How to Mitigate a Weakness in Your Law School Application

One of the biggest tasks confronting a law school applicant is the need to mitigate weaknesses or perceived weaknesses in an application. Nearly everyone applying to law school knows they need to perform this necessary step, but the hard part is ascertaining true weaknesses and then actually addressing them. Here is a 5-step process for mitigating the biggest weakness in your application:

1. Identify the biggest weakness in your candidacy. The first step is identification. If you don't know what your biggest weakness is, how can you possibly mitigate it? For many law school applicants, this is the most difficult task of all. Part of the problem is frame of reference. Most applicants attempt to perform a self-analysis and many are even incredibly critical of themselves, so the problem isn't one of willingness or effort. Instead, the issue stems from a failure to visualize the competitive landscape. More often than not, candidates will evaluate themselves by comparing their own backgrounds and accomplishments relative to those of the people around them (classmates, friends, family members, co-workers, etc.). This is a rather unhelpful comparison. Instead, a law school applicant should make every effort to analyze their candidacy in relation to other applicants. This is the primary value that admissions consulting companies like Veritas Prep provide, although students can certainly get this perspective from faculty members and friends, if they are lucky enough to have access to such qualified individuals.

2. Understand that the weakness works two levels. Every element of your application that might be a major weakness - GPA, LSAT score, resume, etc. - works on two levels: an obvious surface level and a latent, thematic level. The surface level is easy enough to understand, but is the hardest to compensate for, as the premise here can be summed up as "it is what it is." A 2.9 GPA is just that - a 2.9 GPA. There is nothing that you can do to change it and there's no way to convince a school that it doesn't matter. You have to report it to the law school and the law school has to report it to ranking agencies. Everyone in the process is captive to raw numbers and surface-level determinations. However, the thematic level is something else entirely. This is the aspect of a major weakness that most candidates miss, which is a shame because it is much easier to sway a decision-maker on a thematic level. To take the low GPA example above, the latent implication of a low GPA is a lack of discipline, focus, and maturity. Candidates have a much easier time showcasing those traits in other aspects of their profile than they do of making the low GPA go away.

3. Start with school selection. Once a weakness has been identified and properly understood on two levels, the first step toward mitigation is to be smart about school selection. Again, sticking with low GPA, it behooves a candidate to do some research into programs that seem more forgiving of a low GPA. A quick comparison of two elite law schools - Chicago and Berkeley (tied for 6th in U.S. News & World Report last year) - shows a pretty major disparity in GPA range. Berkeley's 25th-75th percentile range for GPA in 2009 was 3.64-3.9 while Chicago's was 3.49-3.76. That may not seem like much, but a .15 difference is massive for such equitable schools. Not surprisingly, Chicago's LSAT range is much higher than Berkeley's (169-173 for Chicago compared to 163-170 for Berkeley). You can make a lot of guesses as to why these disparities exist, but the biggest rule of thumb is don't fight it! If you have an awesome LSAT score and a lower GPA and are debating between Chicago and Berkeley, the choice should be easy. Apply to Chicago and give yourself the best chance to succeed.

4. Take any steps possible toward correction. Once you have a list of schools that makes the most sense, it is practical to take any steps you can toward "fixing" the weakness. This is cheating a little bit, because if something can be fixed, it rises to a level several degrees higher than mitigation. That said, it is startling to see how many candidates settle and accept their fate. If you have a sparkling profile but bomb the LSAT, take it again! If you tanked an accounting class freshman year, take another one. Sure, it won't erase that bad grade or change your GPA if you already graduated, but it will show the law school that you have grown up and are serious about moving in the right direction. When the weakness is in leadership, teamwork, or other extra-curricular factors, it is even easier to take correctional steps, as it simply requires getting involved.

