WasabiPirates '23–'24 app cycle Class of 2027 class year

Here’s a condensed version of the advice I’ve given to others that is based on what I did:

1. Start working as early in life as you can. Don’t wait until you’re graduated from college to get your first job and think that’ll be impressive to law schools. I was working full time in high school and at least part time throughout undergrad and grad school. Doesn’t have to be at a law firm. 10+ years in a service industry job can make your app look a lot better. Law is often viewed as being somewhat akin to a service industry job.

2. Get the best possible UGPA you can, even if it means delaying graduation for a year to stack your gpa with easy A’s toward the end. But even if your UGPA sucks like mine does don’t lose hope. I had a great cycle in spite of my terrible UGPA.

3. After you’ve gotten the best UGPA you can, THEN start focusing on LSAT. I highly recommend LSATDemon for all your studying needs. I truly think they are the clear winners for title of best LSAT study program. I only used them for a couple months and increased my LSAT score by 10 points. I only wish I had used them from the beginning of my 10 months of studying because I probably would have broken into the 170s. Oh, well. It STILL worked out for me, because I’m now going to my top choice school with a full ride.

4. Your personal essay should be about YOU, not about why you want to go to a particular school. Make it an interesting story that gives some insight into who you are as a person, not just another law school hopeful. This essay can absolutely be identical in all your applications. Your “Why X Law School” essay is the essay where you write about why you want to go to this or that particular school and should of course be tailored to the school you are applying to. Talk about some of their clinics that interest you. Talk about why you are drawn to the geographic region. Maybe even mention a story about having been in the area before that makes you especially drawn to moving back there. Etc. etc. This is essentially a love letter to the school and the region in which the school is located, so don’t be overly stuffy and academic about it.

5. The worse your stats are, the more schools you should be applying to. I have a trash UGPA and my LSAT, while good, isn’t as good as I had hoped. I applied to 30 schools, which in hindsight was probably about 10 too many, but it is only because I had so many great offers from several great schools that I was able to negotiate up from a half scholarship to a full ride at my top school (seriously, look at my GMU notes. I asked them four times for an increase). Which brings me to my next point on this topic: so long as you have competitive offers, never stop asking all your schools for increases in your scholarship offer—even if they say “we don’t negotiate.” One of the schools I got accepted to “doesn’t negotiate scholarships” but when I told them I was going to withdraw because it would cost too much they came back to me with an additional $20,000. So, yeah. It might feel awkward to continually ask for more money, but negotiating for the best deal you can get is your job and eventually it may be your job to negotiate for the best deal your client can get so start getting used to asking for special treatment now. Each time my top choice increased my offer I used that new offer to get other schools to increase their offers and then I used those new offers from other schools to increase my offer at my top choice again and I just kept repeating this cycle until I got the number I wanted. This can take months though because schools tend to take 2-3 weeks to respond with a higher offer, so you need to apply early in the hope of being accepted early in order to have time to stair-step your way up to a full ride.

Best of luck to everyone applying in the coming years!