No problem; they don’t need it.

[CLOSING SEQUENCE]

Click here to view the embedded video.

TRANSCRIPT

[OPENING SEQUENCE]

DAVE: Now we’re going to continue and talk about some of the other components. The next one is the supplemental essays. Anne?

ANNE: Now, there are three traditional, usual forms of the supplemental essay, and we’ve listed them [in the video]. Some of them you may know right off, and some of them, like the Statement of Purpose, take just a little bit longer to think about and understand. The two most common are probably the “Why” Essay, and the Diversity Statement.

The “Why” Essay is very straightforward; it’s very clear. As a matter of fact, Duke Law has one, and it just says, “Why do you want to go to Duke?” They give you no word limit, [and] they want to know why you want to go to a particular school. Now, here’s the deal with this particular “Why” Essay: You can’t just say, ” I want to go Harvard because I’ve been wanting to go to Harvard since I was five years old.” Next thing you know, the Admissions Committee is hitting the “snooze” button. The “Why” Essay has everything to do with how much you have investigated a school and determined that you are a great fit for them. Don’t talk about what they can bring to you, talk about what you can bring to them. They know they’re awesome–that’s why you’re applying there. Tell them why you are awesome for them.

Sell yourself. You have to think about yourself as a product that is being marketed. Would you buy a toothpaste where all they tell you is, “The box is really pretty”? No! You want to know that it’s whitening, that it fizzes, that it bubbles, and that it’ll give you the best smile ever! And that’s what you have to do with your supplemental essays. They’re essentially asking you: “Why do you want to come here? I know that you wrote this great personal statement, I know that you wrote this great résumé, I know that you have these great grades, but why do you want us? Tell us why we should want you.”

The Diversity Statement is another great supplemental essay, and I can’t tell you enough how much this applies to everyone. The Diversity Statement is not just for minority applicants. Think about what makes you a diversity applicant. If you’re a white, 22-year-old male, you may not think you’re very “diverse,” but guess what? If you grew up in poverty, that makes you pretty diverse. If you grew up in a single-parent household with a dad instead of a mom, that makes you pretty diverse, too. If you grew up in a twelve kid family, that’s diversity as well. Diversity is not so much what your race might be or what country you’re from, but what diversity you can bring to the community of a particular law school. Do your life experiences make you see things in a different way? Diversity, as defined by a law school, is not what color your skin is, or what country you’re from, but rather what you can bring to the intellectual conversation of a law school. That’s diversity. That’s what determines whether you are a diverse candidate or not.

The Statement of Purpose is actually something that’s very much geared toward a specific specialization. “I want to go and study international law at XYZ School because of my experiences in the Coast Guard [...] or because of my experiences with internships in the summer with the CIA .” You have to explain why [you're choosing to apply to law school]. This is time where you actually say, “This is why I want to go to law school.” That’s what the Statement of Purpose is

I really want to call everyone’s attention to more supplemental essay opportunities. When you are reading your application, don’t read with anything other than a fine tooth comb. Every single question, every single statement that doesn’t have a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ checkbox next to it, or that doesn’t have a word limit, is yet another supplemental essay opportunity where you can inject even more of your personality into that statement, into that essay, into that application. Analyze yourself, come up with different ways to show [your personality], to “play against type.” If you’re an engineer that also loves to sculpt, bring it up! That’s where the supplemental essay opportunities come in. Make the Admissions Committee sit up, shake the sleep out of their eyes, and go, “Whoa, really? Did I just hear that? This Art major also wins math competitions? That’s awesome!” Because, then, you know what? Sixty minutes later, when they’re on their coffee break, you know what they’re going to say? “Hey, how about that kid? The one that wins math competitions and has a painting? Isn’t that crazy?” And that means you just got an admittance letter.

Make sure that you don’t read your applications with anything other than a fine-tooth comb and a big magnifying glass, looking for opportunities to add even more spice to your application.

DAVE: And let me just add to that by saying that this is another part of the application that you control, and the more opportunities that you see and that you take to actually write about yourself and to let [the Admissions Committee] know who you are, the better off that you’re going to be.

Now, I also want to talk a little bit more about the Diversity Statement. I wanted to actually view it from the side of the Admissions Committee again, because they’re the ones actually making the decisions, so we need to get inside their heads a little bit.

