Top Law Schools

Applying to many law schools (eight or more) is a great use of your time and money, particularly when you put the law school application process in perspective. For example, you have probably spent several thousands of hours studying and attending classes during your four or five years in college. Additionally, you should spend over 200 hours preparing for the LSAT.

In stark contrast, each additional application will only take you several hours to complete and require a nominal fee ranging from $50-$100. Given the variability of the student selection process, extra applications can possibly be the difference between your getting into a much better law school than you anticipated. For example, one of my friends was rejected from the University of Texas Law School yet was accepted into Harvard Law School, to which he almost did not apply.

Ken,

Would you comment on my thread "Am I Competitive". Will applying to several law schools help me out?

Thanks,
Brian Mansfield

I just wanted to amend my earlier comments and say that because of the many benefits to applying to many law schools, I now recommend applying to ten or more law schools. I think applying to 2-3 safety schools, 3-4 median schools (where your LSAT and GPA are close to the medians), and 4-6 reach schools (where their LSAT and GPAs are above, but not way above, your stats).

You want to maximize the likelihood of success of your 4(+) years in college and hopefully over 100 hours of studying for the LSAT.

Ken,

Just wondering if you could take a look at my post. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for all the great advice you post.

Hello Ed,

I definitely look forward to responding soon, I just have been very busy at work and with the family today. I really welcome any other comments to Ed's post or any other posts. Ideally, this would be an interactive discussion amongst many site visitors. Back tomorrow.

Ken,

Would you say there is a maximum? Can you apply to too many law schools? If someone applies to 15 or so law schools, would admissions committee view this in a negative light?

If a school asks you in its application where else you're applying, I assume you're obliged to tell them if you're applying elsewhere.

The only application I've seen that asks that has been the University of the Pacific - presumably there are others, but they only gave you five boxes and the instructions didn't even specify to fill ALL the boxes. Honestly they have no way of verifying your information.

What I did with UofP was list 5 mid-tier schools I may or may not apply to - I didn't feel that listing Yale, UVa, and NYU would encourage them to let me come there, especially when my numbers are way above UoP's averages.

That might be kind of ethically ambiguous, but they did only give me 5 boxes, and I could very well end up applying to all those places (OU, my undergrad; UNM, my hometown; etc).

I kept it vague and have been putting things like "Other schools in California"

Do some schools actually ask about other schools on their app? I haven't even started the process yet so I don't know the intricacies. Correct me if I'm wrong, but after you have ONE solid personal statement, the rest should be a breeze right?

I may be completely off on this, but it seems to me that the application process is fairly easy, at least compared to applying to business school. MBA apps are pages and pages long with multiple essays, mostly different topics per school!

So what would stop me from applying to 15 schools really? Can someone tell me? I do have the money set aside for it... Again, I may be totally off, I haven't really gotten into the process yet.... but some enlightening from other more experienced applicants would be most appreciated

Among the schools I'm applying to, Fordham wants to know where you applied before, where you're applying now, and where you plan to apply in the future. For those in the past, it wants to know the "disposition," which means, I assume, whether you got in, and if you did, what decision you made.

Fordham wants to know where you applied before, where you're applying now, and where you plan to apply in the future. For those in the past, it wants to know the "disposition,"

I don't see anything like that ON the application itself... the only related question I see is #20-#21

20. Have you ever applied to Fordham Law School in the past? Yes No If so, When?

21. What was the outcome of your application?

I'll keep an eye out for it on my other apps though...

EyeOfTheTiger,
Look at question 22. Unless I'm grossly misreading it, it asks about other law schools.
Yours,
dwharris2

this is the last page of the application

http://i6.tinypic.com/2d8q4c0.jpg

Not on my Fordham application for Fall 2007. On the last page -- page 4 -- it asks about other schools. Anyway, I'll fill out what I have, just as you'll fill out what you have.
Yours,
dwharris2

That is very odd that they have two different applications on their admissions page. I see that that extra question appears on their application attached with the viewbook, but not in the application that you can download separately. I'm assuming the online application will have that extra question though.

I'm looking at the application provided through LSAC. In any case, I have no hesitance to answer the question. I just wonder why they ask when so few other schools seem to.