anew '20–'21 app cycle Class of 2024 class year

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Before actually deciding to apply to law school, I would recommend these 4 steps:

1. Read this: http://www.deanspade.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/For-Those-Considering-Law-School.pdf Really think about if your goals in being a lawyer align with actual legal work. If you have social justice goals in going to law school, there’s a very good chance those could be better served by something other than being a lawyer and/or that you won’t feel very fulfilled by what being a lawyer looks like.

2. If after reading and digesting that, you are still interested in law school/being a lawyer I would take a practice LSAT under timed conditions. The easiest way is probably to start with a “full assessment” on Khan Academy (https://www.khanacademy.org/prep/lsat). Khan Academy is completely free and was the majority of my LSAT prep. If you would prefer to do it on paper, the test at https://www.lsac.org/lsat/lsat-prep/practice-test is also free.

3. Take your LSAT score and maybe up to 10 points higher if you’re willing to put in some prep or 15 if you’re willing to commit to a lot of prep and maybe pay for prep (If it’s above 160 already, probably expect even less improvement) and undergrad GPA (nothing post-undergrad counts) and look at places that have predictions on where you would be able to get in and what scholarships might look like. lawschooldata.org/search is, in my opinion, the best source of this data but lsatdemon.com/scholarships, mylsn.info/r/pre-law/admissions/search/, and 7sage.com/predictor/ are also useful.

4. Seeing what kind of schools you have a good shot at getting into and how much they would cost, think about your goals and consider whether you’re comfortable accruing that much debt (especially relative to how much your goals realistically pay). Unless you are interested in big law (big fancy firms where you sell your soul and 60+ hours a week for gobs of money) realize that high paying job options are probably not in line with your humanity.
   This can be helpful in being realistic about the cost/benefit: https://lawschooltuitionbubble.wordpress.com/2013/10/02/guest-post-dont-go-to-law-school-unless-flow-chart-edition/

If after all of that you still think law school is for you:

The first thing I did was make a massive spreadsheet highlighting the data I cared about from the ABA 509 Reports for every law school (http://www.abarequireddisclosures.org/Disclosure509.aspx). This allowed me to sort schools by various factors that mattered to me (e.g. % of students with full tuition or greater scholarship, % of graduates with full-time bar-required jobs, % of scholarships that are conditional, etc.) This was instrumental in identifying schools that I may be interested in applying to.

The most useful resource for me throughout the application process was this site. The data is useful in understanding the reality of the likelihood of admission and scholarship amounts at each school and the community was extraordinarily welcoming and generous with advice and support. Use the data that is there and share your own to help others (including all the dates!) The automated application tracker checking is a blessing and a curse.

I also found the above the law rankings (abovethelaw.com/law-school-rankings/) very helpful as they focus on outcomes instead of all of the less important factors that go into the US News rankings.

For anyone who is finding the tremendous expense of applying to law school daunting:

The LSAC Fee Waiver allowed me to afford applying to law school. If you can’t afford all of these fees, apply for it. If you get rejected, appeal and explain your situation and why it is a challenge to pay. This let me take the LSAT twice (166 -> 171) for free, gave me free access to every LSAT practice test, automatically waived almost every school’s application fees, and gave me 6 free CAS reports. I got a lot of my other CAS reports for free by asking schools for CAS waivers. A lot said no, but quite a few said yes. In addition to the schools I planned to apply to, I applied to any school that waived my CAS fee if I would either consider going there or it was useful for scholarship negotiation with another school.