When they talk about law school diversity, as [Anne] said, a lot of people think it means just race. It doesn’t. It’s a diversity of experience. They want to have people from different backgrounds with different experiences because they want to assemble a class that has all sorts of viewpoints present. The analogy that I always use–I’m a big sports fan–is: You wouldn’t want to make a football team out of 53 quarterbacks. They all play the same position, they all do the same thing, the team won’t be that good. Well, in the same way, you don’t want to assemble a law school class with a couple hundred of the same type of person. You need people with different backgrounds, different skills, different interests so that, when class is going on and you’re talking about some really interesting law points, different people will come up with different viewpoints that someone else may not have thought about. You might listen to another student thinking, “Gosh, I never looked at it that way.” That’s what creates richness in the law school experience; that’s what their goal is. So when you have elements about yourself that are differnet from the so-called norm or what would be something they would see a lot of, you want to highlight those ideas and bring them out.

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DAVE: Going to move on to the next topic here: The LSDAS Law School Report. Part of the reason we talked about the letters of recommendation prior to this, is because LSDAS, in their report, actually addresses the recommendations. Anne?

ANNE: Thanks, Dave. And Dave is absolutely right: That’s why we talked about the letters of recommendation. It’s why [this guide] is structured [like this]: Biographical Information, Transcripts, LSAT, Letters of Recommendation, because that’s exactly what the Law School Report includes.

So we’ll just go down the line. The first thing that [the Law School Report] includes is your Academic Summary Report, and that’s the report that actually includes your LSAC-calculated GPA [See video 3 of 9, "Transcripts"]. That’s where you’re going to see your GPA change, drop, or heighten, or any letter grades changed.

Now, the second thing it includes, though, is copies of all your transcripts. So, even though the law schools have the Academic Summary in front of them [which may have an altered GPA], they also have the copies of all your trascripts; if there’s any discrepancies, they will see them. Now, they reason [this video] is very specific in saying, “Copies of all transcripts (front only),” is because for many schools with strange grading curves, or uncommon grading practices, the place where they’re going to explain these uncommon practices or unusual curves is on the back of the transcripts, where it’s not copied, and where it’s not visible to law schools. Remember, law schools get their transcripts from the LSDAS Report; nothing actually gets sent from your undergradute institutions to the law schools. If there’s anything unusual about the way your school grades anything, you need to make sure to explain it in an addendum, which we will talk about later [See video 8 of 9, "Addenda"]. You need to make sure that you make it known that there is something unusual, special, specific, or peculiar about your grades and the way your school handles them.

The next two items [on the Report] are the LSAT scores and the LSAT Writing Samples, and the reason I want to call attention to the LSAT scores and LSAT Writing Samples is because of the sheer quantity of these that are actually included in the LSDAS Report. Up to twelve individual LSAT scores are actually included in your Law School Report; that’s a great deal. Even though you can only take your LSAT a maximum of three times every two years, if you’ve taken it three times every two years for the last 8 years, all of those [scores] are going to show up. Make sure that they count. Make sure that you’re not showing any sort of weird up-and-down grading curves as far as your LSAT score goes. For the LSAT Writing Samples, the last three are actually included. The Writing Sample is important: It’s important because schools can use it to compare it to your personal statement. You need to take it seriously because it is included in the Law School Report, and law schools will see it.

Finally, the letters of recommendation as processed by LSAC are there. We bring this up for a number of specific reasons, the first one being that it takes up to two weeks to process every single [letter], so you need to make sure they’re in there [with plenty of time]. The Law School Report is not considered complete until those letters of recommendation are in there. Try to make [the letters of recommendation] one of the first things you submit, if at all possible. You can actually select which letters of recommendation get sent to which schools, but they are categorized by different letter and number combinations, so you need to keep very close track of them because it can get confusing, and you don’t want to be sending a letter that’s specifically written for Cornell Law School to NYU. That’s just not a very good thing to have; it’s shoddy, and you don’t want that to be tainting the impression that the Admissions Committee has of you.

And, as far as who can see [the Report]? Everybody can. All the schools that are using the LSDAS for application submission (which is, essentially, every single ABA-approved law school) can see it, [and] they can see everything on there.

DAVE: Okay, and let me just follow that up with a little comment about the Writing Sample. Jon Denning and I did a module about the Writing Sample itself and so, if you haven’t had a chance, definitely go and listen to that [Video note: The LSAT Writing Sample module is available to PowerScore LSAT students]. The thing that is really striking to me about this is the fact that you see the last three writing samples are actually kept. I know that some of you out there were thinking, “I’m just going to blow off that writing sample; it’s really not all that important,” but it is something that is in this Report. [Admissions Committees] are receiving a copy of it, and they’re actually getting the opportunity to view it. Now, whether or not they read it isn’t necessarily the important idea; the thing is, they’re going to see a picture of it. So make sure, as we say in the [Writing Sample] module: Write the thing neatly. Even if they glance at it and read [only] the first couple of lines, you want to make sure that it’s neat, and you also want to make sure that at least the first couple of paragraphs are really nice and clear, and well-written. We want the whole thing to be well-written, but if you’re going to rush or run out of time, you want to go ahead and [only get sloppy] at the very end.

