Should You Re-Apply to Law School?
As this cycle’s law school applicants decide where to place their deposits, negotiate scholarships, and fight their way off waiting lists, there is undoubtedly a small group that will decide to wait and reapply this fall. Here are five indicators that you should consider re-applying:
As this cycle’s law school applicants decide where to place their deposits, negotiate scholarships, and fight their way off waiting lists, there is undoubtedly a small group that will decide to wait and reapply this fall. Here are five indicators that you should consider re-applying:
1. If you took the LSAT without being fully prepared. By registering for the October LSAT, you will have the summer to prepare. If you’re graduating from college, you may see a big increase in your score if you’re studying for the LSAT at a time when you are not also taking classes. By improving your LSAT score, you can not only get into better schools, you can also get better scholarships to the schools where you’ve already been admitted this year.
If you did not invest in LSAT prep and one of the weaknesses in your application is a low LSAT score, you have time to save up. If someone tells me they can’t afford an LSAT prep program of any kind, it usually tells me they really can’t afford law school. (This is a sad socio-economic fact and does not encourage diversity in law schools, but it’s also usually stated by the people who get very low LSAT scores and then insist on continuing to study on their own for the test). If you are not good at standardized tests, you are not going to be any good at teaching yourself to take a standardized test. Seek help.
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2. If you applied late in the cycle. Did you take the February LSAT and throw in your applications in March, scrounging for Letters of Recommendation that came in barely in time for deadlines? Simply applying earlier in the next cycle, and putting together more thoughtful applications, may yield better results.
3. If your priorities have changed. If at first you submitted applications caring only about ranking, but now you’re realizing that the cost of law school is also a factor, then starting over with a new schools list would make a one-year delay worthwhile. Just think of the money you would save in the long run!
An informal Facebook survey of my former clients who are in law school revealed that most of them wished they’d taken weather into account when choosing a law school. A recent Columbia Law graduate who is from California said, “Weather may not be THE most important factor in choosing a law school, but it is surely one of the many little big things to consider that will surely influence your emotional and mental well being and overall law school experience.”
4. If your only choices are bottom ranked schools with low bar passage rates, high flunk-out rates, and in a location where you have no desire to live. This could be the biggest mistake of your life, and often happens to people whose parents are insisting they not take time off from school and/or who feel desperate to attend any law school that will take them. This second pressure is especially common in older applicants who feel they are wasting time by waiting. Many who make this decision feel certain they will be able to transfer to a school in a more desirable location after they get superb grades as a 1L. For anyone saying any or all of these phrases, let me tell you – it’s very, very, very difficult to be the exception to the rule.
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The most common comments and questions on my blog are along these lines: people ask about their chances of transferring from one of these schools, they appreciate that these are the only schools willing to give them a chance given their low numbers, but they all think they are the outliers – that they will make it through, be at the top of the class, pass the bar, etc. Statistics aren’t perfect, but if your previous academic preparation is poor, you’re going to have a hard time in law school. And then, once you are academically dismissed from a bottom tier school, you have a scarlet letter – who will take another chance on you?
5. If you aren’t pulled in off the waiting lists at the schools you’d most like to attend. By taking yourself out of commission for this cycle, coming back to those schools next year, and essentially communicating that this is absolutely what you want, now you want it more than ever, and you weren’t willing to compromise, you may be able to get the admit letter in the next cycle. For example, I have a client who was not admitted off of the Harvard Law waiting list last year. He reapplied this year and was admitted. He didn’t have updated grades or a new LSAT score, but he did make more effort to clearly state his professional goals and why Harvard Law was worth waiting for, and it made the difference. In the meantime, he gained another year of professional work experience and contacts, and feels even more sure of his decision to pursue a law degree.
Ann K. Levine is a law school admission consultant and owner of LawSchoolExpert.com. She is the author of The Law School Admission Game: Play Like an Expert (affiliate link) and The Law School Decision Game: A Playbook for Prospective Lawyers (affiliate link).