5. Mitigate through the application. This is the step where every candidate ultimately lands if there is a true weakness in the profile. Once you've identified the weakness, worked through the two levels of impact, selected the best schools, and taken correctional steps, you are left with the challenge of positioning your application in such a way that it mitigates the harm of the weakness. Going all the way back to a low GPA and what it means for your candidacy, mitigation will mean using the application to express to the reader that you indeed have the maturity, focus, and discipline to succeed in a law school classroom. The position that such an applicant would take would be to build a "here's when the light bulb came on for me" narrative. For someone with a low LSAT score, the application becomes about intellectual horsepower. And so on. Most law school applicants mistakenly highlight their strengths at the expense of mitigating weaknesses, or they go too far and overtly apologize and make excuses for those weaknesses. The key is to use the personal statement and other application components as a way to change the reader's mind on a thematic level about a component from the profile. Ultimately, that is how you mitigate a weakness.

Adam Hoff is the Director of Admissions Consulting and Research at Veritas Prep. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School and Pepperdine University, where he served as the Associate Director of Admissions. Adam oversees Veritas Prep’s law school admissions consulting services to ensure that Veritas Prep clients are successfully poised for admission to their select law schools.

You can hear more from Adam on strategic tips for your law school application in the Law School Podcaster episode, Law School Application Strategy: What You Can Do Now To Help You Get Accepted.

Best Time to Submit Law School Applications? By Thanksgiving Or New Years, If Possible!

It’s a busy time right now for those of you working on your law school applications. One frequent question we hear over and over again from applicants is “when is the best time to submit my law school application?” When is the best time to get that application in front of the admissions committee? Is there any significance to timing?

Would you like to hear what some of the Deans of Admissions at the law schools you are applying to have to say in response to these questions? In a few of our recent episodes, Law School Podcaster spoke with the people in charge of admissions at UCLA School of Law, Georgetown University Law Center, University of Chicago Law School and George Washington University Law School and asked them to share their views on when the best time is to submit your application and the reasons for this strategy.

UCLA School of Law, Assistant Dean for Admissions and Financial Aid, Rob Schwartz tells us that, “in general, it’s better to be able to apply earlier in the process -- particularly for very selective law schools that are getting thousands and thousands of applicants.” In our segment, “Law School Application Strategy: What You Can Do Now to Help You Get Accepted,” Dean Schwartz explains: “Most people will tell you that it is certainly better to submit your application earlier than later. For example, at UCLA, our application deadline is February 1st, we received about 8,200 applicants this year and we’re only going to admit a class of 300. We do admit conservatively enough because we know that we’re going to be getting applications through February 1st and we know there are going to be applications that will come in later that we are going to want to admit to the law school."

What does "early" mean? Schwartz says that "[g]enerally, it is good advice to get it in as soon as possible. I generally would say to people to try to shoot for the latest by the Christmas, New Year’s period and if you can get it in by Thanksgiving or between Thanksgiving and Christmas, even better.”

Dean of Admissions at Georgetown University Law Center, Andy Cornblatt, agrees with that time frame. In our segment, “Creating the Killer Law School Application: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating the Best Application,” Dean Cornblatt offered tips to law school applicants and said “I think probably the most underrated piece of this, is when to apply. Most law schools have rolling admissions and that means the sooner you apply, the better your chances are of being admitted. So while the application deadline is February 1st, I strongly suggest that applicants get their application in before Thanksgiving and that means usually that most of our successful applicants take the LSAT in June or October of the application cycle that they are in. December is just fine, but if you want early consideration, which really helps your chances, you want to have already have taken the LSAT, which means that I would recommend that most students, if they can, take it in June or October of the application cycle that they are in.”

The application process provides several opportunities for applicants to stand out and our experts tell us that getting your application in early communicates something significant to the admissions committee. Dean Cornblatt at Georgetown offered this insight: “Someone who is on top of their game and who is applying early and who is in the mix sooner rather than later. That communicates to us someone who is organized and someone who is really interested."

