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This is too late, but my first piece of advice would be to try to go to college in the US. Internationals have a tough row to hoe.

That being said, it's not complex. Get the highest grades you possibly can and when the time comes study as hard as possible for the LSAT so that you can get in the 173+ range you'll need for those schools.

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Take the easiest possible course load and get stellar grades. I was ambitious and double majored while taking schedules loaded with hard upper level courses. I thought I was challenging myself in order to get the best possible education, so I was ok getting a 3.6 if that meant taking the classes I wanted to. In retrospect, that dropped me from the top-14 to regional schools.

Law schools have no way of knowing what classes at a particular university are difficult, unless they're in the hard sciences. For instance, I took a Joyce course with a notoriously demanding professor instead of "History of the English Language" with an easy-grader. Sure, I had fun with the Joyce course, but the B+/A- with a ton of effort hurt my overall gpa instead of the low-effort A.

I'm not sure if this is applicable at European schools or how flexible your course choices are, but really understand that the best thing you can do now is maximize your GPA and maybe find one or two interests so you don't look like an automaton on paper. Develop good relationships with professors and talk to your career development office if your university has one. That office can probably recommend the types of jobs that would set you up for future success.

Also I would give myself a good 6 months of studying before the test. I rushed my first LSAT after 3 months and wasted one of my takes that I would like to have back (I took it 3 times all under my practice average).

Haburo wrote:

fliptrip wrote:This is too late, but my first piece of advice would be to try to go to college in the US. Internationals have a tough row to hoe.

That being said, it's not complex. Get the highest grades you possibly can and when the time comes study as hard as possible for the LSAT so that you can get in the 173+ range you'll need for those schools.

Thank you for your reply! Whoops @ your first piece of advice.

When do you think the time should come for me to study as hard as possible?

I'm also wondering about what kind of work experience I should be getting. Would anyone have any useful recommendations?

Fellow international here! My advice to my past self (and to you) would be to sit for the June LSAT and send your applications in as soon as the cycle starts. I waited until like December, and while I got into 4 out of the 5 schools I applied to I think maybe I could have gotten into HLS as well instead of being waitlisted. You compete with a smaller pool at that stage, and they have more seats open so I think you would overall have a better shot if you applied then! The LSAT is hard but it's not rocket science - give yourself 2 months of serious prep and you'll be fine, me thinks. Good luck!

I'm terrible at standardized testing because of a variety of reasons. If I could go back, I would tell myself to start studying literally freshman year, and not wait until the last minute, because I had a good sense that my end goal was going to be law school. I'm not sure the same can be said for everyone else, but that would have definitely benefited me the most.

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hunt godlink wrote:I'm terrible at standardized testing because of a variety of reasons. If I could go back, I would tell myself to start studying literally freshman year, and not wait until the last minute, because I had a good sense that my end goal was going to be law school. I'm not sure the same can be said for everyone else, but that would have definitely benefited me the most.

Don't people usually advise against studying too far in advance since there's a finite amount of LSAT prep materials and what you absorb, say, first semester of your freshman year would be probably rusty by the time you sit for the exam 3+ years later? I only ask because I'm currently a junior and I've been avoiding test prep like the plague because I thought the best plan of action was 6-12 months of concerted studying leading up to the exam?

I would have switched my major to STEM immediately

Do European undergrads even have reportable LSAT gpas though?

If you can, take the LSAT in the Feb a full year before you plan to enroll (ex. Feb 2015 to enroll in Fall 2016). This way you have plenty of time to study and retake the test if you need to but can also get your applications in relatively early. I have so many friends who didn't take the test until June or the Fall and when they needed a retake, they had very little time between receiving scores and retake (for the Oct-Dec test it was like one month).

While you really need to keep your grades up, the LSAT is going to be extremely important to your application as an international student. Take a practice test in the next year or so just to see where you're starting from and then leave yourself ample time to study and really make the logic and reading habits that you need to develop ingrained.

Best of luck!!

stego wrote:Do European undergrads even have reportable LSAT gpas though?

Yeah, your undergrad degree will get a rating ("superior", "average," "above average" I think?) and so any GPA will not translate directly, and won't get reported to USNWR. You still want a superior over the other options, though I don't know how big a range gets superior. Your LSAT will take on greater importance for this reason, but I agree with the concern about prep materials and starting study too early. It also shouldn't be necessary to study for 3 years to do well.

A. Nony Mouse wrote:

stego wrote:Do European undergrads even have reportable LSAT gpas though?

Yeah, your undergrad degree will get a rating ("superior", "average," "above average" I think?) and so any GPA will not translate directly, and won't get reported to USNWR. You still want a superior over the other options, though I don't know how big a range gets superior. Your LSAT will take on greater importance for this reason, but I agree with the concern about prep materials and starting study too early. It also shouldn't be necessary to study for 3 years to do well.

Yeah sorry, I just reread my comments and realized that they made it sound like I was suggesting that you start studying now. I'd take one practice test in the next year or year and a half just to see where you're starting from. Then from there you can figure out how much time you need to study.

For example, I made a 164 on my diagnostic test, began studying in Oct 2014 and took the test in Feb 2015. If I had scored ~150 I would not have felt comfortable with only 4 months of prep and would have wanted to start a lot earlier.

tldr: take a test soon, see how good you are, plan accordingly to have plenty of time to study