DomineeringAmusingMongoose '21–'22 app cycle Class of 2025 class year

This process shouldn’t be so stressful and difficult. It should get us excited about the future and open us up to exploring all of our options so that we make the best possible decisions that will allow us to achieve our goals. As such, I hope the following advice will help you navigate this process with less stress:

The LSAT does not define who you are, nor does it define how smart you are. Once you have a score in the upper 150’s, it then becomes a game of how hard you are willing to study to get into the school you want. I wasn’t willing to put in the time to get my score well above the medians for my school, so I took the risk that they’d take me with a 160 when considering all of my other credentials. If you got a 155, you’re fine. If you got a 175, you’re fine. A 175 can just as easily get rejected as anyone else. Don’t listen to “retake and reapply” as it is more important to get started than to just keep delaying your future. In other words, why would you go through this process over and over again when its possible you’ll get the same decision. If your school choice means that much to you, go elsewhere and transfer if you aren’t accepted as a 1L.

Apply as early as possible. For the 2021-2022 cycle, this didn’t really make a difference due to the slow pace of the cycle, but earlier is definitely better. Apply when the school opens its application, send an email with questions at some point either before or after submitting, and after the first few waves, send a letter or email expressing your continued interest and update them on what you have been up to. If a school knows you are definitely going to enroll, you’re more likely to be considered under a different lens. If you can get on campus and let an admissions officer see you, give you a tour, answer your questions, etc, you’ll be way better off. (Note: Never try to turn a tour or information session into an interview… that will do more harm than good.)

Put your information into LSD and don’t check anything until the end of January. If a school is going to let you know earlier than that, your email will come just as quickly as the status checker is updated. Letting yourself stay glued to this site is miserable… just ignore it until you need it and remember that not everyone who applied is on this site, so the data isn’t perfect.

As soon as you know you are not going to a school, withdraw your application or decline your offer. Even if it’s not your dream school, it is someone’s dream school, and they deserve to be considered for admission as soon as possible while also being in the pool for scholarships and opportunities. Holding your seat “as an option” is senseless. Be decisive and look out for your fellow applicants and the admissions officers that have thousands of decisions to make.

Your ranking within a school matters more than your school’s ranking. Being the lowest ranked student at Harvard Law isn’t going to get you into a better firm than the highest ranked student at Wake Forest. These rankings change every year and they really don’t mean anything unless you want to go into a practice area where they only take people from the T14s. Go to the school where you can exceed expectations and be at the top of your class and where you can learn and grow the most. It will serve you better than just chasing a name.

The best piece of advice that I have been given can get anyone farther than trying to get through this process alone: “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” Cold call successful alumni. Find current students. Network with people in the field or at the school. Someone is going to know someone or something that will prove to be invaluable.