What should I be looking for?
Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2010 12:42 am
What should I be looking for when I am applying to law schools? If there are any good books on the same subject, that would be a great help.
Thank you
Thank you
Generally, there are three things you want to look for in applying to schools - GPA/LSAT medians, geographic location, and cost of attendance.
Most people divide up the schools they apply to in three batches which include safety, target, and reach schools. Safety schools will be those in which your LSAT and GPA are comfortably above the medians, ideally near the 75th percentile. Target schools will be those in which your LSAT is at the median and your GPA is at or near the median. Reach schools will be any in which your LSAT is 2 or more points below the median typically, even if your GPA is at the median or a little higher.
You also should consider where you want to practice in the future. If you know you want to practice in Florida, it doesn't make much sense to go to University of Colorado or Fordham. Rather, you would apply to Florida, Florida State, Miami, Stetson, etc. The vast majority of law schools are considered regional, meaning they typically place most of their graduates in the city/state where the school is located. If you aren't picky about where you want to practice, then feel free to apply all over the place.
Finally, you should consider how much you want to pay for your legal education. If you don't want to take on a lot of debt, apply to more state schools, especially those where you can get resident tuition either right off the bat or after the first year. If you know you don't want to pay sticker price, apply to a few more safeties in hopes one or two will give you some attractive scholarships. You can either choose to attend one of those schools, or use the scholarship to leverage more money out of another school.
These are the three big things to consider, in my opinion. Other things may include clinical offerings, specialty rankings, climate, faculty, facilities, prestige, etc.