Even in a hard cycle, you can still admit at a school above your medians. Should you do as I did? Probably not, I did because my tuition is paid for fully by my parents.

Your UGPA should be your only focus while you are in school.- I began studying for the LSAT mid-sophomore year and took the LSAT at the beginning of my junior year, I did that because I wanted to graduate early and not take a senior year at all. I spent less time studying for my courses because I was spending time studying for the LSAT, there was a grade decline. You cannot change your UGPA after you graduate, please give that all of your attention while you are still attending university.
Do not set testing deadlines for the LSAT, you’ll suffer more than you gain from that.- I began studying mid-sophomore year because I was accidentally reminded of the test by a professor, that same night I bought an LSAT Demon membership and began drilling and studying concepts with the goal in mind that I wanted to test in August. I had a good progression track and had very good diagnostic scores towards the end of my studying, but for those last two months I crammed heavily on the concepts. Cramming for two months is a long road to burnout before the test even happens. Take your time studying, consistently meet your goal diagnostic score, and then schedule the test. I had sporadic 170+ scores, these were not consistent. I was also burnt out after those two months of cramming, I swung two identical scores, both well beneath my diagnostics.
Practice should be quality over quantity.- Drilling thousands of questions and taking three practice exams per day is excessive. What good does drilling thousands of questions do you if you don’t take the time to actually analyze where you went wrong in any of them? I don’t mean reading the answer or re-taking the question. I mean finding the flaw in your own thought process. Why did I think this answer even made sense? How can I adjust my thought process so we can avoid repeating that mistake on a different question?
Don’t fear testing from home with an online proctor.- I heard the war stories from people who took the tests with proctors, I went with a physical testing location. Boy, that was a mistake. I went two times, both times the center was under maintenance. You could hear them drilling, you could hear them hammering things in, you could hear the workers. They gave us earplugs and those earmuffs you wear at the shooting range, or we could reschedule. I went in both times and tested, I don’t think it actually acted my score significantly but it probably didn’t help either. You’ll have to test at home anyways when you do the written portion, consider taking the multiple-choice at home as well.
Use your university resources to your advantage.- During university, I took a lot of courses that involved law in some capacity simply because I knew I wanted to go to law school. Please network with your professors. One good friendship with a professor landed me an internship in a law firm, that internship landed me a stellar letter of recommendation from an attorney. That same professor extended a letter of recommendation and provided advice for applying to my school’s College of Law, where he serves as faculty. I sought the help of another professor in reviewing my personal statement, that professor also extended a letter of recommendation. That is two academic letters and one professional letter just from networking and using my resources. I am convinced these letters are what made my application stick out.
Apply broadly, very broadly.- You can see I applied well below my medians, at medians, and above medians. At those schools where I was beneath their median, I tried to get fee waivers because why spend money to apply when I am likely to get denied anyways amirite. I committed to a school where I sit at the lower end of their UGPA/LSAT averages. Did I think I would get in? Absolutely not, when I saw their email, I was convinced I was getting rejected. For a week I was convinced they did the same thing Columbia did, I thought they mistakenly sent out acceptances to their denials. Only on admitted students day did I realize I actually belonged there and they selected me intentionally. Apply broadly, there might be something about you that interests the admissions committee and gets you admitted.

The 2024-2025 application cycle was a complete mess. There wasn’t any particularly notable growth in seat amounts at the law schools, yet we saw a pretty hefty increase in applications. We’ll surely see that continue into the 2025-2026 application cycle. If you study hard, conduct your due diligence, read your ABA reports, apply broadly, and approach the process in an informed manner, you’ll get in somewhere. I wish everyone who reads this luck. I hope I don’t practice against you.