Top Law Schools

Hey, I'm going to the LSAC Law Forum in DC this saturday, and I'd like to have a bunch of questions to ask the schools in which I'm interested

for example, stuff concerning financial aid packages, how they view high gpa/low-median (relative to the school) LSAT splitters etc.

I was wondering if there was anyone who'd been to a forum in the past or anyone who's going now or in the future who has some questions to which they received insightful answers

It can be common stuff like, "when does your application appear online," or it can be specific, such as, "does your school cancel classes for 2Ls during a 'flyout week' so that they can do their callback job interviews without missing classes?"

I'm just wondering if anyone else had any useful questions that they think I--or anyone else attending--should ask

Thanks.

did you have to pre-register and is there a cost associated with this?

Can I have a fee waiver?

IAFG wrote:Can I have a fee waiver?

haha, +1 -- I've been getting a ton of emails from schools, and the University of Tennessee (random, right?) said that you get a fee waiver just for stopping by the table

Well shoot, I hope the schools in which I'm interested have something like that

DavidYurman85 wrote:did you have to pre-register and is there a cost associated with this?

nope, no cost -- completely free. you need an lsac account, you go to forums and you register for one

anyone else have any questions that need to be asked? i'm trying to come up with some kind of list

Anybody else have any questions that they have found/would find useful?

i wished i had gotten a better read on how schools felt about addendums/supplemental essays. like, should i include my DS, grade addendum, retake addendum, etc.

PrayingforHYS wrote:

IAFG wrote:Can I have a fee waiver?

haha, +1 -- I've been getting a ton of emails from schools, and the University of Tennessee (random, right?) said that you get a fee waiver just for stopping by the table

Well shoot, I hope the schools in which I'm interested have something like that

DavidYurman85 wrote:did you have to pre-register and is there a cost associated with this?

nope, no cost -- completely free. you need an lsac account, you go to forums and you register for one

anyone else have any questions that need to be asked? i'm trying to come up with some kind of list

i registered so i'll be there on sat as well. are you going to any of the other workshops (lsat, admissions, etc..)? some of them occur before the actual forum begins.

things i'm curious about:
-fee waivers
-supplemental essays
-work experience/internship relevance
-application numbers from last yr
-scholarships/aid

i'm really just looking to confirm the information that is available on tls and guage the personalities of the different schools, so i'll know how to better frame my apps.

are most of the Tier-1 schools going to be present? i didn't see a list on lsac.

DavidYurman85 wrote:

PrayingforHYS wrote:

IAFG wrote:Can I have a fee waiver?

haha, +1 -- I've been getting a ton of emails from schools, and the University of Tennessee (random, right?) said that you get a fee waiver just for stopping by the table

Well shoot, I hope the schools in which I'm interested have something like that

DavidYurman85 wrote:did you have to pre-register and is there a cost associated with this?

nope, no cost -- completely free. you need an lsac account, you go to forums and you register for one

anyone else have any questions that need to be asked? i'm trying to come up with some kind of list

i registered so i'll be there on sat as well. are you going to any of the other workshops (lsat, admissions, etc..)? some of them occur before the actual forum begins.

things i'm curious about:
-fee waivers
-supplemental essays
-work experience/internship relevance
-application numbers from last yr
-scholarships/aid

i'm really just looking to confirm the information that is available on tls and guage the personalities of the different schools, so i'll know how to better frame my apps.

are most of the Tier-1 schools going to be present? i didn't see a list on lsac.

Here's the list http://lsac.org/pdfs/DCMap2010.pdf of schools. Seems most of the T-1 are present.

+1 on the fee waivers.

Has anyone been to one of these LSAC forums before? If so, did you find it useful?

I'll probably be attending the financing a legal education and the application process workshops.

I attended the Washington DC forum last year and will be attending this year.

The seminars offered fill up very quickly (first come first serve). I would recommend getting there prior to 10:00 when it starts, and get in line for the seminars first.

Asking questions at the different school's table can be done at any time however it gets more crowded during the afternoon hours.

Good to know, thanks a lot Biz!

what did everyone think?

