Penguininja '25–'26

I am an LSAT Tutor & I review application essays; my DMs are open. If you want to learn more about my study methods, essays, or work with me feel free to reach out!

LSAT: I studied for a whole year before the taking the LSAT. The first 3 or so months were chill just learning concepts, then I focused more on drilling questions and correcting my mistakes in the next few months, the last 3 months I was incredibly committed and studied several hours every day after work. I did take the test when Logic Games were still on it.

The best use of LSD, in my opinion, is to look at which schools give the best/most scholarships and which schools appear to be more negotiable with scholarships than others. Look at the chart of applicants and see if people with your stats are more likely to receive money than not. It is worth the (admittedly, expensive) application fee if you can use it to get a few thousand more dollars out of the school you want to go to. For example, WashU gives great financial aid/merit, just make sure you show specific interest in the school so that you don’t get waitlisted for yield protection (especially at Michigan, they really emphasize “fit”).

Letters of Rec: I think that these are playing an increasingly important part in applications. You need to get a recommendation from someone close to you who you trust to not turn in a non-specific AI generated letter. My recommendations were from a partner at the plaintiff firm I interned at, a Philosophy professor who I had one class with my senior year in which I participated frequently and performed very well, and the faculty leader for the prison volunteering that I did through undergrad.

Softs details: I did two legal internships (one at a “Big Law” firm, one at a prominent plaintiff law firm), during undergrad I worked as an RA, TA, and Notetaker, I did volunteer work at a prison (and talked about it in 1 of my essays), was active in a bunch of clubs but didn’t hold any significant leadership positions. I applied one year removed from undergrad (so, not a KJD but no “significant” work experience besides the internships).

LOCIs: The only LOCIs I wrote were for Harvard and Columbia because both of those schools sent me emails that pretty much explicitly said “we would love some more information from you.” For Harvard, I thought my interview went well but I think my LOCI was too long and panicky (I put a lot of pressure on myself, I’m sure if you’re reading this you can totally relate to that) and that ultimately caused my R. For Columbia, as I sit and write this (4/9/26) I still haven’t heard back from them one way or the other, so I don’t know what’s up there.