Top Law Schools

I wasn't sure where to put this post. My cycle is over and I got into my dream school GULC with a big bucket of $$$$. Chill out with the libelous (not slander 'cause its written and "published", right Jay Jonah Jameson?) GULC Rants, Sheesh!

Anyway, I am starting to write my thank you notes, (you can pay for law school but you can't buy class) and I wanted to pay some of the support I received forward to anyone, especially URMS, that are starting their cycles and are as anxious as I was. Consider this a step by step booklet/ to get your game on track / not your [app] pushed back. So a little advice that I found useful:

1. Advice sucks - Treat this site and the other one (you know which one I mean) like Wikipedia. That is to say, treat the advice as a starting place, and don't trust it until you can source it, corroborate it, and understand it. Don't take anything you hear or read on this site (including the rest of this list) to be authoritative. Consider it all, weigh it all, but then use your judgement. Own your own cycle. (Shout out to all of the wild opinions on the currently active black hair thread btw.)

2. Retake the LSAT - Tbh, you already know this, either because you have been on this site for more than 10 seconds or because you know you left some points on the table. This is advice I ignored for reasons of my own, and I know full well that those "reasons" probably cost me $$. Your reasons for not retaking are probably not any better. (See above re: owning your own cycle.) Retake the LSAT, maximize your points. There are very few efforts in life more handsomely and predictably rewarded than maxing out your LSAT score.

3. Get Outside Help - I'm not saying hire a consultant, (though if you have the cash, te salut Don Corleone) but get someone with clean eyes to look over your applications package. It should be preferably be a few someones, a professor, a respected colleague at work, an admissions staffer at your school. Forget about your Mom, Dad, brother cousin. (This rule is so underrated / keep your family and [applications] completely separated) No one who loves you wants to tell you your PS reads like a instagram caption.

4. Apply Widely - This is double true if your an URM, triple true if you're an URM splitter like me. Apply to schools you may not realistically want to attend. Write "the why X Law" essays and write them well. Offers are leverage-able.

5. Pay it forward - You know the application process is stressful (maybe you don't, but you will). A lot is riding on these outcomes for you, job prospects, regional preferences, debt, etc. The thing is, you aren't the first, you won't be the last. If you use sites like LSN, make a profile and post your stats for those will come after you. In the future, if someone you know is applying, take them out for coffee impart some wisdom, read their essays, tell them to retake the LSAT. Share the lessons you learned, especially the ones you learned the hard way.

I think that's it. I've spent a lot of time lurking on this site, reading posts, sifting through advice, dredging through the necro-posts. There are some assholes, on this site, some bad advice too (see #1 above) but there is also a unique body of knowledge that I found incredibly useful this year. I'm thankful for that. My cycle has given me the opportunity to work hard in law school and chase the kind of lawyer jobs that appeal to me. I couldn't ask for much more than that.

"Follow these rules you'll have mad [merit money] to break up"

First, congrats on your outcome. Georgetown with a huge scholarship is an objectively great outcome by any measure.

I wish you would have reported the alleged "libelous" posts/ad hominem attacks from "assholes" when they happened. Had you done so, moderators could have reviewed and resolved those situations at the time. There is nothing we can do at this point because 1) I assume those threads are already ancient history by this point, so any moderating action would be a classic case of closing the barn door after the horse has bolted; and 2) in any case, you don't identify any specific instances of "libelous"/"asshole-ish" behavior, so there's nothing for me or my colleagues on the staff to review.

For other 0Ls reading this thread, I also want to rebut a few specific assertions below:

aadcsplitter wrote:Chill out with the libelous (not slander 'cause its written and "published", right Jay Jonah Jameson?) GULC Rants, Sheesh!

I am not aware of any pervasive anti-GULC bias (let alone "libel") on TLS. (If anyone comes across an isolated instance of suspected "libel," they should report the relevant post to the mods using the report post function.) TLS' consensus, as far as I understand it, is that Georgetown is a very strong school, and one of the two strongest T20s along with Vandy.

Georgetown places weaker than the T13 - that's a fact - and it's necessary to acknowledge that Georgetown isn't, say, on the same level as UVA, or even Cornell. But that's hardly "libel." Georgetown is still one of the country's top law schools, and this site regularly acknowledges that as well. We are just realistic about each school's strengths and weaknesses. I don't think TLS uncritically praises any law school, really. Not even the T6. Not even YSH.

aadcsplitter wrote:1. Advice sucks - Treat this site and the other one (you know which one I mean) like Wikipedia. That is to say, treat the advice as a starting place, and don't trust it until you can source it, corroborate it, and understand it. Don't take anything you hear or read on this site (including the rest of this list) to be authoritative. Consider it all, weigh it all, but then use your judgement. Own your own cycle. (Shout out to all of the wild opinions on the currently active black hair thread btw.)

Of course posters are ultimately responsible for making their own decisions. That said, to the extent that posters voluntarily come to TLS seeking advice, I would hope they would seriously consider the good-faith advice they get from more experienced law students and lawyers. I don't think it's productive or helpful for anyone to 1) voluntarily come to TLS seeking advice, then 2) adopt the hostile attitude that "advice sucks." 0Ls who aren't interested in hearing advice - whether from TLS or any other sources - are free to not ask for that unwanted advice in the first place.

aadcsplitter wrote:2. Retake the LSAT ... 3. Get Outside Help ... 4. Apply Widely ... 5. Pay it forward

That's all great and completely in line with the advice TLS generally gives to 0Ls. So... why did you feel the need to start out in point number 1 by advising 0Ls to be hostile and unreceptive to our advice?

I'm not going to say every poster on TLS is always right - of course that's not the case - and I'm also not going to say that everyone on TLS is always pleasant and professional - of course that's not the case either. We're human - we err, we get grumpy sometimes, we get snarky sometimes. Of course posters should take everything they hear - whether in real life or on TLS - with a grain of salt, and of course posters should recognize they ultimately retain 100% responsibility for their own choices and actions.

But I don't think any of that adds up to an overall conclusion that "advice sucks." Your own points 2-5 establish strongly that overall, the advice here can be very helpful to 0Ls.

Ok, so listen, the post was literally intended as a thank you to the cosmos (TLS in particular) and an acknowledgment that I had a lot of help during my cycle. I take full responsibility if that didn't come across tonally.

Much of it was also tongue-in-cheek, meant lightly, without offense intended. (I'm not actually accusing anyone on the internet, posting under their secret identity, of a real-live tort.) Again, if that was unclear, it is certainly due to my error.

But to be fair, I did include a bunch of biggie lines and a spider-man quote.

Yeah OP was pretty cringe. I read it yesterday and felt the same as the reply poster above.

I mean congrats man, you put in work and are one step forward in achieving your goals. That being said, this post read like a middle finger thinly veiled as some sort of informative thread for 0Ls, when in fact this site is full of detailed threads that do just that without the undertone.