I was very impressed with Stanford, UVA, UCLA, USC -- their admissions people took a real interest in my questions, even elaborating (not boring elaboration) on what I asked, and actually made me feel like a person. Faye Deal herself said that she sees nothing wrong with a 168 or so LSAT score, and that she isn't sure why other comparable schools make such a big deal of it (music to my ears since I'm a 3.9x GPA and probably a mid to high 160s LSAT)

I was not impressed at all with Columbia or Chicago. Both of their reps (and they were associate deans...so not bottom barrell employees) gave me a very bad "we know we're good and we don't have to entice people to apply to our school. in fact, we don't care if you don't" kind of vibe. Some may argue that as the (arguably) #4 and #6/7 law schools, they have that right, but for me, personally, I felt like they were really lacking in personality.

Penn, NU, NYU, Berkeley all had pretty good reps. By the time I got to Yale, there was an alumnus (I believe) there. She was a lot more helpful in answering questions than some of the other alumni there from top schools, so that was good.

I didn't go to any of the seminars, but I didn't arrive until 11 am anyway (2 hour train ride to DC and the metro wasn't working for 20 minutes).

My biggest advice for anyone going in the future: by the time that a lot of reps took a 30-45 minute break for lunch around 1:30 or so, the room REALLY cleared out...as in, probably HALF the people at the forum left. I probably got to 7 law schools in 2 hours between 11-1, and then from 2-4 I hit the other 13-15 law schools I wanted. Therforeeeeeeeee, advice = if you don't need the seminars, you're probably much better off arriving at 12 or 1 and navigating amongst the mass for an hour or so before everyone leaves for lunch

Props to the hotel also. It was 90+ in DC yesterday, but the room was air conditioned and comfortable despite hundreds (maybe 1k+) people in attendance.

Anyone else have thoughts?

PrayingforHYS wrote:I was very impressed with Stanford, UVA, UCLA, USC -- their admissions people took a real interest in my questions, even elaborating (not boring elaboration) on what I asked, and actually made me feel like a person. Faye Deal herself said that she sees nothing wrong with a 168 or so LSAT score, and that she isn't sure why other comparable schools make such a big deal of it (music to my ears since I'm a 3.9x GPA and probably a mid to high 160s LSAT)

False hope for the temporary win!!!!

http://stanford.lawschoolnumbers.com/stats

D. H2Oman wrote:

PrayingforHYS wrote:I was very impressed with Stanford, UVA, UCLA, USC -- their admissions people took a real interest in my questions, even elaborating (not boring elaboration) on what I asked, and actually made me feel like a person. Faye Deal herself said that she sees nothing wrong with a 168 or so LSAT score, and that she isn't sure why other comparable schools make such a big deal of it (music to my ears since I'm a 3.9x GPA and probably a mid to high 160s LSAT)

False hope for the temporary win!!!!

http://stanford.lawschoolnumbers.com/stats

Eh, I'm not sure. I take LSN with a grain of salt anyway, and you could argue it's not very representational of all people who apply. Besides those points, there are people with 160, 164, couple 165, couple 166, a 167 and GPAs in the 3.7-3.9 range with those scores who got in. I mean, I would never say that a, say, 3.95/168 makes you a lock (in fact, it probably gets you a waitlist), but I think it makes you a very acceptable candidate at a very good school (maybe even an acceptance straight out or an acceptance off the waitlist) whereas a 3.95/168 to Y, H, CCN will probably get you an outright ding, or maaaaaaaybe a waitlist (edit: assuming you're not a urm and your softs don't include, say, creating a new form of government now used by 10 recognized countries.)

PrayingforHYS wrote: Eh, I'm not sure. I take LSN with a grain of salt anyway, and you could argue it's not very representational of all people who apply. Besides those points, there are people with 160, 164, couple 165, couple 166, a 167 and GPAs in the 3.7-3.9 range with those scores who got in. I mean, I would never say that a, say, 3.95/168 makes you a lock (in fact, it probably gets you a waitlist), but I think it makes you a very acceptable candidate at a very good school (maybe even an acceptance straight out or an acceptance off the waitlist) whereas a 3.95/168 to Y, H, CCN will probably get you an outright ding (maaaaaaaybe a waitlist)

edit: assuming you're not a urm and your softs don't include, say, creating a new form of government now used by 10 recognized countries.

LSN is trustworthy enough to find general trends. Unless you have amazing softs, your 3.9/168 is dead in the water at Stanford. 3.9/168 is definitely t13 material, but it's not HYS material (no not even S).

