Butterbeansforall '24–'25 app cycle Class of 2028 class year

Miscellaneous advice I gathered/learned this year that feels worth passing along:

I highly suggest deep diving on here and reddit before your application season, it helped me set realistic expectations around A’s/$$/timelines. But then I stayed off of reddit once my apps were in and only rejoined once I had some decisions I was proud of.- Don’t write an “aww poor me” personal statement about oppression. If you wanna write about -isms make it bigger than yourself. Write about how you volunteered at XYZ organization because alleviating the -ism in ABC community is important to you.

• Don’t write about how cool some family member of yours is and then claim that they inspired you towards law school. (The Howard Dean said “that just makes me wanna admit your grandma, not YOU!”).
• Avoid Zillow-ing dream apartments in the city of any school until AFTER you get in.
• Find/romanticize your “safety” schools, be sure you’d really want to attend.
• You’ll never wish you had more cleavage out during ASW….only less. Do with that what you will.
• People love to stress out about law school and admissions but it doesn’t have to be insanely hard. Don’t give yourself imposter syndrome before you’ve even enrolled!! This process isn’t exclusively for geniuses or whatever. I never spent more than 10h/wk on applications and I’d argue I’m of completely average intelligence. Dw I always found time for ATLEAST 10h/wk of stupid reels on my phone.
• Watch Dean Z’s free videos instead of paying for a consultant.
• Be kind to others, have people read your statements and volunteer to do the same.
• Make an lsd.law account for the sole purpose of providing data for the next person. :)

Finally, my biggest piece of advice is to negotiate aid! Michigan says they won’t, but they totally did. Also apply to outside scholarships!

Another benefit to applying to early is I was just twiddling my thumbs from Nov-April, nothing to do but wait. Some hobbies I suggest: pick a random NFL team to follow, kiss some strangers, learn Spanish, make ravioli, write shitty poetry, etc.

(Can’t believe I finally get to say this)
Good luck!! and Go Blue 💙