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

I went into this with no school as my top choice saying that location and money were the most important factors. My biggest advice is quality over quantity. If you got into only one of your schools, would you be happy to go there? With this in mind, I was still able to apply to reach, target and safety schools within my desired location!

Hope this acts as some guidance for those who land on this page :) Good luck everyone!!!

Jan. 2021 LSAT Flex - scored a 157 after studying since October 2020. I started working a full-time job in July 2020 and probably did not put as much time into my studying during the fourth quarter (Sept-Dec) as I should have. After taking the Jan. 2021, I took the three weeks off in between the test and getting my score. I was happy with a 157 as my initial starting point but felt personally I could do better with less distractions in my testing environment and more structured studying.

June 2021 LSAT Flex - scored a 163. I would have been happy with a 162 and gladly did a point better than that! In all of my practice tests, I never scored near my goal score; I was still scoring in the high 150s. After the test, I wanted to cancel my score but talked to many LSAT test takers and a standardized testing coach (my friend, not someone I paid) and they said to not cancel. **I studied A LOT (like 15-18 hours a week) for 12 weeks. I also took my exam at my office on a Saturday morning (v quiet and v alone) instead of in my house (loud and stressful).**

I did write an application addendum for this jump in LSAT points explaining how my second score was a better indicator of my ability because of the **factors mentioned above in red**.

A little over 1 yr. of full-time work experience (at the time of applying, but will be 2 years when I start school) in the legal field. Not the type of law I want to do but did use my experience in a firm and seeing how operations work ground-up to ~hopefully~ boost my application.

B.A. in Psychology and Criminology/Criminal Justice with a minor in Global Terrorism Studies. Did not feel bad about my GPA until I started looking at law schools but I did not write a GPA addendum. I felt I didn’t have any compelling factors and it would have come off as excuses, not explanations. I do suffer from mental health issues that impacted some of my semesters but I also worked/interned which played a role as well. To me these were things that I didn’t want to necessarily draw attention to.

Splitter vibes basically :)

Softs are T3 mostly because of my work experience in a legal field. I had a glowing letter from my boss and a detailed academic letter from a TA I had 4 times throughout undergrad. I have a resume in which I am very proud of (partly why my GPA is on the lower side - I worked a lot of part-time jobs through school and interned almost every semester). I love (not joking, love) my personal statement. I wrote a little bit about everything in my life/resume and connected all of it back to a solid theme. I carried my theme well throughout and felt that my personal statement was the greatest reflection of myself I could give to my schools. Because of this (and other non-minority identities) I chose not to write any diversity statements.

Optional Statements/Why X essays I wrote:
Georgetown - I wrote the top 10 list (apparently an admissions favorite to read)
George Washington - I wrote the 200 word optional statement - the topic was about my work in the legal field
George Mason - no optional statements written but required Mason Statement (Why X)
UMD - Why X included in personal statement
Temple - Regret not writing the S.P.A.C.E statement. I realized after reviewing the website that it was way more open-ended than I originally thought.
American - no optional statements written
Drexel - Why X included in personal statement. With no word limit and a longer page limit, I was able to expand my thoughts on this quite nicely in my PS and also relate to the theme
Catholic - no optional statements written

A mistake I made on my apps was not writing Why X essays for more schools. I only wrote Why X for schools that asked for it explicitly. I’m not sure if this would have helped with my scholarships or if my GPA just really needed to be better but it wouldn’t have hurt.