PrayingforHYS wrote:

D. H2Oman wrote:

PrayingforHYS wrote:I was very impressed with Stanford, UVA, UCLA, USC -- their admissions people took a real interest in my questions, even elaborating (not boring elaboration) on what I asked, and actually made me feel like a person. Faye Deal herself said that she sees nothing wrong with a 168 or so LSAT score, and that she isn't sure why other comparable schools make such a big deal of it (music to my ears since I'm a 3.9x GPA and probably a mid to high 160s LSAT)

False hope for the temporary win!!!!

http://stanford.lawschoolnumbers.com/stats

Eh, I'm not sure. I take LSN with a grain of salt anyway, and you could argue it's not very representational of all people who apply. Besides those points, there are people with 160, 164, couple 165, couple 166, a 167 and GPAs in the 3.7-3.9 range with those scores who got in. I mean, I would never say that a, say, 3.95/168 makes you a lock (in fact, it probably gets you a waitlist), but I think it makes you a very acceptable candidate at a very good school (maybe even an acceptance straight out or an acceptance off the waitlist) whereas a 3.95/168 to Y, H, CCN will probably get you an outright ding, or maaaaaaaybe a waitlist (edit: assuming you're not a urm and your softs don't include, say, creating a new form of government now used by 10 recognized countries.)

False hope securely in place.

flyingpanda wrote:

PrayingforHYS wrote: Eh, I'm not sure. I take LSN with a grain of salt anyway, and you could argue it's not very representational of all people who apply. Besides those points, there are people with 160, 164, couple 165, couple 166, a 167 and GPAs in the 3.7-3.9 range with those scores who got in. I mean, I would never say that a, say, 3.95/168 makes you a lock (in fact, it probably gets you a waitlist), but I think it makes you a very acceptable candidate at a very good school (maybe even an acceptance straight out or an acceptance off the waitlist) whereas a 3.95/168 to Y, H, CCN will probably get you an outright ding (maaaaaaaybe a waitlist)

edit: assuming you're not a urm and your softs don't include, say, creating a new form of government now used by 10 recognized countries.

LSN is trustworthy enough to find general trends. Unless you have amazing softs, your 3.9/168 is dead in the water at Stanford. 3.9/168 is definitely t13 material, but it's not HYS material (no not even S).

disagree. Stanford's 25/75 is 167-172. If you scored a 168, then let's just assume that you're at their 30th percentile. I believe Ms. Deal told me that Stanford has a class of about 220, so that's 66 (220*.3) students who are accepted with an LSAT score at or below 168. Anyway, I do not think that all 66 or so of those students are URMs or have a sob story, and this hypothetical student's GPA is still above their 75...

Again, a 3.95/168 isn't going to make you an auto-admit, but I highly doubt it'll get you a ding. I believe the most likely course of action is a waitlist, but it's not like you're throwing your money away. Is it LIKELY? No, but unless you're a 4.0/180, how many schools can you honestly say are LIKELY (extend that to mean a high degree of certainty) to accept you?

It's a crapshoot, bro. Just play the game and hope you hit it big.

PrayingforHYS wrote:I was very impressed with Stanford, UVA, UCLA, USC -- their admissions people took a real interest in my questions, even elaborating (not boring elaboration) on what I asked, and actually made me feel like a person. Faye Deal herself said that she sees nothing wrong with a 168 or so LSAT score, and that she isn't sure why other comparable schools make such a big deal of it (music to my ears since I'm a 3.9x GPA and probably a mid to high 160s LSAT)

I was not impressed at all with Columbia or Chicago. Both of their reps (and they were associate deans...so not bottom barrell employees) gave me a very bad "we know we're good and we don't have to entice people to apply to our school. in fact, we don't care if you don't" kind of vibe. Some may argue that as the (arguably) #4 and #6/7 law schools, they have that right, but for me, personally, I felt like they were really lacking in personality.

Penn, NU, NYU, Berkeley all had pretty good reps. By the time I got to Yale, there was an alumnus (I believe) there. She was a lot more helpful in answering questions than some of the other alumni there from top schools, so that was good.

I agree with your observations. I was especially impressed by UVA and GULC -- they were both doing good business the entire day but the reps were personable and informative.

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Oh and I went to the forum on financing a legal education. There were a lot of people that kept asking repetitive questions but the 20 minute talk itself was informative. It's nice to hear all the information I've read synthesized like that by a financial aid officer.