Law can be an exhilarating career path for those with the necessary qualities, yet becoming one requires significant dedication, hard work and patience.
The What Law School Is Best For Me quiz will assess your skillset to ascertain whether law school is right for you, as well as identify which institutions to apply to.
Personality
No matter if you are a high school graduate contemplating major change or an undergraduate student looking to pursue law as a career path, identifying your desired goals for legal practice is key to choosing law schools with programs and locations suitable to you.
Remember, law school admissions is a marathon and not a sprint. Don’t give up if your LSAT score or undergraduate GPA aren’t where they should be; show admissions folks you have been working hard by showing evidence of progress such as an improvement in grades or professional development efforts to demonstrate this drive to succeed.
Consider what distinguishes you from other applicants–an unconventional hobby, unique background or an impressive accomplishment–so law schools remember who they’re looking at among a highly competitive applicant pool. Your unique hobbies, backgrounds or achievements could provide law schools with something memorable about you; perhaps even inspiring personal statements or long-form answers on applications!
Interests
When choosing a law school, it’s essential to keep in mind your career goals. While rankings can provide some data points, the primary factors should come from each individual student and his or her individual situation and preferences.
Students should review each school’s curriculum alongside considering career pathways. While core curricula often cover similar legal doctrinal subjects such as civil procedure, constitutional law, torts research writing and property ownership — each school offers unique course offerings.
Student should consider salary-to-debt ratios and costs as well as alumni networks at each law school they consider. LSAC’s Law School Wizard can assist applicants in narrowing down their choices and making informed decisions about which law schools may best meet their academic and professional goals, with links provided through official guides to individual law school websites. In general, however, finding a law school that fits perfectly will enable one to reach academic and professional success more quickly.
Education
Prior to embarking on this path, it’s essential that you are sure that law school is truly appropriate and will help achieve your career goals. Our quiz can help you do just that!
Top law schools look for applicants who have excelled academically while experiencing different areas of life. While it is acceptable if you weren’t on a pre-law track or attended an Ivy League university, as long as your LSAT scores and undergraduate GPA are strong.
Experience is also useful in the legal field; working for a non-profit, studying abroad, or having international exposure from studies or work will enable you to provide unique perspectives within classroom discussions as well as your future legal practice career. You should be able to articulate why this experience will bring new elements of interest into each class session as well as your legal career itself.
Career
Law school is more than just studying; it’s an experience. Location plays an integral part when selecting your program of law study.
Consider what area of law you wish to specialize in as your future career. Different programs often specialize in certain areas; do some research into where their graduates go after graduation to see if any interests you.
Finally, when making your list of schools to attend, take into account competition for admission at each. LSAC has grids which outline the number of applicants with certain LSAT score and UGPA range who were accepted over time; these data can help you rank schools according to how competitive their applications may be for you. It would also be worthwhile checking employment statistics after graduation so as to see whether graduates are finding jobs. It wouldn’t make sense spending three years studying somewhere that doesn’t offer what opportunities you require.
