Top Law Schools

Edit

2. Exactly how long should a resume be? I've seen up to 2 pages and no more than 1. Which one is better? And does it vary from school to school?

3. Dean certification? I saw this as an application requirement for a LS. What exactly is this?

tryingtomakeit wrote:1. I was told by my Pre-law advisor that I needed to each a specific LOR for each school instead of general LORs. Is there any truth to this?

2. Exactly how long should a resume be? I've seen up to 2 pages and no more than 1. Which one is better? And does it vary from school to school?

1. No.

2. 1 page is best.

1 page is best unless you have a LOT of legitimate experience and accomplishments - not BSy college extracurriculars. If you aren't at least 30 years old, chances are you don't want to go above 1 page.

.

One page is preferable. Mine was two pages. I'd worry more about content--if you are going onto the second page because you are listing high school awards/jobs, you should probably re-think things.

I've read somewhere (Anna Ivey, maybe?) that, for the purposes of law school applications, a two-page resume is perfectly fine, and it would be a mistake to try to shoehorn everything into one page.

tryingtomakeit wrote:Edit
1. I was told by my Pre-law advisor that I needed to each a specific LOR for each school instead of general LORs. Is there any truth to this?

2. Exactly how long should a resume be? I've seen up to 2 pages and no more than 1. Which one is better? And does it vary from school to school?

3. Dean certification? I saw this as an application requirement for a LS. What exactly is this?

1. Everything your prelaw advisor has ever told you was wrong.
2. There's no excuse to have anything longer than one page as a law school applicant.
3. You will only need this for the school you decide to attend.

InGoodFaith wrote:

tryingtomakeit wrote:
3. You will only need this for the school you decide to attend.

Unless I'm mistaken, Stanford requires applicants to submit a Dean's letter with their applications.

Swimp wrote:

InGoodFaith wrote:3. You will only need this for the school you decide to attend.

Unless I'm mistaken, Stanford requires applicants to submit a Dean's letter with their applications.

Disclaimer: I didn't apply to STTTanford, so I could be wrong.

Swimp wrote:I've read somewhere (Anna Ivey, maybe?) that, for the purposes of law school applications, a two-page resume is perfectly fine, and it would be a mistake to try to shoehorn everything into one page.

If you have enough to fill in more than 1 page, then don't shoehorn it.

However

The reason most people say 1-page is because, in all likelihood, you can fit everything on one page as you don't have enough impressive experience to go onto the second. I've worked with plenty of people who have extremely impressive backgrounds, and I've finalized at most 2 resumes that warranted a second page. Unless you've spent 5+ years working several extremely impressive jobs (i.e. nothing you could do while also in school or, for the most part, with only a Bachelor's degree), or you have a long list of published papers, 1 page is enough.

InGoodFaith wrote:

tryingtomakeit wrote:Edit
1. I was told by my Pre-law advisor that I needed to each a specific LOR for each school instead of general LORs. Is there any truth to this?

2. Exactly how long should a resume be? I've seen up to 2 pages and no more than 1. Which one is better? And does it vary from school to school?

3. Dean certification? I saw this as an application requirement for a LS. What exactly is this?

1. Everything your prelaw advisor has ever told you was wrong.
2. There's no excuse to have anything longer than one page as a law school applicant.
3. You will only need this for the school you decide to attend.

I respectfully disagree with the bold unless you are a K-JD. If you are a nontraditional with a lot of valid items to put on your resume it should be as long as it takes to express the relevant information. 20 years as an Air Force/Air Guard pilot with overlapping jobs and relevant side accomplishments took me some trimming to keep it at two pages.

JCFindley wrote:20 years as an Air Force/Air Guard pilot with overlapping jobs and relevant side accomplishments took me some trimming to keep it at two pages.

I will make an exception for this. Thanks for your many years of service.

InGoodFaith wrote:

tryingtomakeit wrote:Edit
1. I was told by my Pre-law advisor that I needed to each a specific LOR for each school instead of general LORs. Is there any truth to this?

2. Exactly how long should a resume be? I've seen up to 2 pages and no more than 1. Which one is better? And does it vary from school to school?

3. Dean certification? I saw this as an application requirement for a LS. What exactly is this?

1. Everything your prelaw advisor has ever told you was wrong.
2. There's no excuse to have anything longer than one page as a law school applicant.
3. You will only need this for the school you decide to attend.

Not true, some of the schools that require it ask for it before they consider you for all candidates, for candidates with character and fitness concerns specifically, or once you have decided to accept their offers of admission.
Your best bet would be to read through the application for what it says about the Dean's Cert letter. If it's still ambiguous to you, contact the school. It's better to be a little over concerned than to find out that you haven't received a decision because there's a form missing.

JCFindley wrote:I respectfully disagree with the bold unless you are a K-JD. If you are a nontraditional with a lot of valid items to put on your resume it should be as long as it takes to express the relevant information. 20 years as an Air Force/Air Guard pilot with overlapping jobs and relevant side accomplishments took me some trimming to keep it at two pages.

Definitely a candidate for a 2-pager.

However, when you start telling people that there are exceptions to the resume rule, they start to think that they are also a special snowflake because of those internships at the DAs office during undergrad. I'd rather give very strong advice (Don't go over 1 page) and then amend it for specific cases than start with the amendment and have to rein people in.