While earlier is better than later, don’t submit your application until it’s in top form and error free! Consider these words of advice from Anne Richard, Associate Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, for George Washington University Law School. “The time to submit the application is when it is done and in the best shape possible but, earlier is better, because I believe most law schools have a rolling admissions process.”

Finally, even if you get your application in early, don’t read too much into the fact that you don’t hear back right away. Assistant Dean for Admissions at The University of Chicago Law School, Ann Perry, advises applicants to understand that the rolling admissions cycle is a process that requires some patience. “I think the applicant needs to just realize that they need patience in the admissions cycle, meaning that just when they turn in their application, they are not going to get an answer within a week. They need to give the schools time to review all of their applications as they are making their decision.”

Tune in to the full shows, “Law School Application Strategy: What You Can Do Now To Help You Get Accepted” and “Creating the Killer Law School Application: A Step-by-Step Guide To Creating The Best Application” to hear more tips from these experts on how to make your law school application stand out!

Law School Podcaster is also working on a new show, “The Law School Personal Statement and Letters of Recommendation,” to help you with these important parts of your application.

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.

Law School Podcaster Featured in iTunes "New and Notable"

Our first show is already getting some attention on iTunes. Law School Podcaster has been featured in the “new and notable” category of the Business/Careers section on iTunes. More Law School Podcaster shows are coming soon to iTunes, including “Creating the Killer Law School Application: A Step-By-step Guide To Creating The Best Application” and “Choosing the Right Law School: Understand The Factors That Will Affect Where You Want To Go To School.”

Is Law School In Your Future? It's Not Too Early To Map Out Your Game Plan!

In a tough economy, like the one we face today, there is increased competition to get into law school. If you’re considering law school as an option, you might want to start planning now to help you get into that school of your choice when you apply. You will need to develop a timeline to prepare for and take the LSAT®, consider how you will write a well-developed personal statement, lay the groundwork for securing strong letters of recommendations and, according to our experts inside the admission process, you will need to get your application finished and submitted as early in the application cycle as possible. They tell us to think in terms of a Thanksgiving deadline, to really help your application chances!

If you are in the process of applying to law school or, if you think you might want to apply in the near future, then tune into our show, Law School Strategic Admission Plan: What You Can Do Now to Help You Get Accepted Next Year, and hear how to strategically map out a plan that will improve your chances of being accepted at the law school of your choice.

Our host, Diana Jordan, spoke with law school admissions deans about the importance of developing a timeline early on to navigate the application process.

We discussed the importance of advance planning and a timeline with UCLA Law School's Assistant Dean for Admissions and Financial Aid, Rob Schwartz. “It’s best to start thinking about getting recommendations and preparing for the LSAT® at least a year in advance and preferably even as much as two years in advance because the recommendations, at least in our process here, are a very critical part of the admissions process….” Dean Schwartz also advises to prepare for and take the LSAT® as soon as possible in the admissions process. “Many schools will accept the December administration of the LSAT® and some schools will even accept the February administration of the LSAT®, even in the year in which you are applying (and we’re one of those schools). But, it would be my general advice to get it out of the way sooner because, in general, it’s better to be able to apply earlier in the process -- particularly for very selective law schools that are getting thousands and thousands of applicants.”

While the best strategy may be to get that application in as early as possible, Anne Richard, Associate Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at The George Washington University Law School, also advises applicants not to rush to submit an application before it is ready to go the admissions committee. “The time to submit the application is when it is done and in the best shape possible but, earlier is better, because I believe most law schools have a rolling admissions process.”

Check out the full show to hear how to develop a strategic admission plan that is guided and informed by your career goals from Richard Montauk, author of "How To Get Into The Top Law Schools" and get tips about when to begin to prepare for and take the LSAT from Adam Hoff, Director of Admissions Consulting and Research at Veritas Prep. We also talk to current law students to hear the strategies that worked most recently from them.

You can listen to this show on our website or look for us on iTunes and other podcast directories. Join us on Facebook!