The other thing I want to add on to what Anne said about those LSAT scores: Typically, with law schools, they want to have an LSAT score that is valid, [i.e.,] from the last three years. They want something relatively recent. I believe it’s five years after an LSAT is taken that the scores start to drop off your record, so if you are taking it three times every two years, you can get up to twelve. If you’re thinking you can’t take every single LSAT every year–[you're right,] you can’t. But you can actually get up to that number because [LSAC] keeps [the scores] around for a good five years or so before they start to drop off.

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DAVE: Alright, let’s move on to the next element that we want to talk about, which are the very important letters of recommendation. I’m going to let Anne talk a little bit about this, because I know she has strong feelings about the letters of rec.

ANNE: Thanks, Dave. I do have very strong feelings about the letters of recommendation, and it comes primarily from the fact that, for nine out of every ten students I talk to, the first words out of their mouth when I talk about letters of recommendation are, “Well, that [letter] doesn’t really matter, does it?” Well, I’m here to tell you that it does. I won’t lie: Obviously, the GPA and the LSAT score are certainly important, and yes, in many cases that’s how schools decide who they’re going to look at and who they’re not. But, when they do look at you, that’s when the letters of recommendation, the addendums, the résumé, etc., start becoming important. You can literally write your way out of an acceptance if the letters of recommendation, the personal statement, and the résumé are not up to par.

So let’s talk a little bit about what the letters of recommendation actually are, because they matter and they’re important and, moreover, you have control over them. That’s incredibly important, and it’s so very empowering. You have control over what people can say about you [in the law school application]–you always do.

Take a look at what a letter of recommendation is. It is overwhelmingly positive; it is lengthy; it is anecdotal. Now, think about what that means. What is an anecdote? It is a story about you. It is a personal, specific story that presents an aspect about you that is not represented anywhere else in the application. You have a chance to influence the way admissions officers look at you because they’re looking at what somebody else thinks about you. Moreover, [the letters of recommendation] are also personal. They’re anecdotal, they’re personal, they’re lengthy, they’re overwhelmingly positive–and they’re well-written and heavily proofed.

You have to ask yourself, and you have to remember: Who is your audience? Your audience is the heads of admissions at top law schools. What do you think they’re going to think if they see a recommendation letter that comes along that’s not well-written, it’s not proofed, it’s got typos, it’s filled with generalizations, and it says things like, “Jimmy is a very nice boy. I enjoyed seeing him at the front of the class every day.” What are they going to think about that? What does that say about Jimmy? That says nothing about Jimmy. How about something like, “James is a wonderful student. I remember having so many conversations with him after class, drinking coffee. We used to share thoughts about ‘this’ and ‘that’. I remember the time he came over to my house, and we talked about ‘this’ and we did ‘that’.” [The second example] is personal, it’s impactful, and it leaves an overwhelmingly positive experience with the Admissions Committee that [makes them say], “Wow, this person actually knew the applicant.” That’s [the letter of recommendation's] purpose, to present a completely different side of the applicant that the applicant can’t do on their own. It allows you to toot your own horn, without actually being the one blowing the trumpet.

The one big thing I want to really bring up is [this]: More often than not, I have students [asking] me, “Who should I pick for my letters of recommendation? I have this big[-name] professor, and he was awesome–he’s written about twenty books, he’s the head of the department, everybody knows who he is.” So then I ask them, “Well, what classes did you take with them?”

Student: “I was in his big lecture course, it was amazing.”
Anne: “Does he know who you are? Could he pick you out of a lineup?”
Student: “Well, you know, I showed up at his office hours a couple of times.”
Anne: “Okay. What can he say [about you]?”
Student: “Well, we had a nice chat.”
Anne: “What did you talk about?”
Student: “Oh, we talked about a paper.”

Now, you ask me: What exactly can this [recommender] tell you [about you]? Can he tell you who you are, how you talk, how you think? Can he say anything positive and specific? No.

