Affordability of Law School Admission Consultants Forum

[legalcareercoach]

Hey everyone, I am new to the forum! So let me introduce myself My name is Angela Carter. I am an attorney and a Legal Career Coach. I was curious to see if anyone was hiring a law school admission consultant to help them with their law school applications.

I remember when I was applying to law schools five years ago, some of those consultants were charging over $1,000 for their services and I couldn't afford it. I was taking out student loans to pay for college because my parents couldn't afford to pay for my tuition. Not to mention, I had to come up with the money for a LSAT prep course and law school application fees. As a minority, I felt like I was at a disadvantage because I couldn't afford to pay for those consulting services. I believed that other "wealthier" students who could afford it would have the upper-hand. I'm glad to say that I was wrong because I was able to get into a great law school without hiring one of those consultants.

I was just curious to know if those consulting services were more affordable now for students, especially minority students whose parents may not be able to pay high fees.

[booboo]

I am not sure I understand why you have drawn a strong correlation between being a minority student and being economically disadvantaged?

[legalcareercoach]

I'm not sure that I made a strong correlation, but I'm sorry if that is the impression that I gave. It was not intended. I was curious to get other minorities opinions on using consulting services for preparing their law school application. I was curious to see if there were other minorities on this board who felt the same way I felt when I was in college. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

I do know that there are a lot of minority students who are not economically disadvantaged, who are middle-class, like my family, but yet still couldn't afford these services.

[thegor1987]

edit- post fail

[vegansistah]

Angela- although I did take a $1400 LSAT prep class, I did not even consider a law schol consultant. I guess you could say TLS is my consultant- lol!

Besides, with the Internet and such, there really is no need for a consultant, IMHO.

[romothesavior]

Two reasons I never even considered a consultant:

1. My pre-law adviser in undergrad
2. TLS

A consultant wouldn't be worth 20 bucks or 1,000 bucks.

[legalcareercoach]

hey vegansistah-I agree with you. There was a lot of information online when I was applying and I am sure there is even more now. I think a lot of consultants play on the fears and worries of a lot of applicants.

I personally don't believe students need to hire these consultants. I think students just need to understand how they can leverage their personal experiences and academic skills . Students can learn how to do that without hiring an expensive consultant.

[legalcareercoach]

Romothesavior-I couldn't agree more. I think some of these consultants forget that college students just don't have that kind of money to spend, well not on a service that really isn't worth that much anyway.

[kn6542]

Yeah, the value of money varies depending on how brown you are. Great question. What the fuck?

[legalcareercoach]

kn6542-I couldn't figure out how to write the poll question with varying income levels. Sorry. I can scrap the poll question. I didn't know it was going to cause this much "controversy"..lol

I really just wanted to pose the question to the group and get everyone's opinions. Sorry again for any misunderstanding.

[raperez129]

This is how "disadvantaged" I was. I didn't even know such a thing existed. This is my second cycle, and thank goodness for TLS. I didn't know about LOCIs, or that people applied to multiple schools. I have NO family with college experience, let alone grad school application experience. If I had not found TLS, and I was informed of the option for a consultant, I might have begged, borrowed, and pleaded for $$ to get one.

[CanadianWolf]

In my very experienced opinion, I think that the abilities & value of a law school consultant vary considerably. The main benefit of any educational consultant is simply in having a knowledgeable, interested person with whom to speak during a stressful, anxiety laden period.
Much of the advice proffered on website blogs is inexperienced, and often immature, opinions of peers.
It is true, however, that some educational consultants for elite prep schools & prestigious colleges & universities have direct connections with admissions officers. Recently this occurred at an Ivy League undergraduate school's summer session for rising high school seniors who were offered educational consulting services for a fee of $10,000 by persons affiliated with that school's graduate MBA program.