The LSAT ®: Hear From The Experts!

The LSAT®. You’ve heard a lot about it. You know it’s important; maybe even the most important part of the law school application process. But, what does it test? How important is it relative to other factors in the admissions process? How do law school admissions committees use the test to evaluate your application? Is there really a way to “prepare” for the test? Can you improve your score? What can you do you if you have a bad day on test day?

Law School Podcaster Host, Althea Legaspi, tackles these questions, and others, in our recent segment, “The LSAT®: Everything You Need To Know About The Test.” She spoke with law school admissions deans as well as test preparation companies to explore all the aspects of the LSAT®, including some of the myths surrounding the test, and the best approach for preparing for the test.

Just how important is the LSAT®? We went directly to the people who make the admissions decisions. Dean Sarah Zearfoss, Assistant Dean and Director of Admissions at The University of Michigan Law School explains how schools use the test to evaluate applications: “As a general matter, it is just one piece of the pie, and I can tell you from my experience that what we’re looking for is an indication that the person has what it takes to do the work here. The LSAT® is a useful tool for helping us to assess that. But beyond that, once we’ve satisfied that question or satisfied our minds about that question, then we’re looking for all the other stuff that makes a class interesting and a student body great. ” While it is not the “be-all and end-all” that students may think it is, Zearfoss acknowledges that she “wouldn’t want to try to go through 5,600 applications without having some kind of apples to apples measure like that.”

So, is this a test students can really prepare for? Our guest Deans of Admission advise applicants to take the time to prepare. Chloe Reid, Associate Dean and Dean of Admissions for USC Gould School of Law, says that “[s]tudents can prepare, can study; if that were not the case, then I’m certain the Law School Admission Council would not be in the business also of providing [LSAT] test materials and copies of old tests for people to purchase and certainly study by, and certainly all these testing organizations wouldn’t necessarily be as successful as they are in their ventures in terms of the numbers of people who come to them for prep services.”

Our test prep experts also talk about their strategies for the LSAT®, the best ways to prepare for the test and provide advice that can help test-takers. Jeff Thomas, Assistant Director of Pre-Law Programs at Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, provided us with specific insights about questions on the test. He says “that while there are multiple ways to answer some questions, there is one that is most effective and most efficient.” Thomas says that it is a “skills-based test” and “one that students can definitely improve performance on.”

David Killoran is the CEO and Director of Course Development for PowerScore Test Preparation and he has written several “Bibles” or studying guides that help students prepare for the LSAT®. He says that “there is a strategy to taking the LSAT® and that there are a variety of different levels of that strategy they give you in their courses.”

Listen to the full show to hear more detailed advice from our panel of experts about strategies for the LSAT® and learn more.

Making Your Law School Wish Lists? Make sure To Weigh The Costs and Benefits!

It’s a given these days that a law school education is expensive, just about any way you look at it. As you begin to draw up that list of law schools you are considering, you just can’t afford to ignore how cost affects your analysis. That issue came up as we prepared our show, Choosing the Right Law School: Understand the Factors That Will Affect Where You Want To Go To School.

Law School Podcaster Host Bonnie Petrie spoke with Linda Abraham, Founder, Admissions Consultant and Editor at Accepted.com. Accepted.com guides and advises applicants on gaining acceptance to law school. While Abraham says that the undergraduate GPA and LSAT score is the starting point to determine which law schools you’ll want to consider, there also “has to be a weighing up of cost and benefit.”

Abraham advises applicants to calculate the cost/benefit of attending a particular law school. “Look carefully at where graduates of [a] school are going and getting jobs and what is the typical salary they get when they graduate vis-a-vis what’s it going to cost you to attend.” If you go to an expensive private school and it’s not going to get you a job, you’ll have a lot of debt to pay back and not the means to pay it back.” She gave us the basics on how to approach this calculation.

Petrie also interviewed Wendy Margolis of the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC), the non-profit corporation that provides admission-related services to legal education institutions and also administers the LSAT. Margolis also suggested that applicants research thoroughly the placement rates from particular law schools and dig a little deeper at those schools and see what type of placements those are, what kind of jobs people have gotten after graduating from those law schools.” Given the current economy, placement rates are likely to be down, so this type of research may be more important than ever.

In this show, we also hear from Hewlett Askew, Consultant to the American Bar Association (ABA) on Legal Education. Askew gave us the low-down on the ABA accreditation process and what it means to attend an ABA accredited law school as well as when it might make sense for an applicant to consider a non-accredited law school or a non-accredited online school.

Tune in to the show to hear the full discussion of the factors to consider when choosing a law school.

You Law School Application: It's Not Just About Your GPA and LSAT Score

Wouldn’t you like to go behind-the-scenes and hear what the admissions committee really looks at when evaluating all those law school applications? We did that for you in our show titled “Creating the Killer Law School Application: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating the Best Application.” Our host, Diana Jordan, spoke to top law school admissions deans about what they look for in a candidate.

Andy Cornblatt, Dean of Admissions at Georgetown University Law Center advises applicants to “take ownership” of the application and “work hard on that essay” because the admissions committee looks at the total package, not just the GPA and LSAT score. He says that even where the GPA and LSAT score are not quite strong enough, students who present themselves in a particularly compelling manner, can gain admission. One way an applicant can maximize his or her chances, Cornblatt says, is to grab the attention of the admissions committee in “the first paragraph of the personal statement. That’s the one that sort of catches our eye or doesn’t. And that’s really in the applicant’s hands. And so I would say that working on the personal statement is very important in this process in catching our attention. That’s the most important piece of this.…” Cornblatt also shares with us some great tips on timing to submit an application that can really make the difference in getting accepted as well as some of the mistakes that cause an application to “miss the boat.”

What does the admissions committee really want to see in a “killer” personal statement? Ann Perry, Assistant Dean for Admissions at The University of Chicago Law School says that one type of personal statement that tends to stand out is where the applicant focuses on an individual experience that shows what they have accomplished (like an internship or even a single day in an internship) and one that shows how the applicant grew from that experience. Perry suggests that applicants “use that [opportunity] to show how they realized that “law school is the next step.”

We also get expert advice from Accepted.com Senior Consultant, Paul Bodine, author of Great Personal Statements for Law School about how to distinguish your personal statement from others, what to include and what not to include in this important part of your application. Derek E. Meeker, Senior Law School Consultant for AdmissionsConsultants, Inc. and former Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at University of Pennsylvania Law School also weighs in on how to nail those stellar letters of recommendation.

Check out the full show to learn more about the specific things that can make or break a personal statement or a letter of recommendation and that transform your application into a “killer” one.