How about the TA in that class that you shared hour upon hour upon hour with three times a week, and knows you inside and out, and can recall specific anecdotes? Who do you want [to write your letter]: The Nobel Prize-winning professor that everybody knows but can’t say one thing about you, or the TA that’s just working his way up but can talk a mile a minute for an hour-and-a-half about you and just say positive things? TITLES AREN’T EVERYTHING. What is everything are the overwhelmingly positive, personal anecdotes that can be told through a letter of recommendation.

Now, take a look at what [the letters of recommendation] are not: They are not regurgitations of your résumé. (As a matter of fact, your personal statement is not a regurgitation of your résumé either, but we’ll talk about that in just a bit.) You need to be able to tell your recommenders what to say, and make sure that they don’t repeat things that you already been said elsewhere. Just like everything else in the application, your letters of recommendation are valuable, valuable real estate. You don’t want to waste them on repetition. You want to make sure they bring something new to the table.

So, they’re not regurgitations of your résume; they’re not impersonal generalizations; most importantly, they are not fainthearted and they’re not lukewarm. If somebody can’t stand up and shout from the hilltops that you are completely awesome, then you don’t want them as your recommender. You need somebody that loves you and wants to see you succeed to be writing these letters of recommendation for you.

DAVE: And let me second some of Anne’s thoughts there. You know, one of the great things about the letters of recommendation is [that] you have control over them. You have the ability to talk to the recommender and let them know that there are certain aspects of your application, or your person, that you would like them to talk about. A lot of people just walk up to whoever it is they want to have do the recommendation and say, “Can you write me a recommendation?” They hand them the form and say, “Thanks so much,” and they leave. That is not the right way to do this.

The better way to do this is to actually give them some documentation (the résumé, for example, is a great thing) to help remind them of all the different achievements that you have accomplished in your career, in your academic life, and so forth, and to let them know, “This is what I would really like to see from you. It would really help me if you would write it in this particular fashion.” Give them a synopsis, or an overview of what you would like from them. Having been asked to write recommendations before, I can tell you that, when students do that, it makes life so much easier, because now I know what the student wants from me, and I can respond to that. If somebody just walks up to me and says, “I need a recommendation,” I’m like, “Well, what part do you want to talk about? If you just want me to be broad, it’s going to feel broad.” And that’s one of things about these letters of recommendation that is really critical: You cannot have them be generalized. In [this video] we’ve talked about what they are, and we have that idea that they are anecdotal; literally, they’re very anecdotal because they’re telling stories about you, and they’re personal, as well. We want something here that is actually goint to be talking about you.

Anne gave a great example of the difference between a recommendation like, “Oh, I really liked that person; he was a lot of fun in class,” versus, “Alright, I’ve spoken to this person.” The whole idea of a generalized letter of recommendation is something that a lot of people feel they can do by just giving a few ideas. NO. Don’t just give a few broad ideas; I want many, specific insights into your character, your person, so that if I’m on the Admissions Committee, I can really get a sense of who you are.

And, of course, the great thing is that letters of recommendation don’t have to be all about the positives. Recommenders are a great avenue to solve a problem that you might be having. If you know, for example, that there’s something in your background that is somewhat negative, you don’t necessarily have to address it yourself. Having a recommender address it is incredibly powerful. If a recommender comes in here and says, “Well, I know that there was a problem with John several years ago; he was actually arrested. Let me tell you my take on that so you have a better understanding [of the situation],” and then they explain it–all of sudden the Admissions Committee will take the words of the recommenders more or less at face value, and they’re going to give that a lot of credence.

There’s different ways to use these letters of recommendation. Don’t just hand it off to your recommender and say, “Please give me a general recommendation.” Give them notes. Give them a good idea of what you would love them to say, and make sure they understand that the longer [the letter] is, the better that it will be, and that the more detailed it is, the more powerful and compelling that it will be.

Now, I also want to underscore the idea that Anne talked about: Do you want someone with a big, impressive title, or do you want somebody who actually knows you a lot better? She said that titles aren’t everything, and I cannot agree with that more. I once listened to one of the Yale [Law School] admissions staff talk about recommendations, and what he said was very clear about it. He said, “If [the recommender] doesn’t know you, I’m going to know that immediately. I will be able to sense that within the writing, and guess what? That’s a big black mark against you.” [The Admissions Committee] wants to read recommendations from people who actually truly know who you are, who understand your character. If you choose somebody who does not know you, what you are saying–what you are conveying to the Admissions Committee–is that it doesn’t really matter what these people have to say, and that their input is of no value. It is of value. And, what’s worse, the Admissions Committee will know that that’s what you’re thinking and they will penalize you heavily for that. So, make sure that you choose somebody who understands who you are.

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