Top Law Schools

Hi all,

I'm looking at various schools' transfer applications through LSAC and see a couple of things that bother me. Can anyone offer some advice?

First, LSAC now allows me to choose letters of "recommendation" and/or "evaluation" - I've already committed to just getting recommendations, is there any problem with this? Is this new for this year?

Second, when I look at the individual schools' supplemental forms, many of them have, like, specific forms you're supposed to give your professors with a recommendation. I'm beginning to remember that this happened during the original admissions process - are you just supposed to ignore those and opt for LSAC's generic LOR form? For the top few schools, is dean's certification basically all I need to worry about with respect to forms outside of letters, grades and personal statements?

Thanks and good luck,

J

johndhi wrote:Hi all,

I'm looking at various schools' transfer applications through LSAC and see a couple of things that bother me. Can anyone offer some advice?

First, LSAC now allows me to choose letters of "recommendation" and/or "evaluation" - I've already committed to just getting recommendations, is there any problem with this? Is this new for this year?

Second, when I look at the individual schools' supplemental forms, many of them have, like, specific forms you're supposed to give your professors with a recommendation. I'm beginning to remember that this happened during the original admissions process - are you just supposed to ignore those and opt for LSAC's generic LOR form? For the top few schools, is dean's certification basically all I need to worry about with respect to forms outside of letters, grades and personal statements?

Thanks and good luck,

J

Getting letters of recommendations only should be fine. Evaluations were new for the cycle that is finishing up right now, so the upcoming cycle will be the 2nd year of evaluations. Keep in mind if you are applying to Northwestern they require their own special evaluation form of some sort and you can't just use your generic letter of recommendations. Check out their website for more details since I didn't apply there.

Yale and Stanford require dean's certifications, you can find them on their website or under supplemental forms on the LSAC site. Stanford also has an optional targeted letter form. Many schools still have supplemental forms for letter of recommendation, but you should use the LSAC general letter of recommendation form unless they are going to be school specific.

So to answer your question: If blanketing the T14, outside of Yale and Stanford's dean certifications and Northwestern's specific LOR form, you won't need any other forms outside of recommendations and transcripts.

This is also a helpful resource to consult, but you should double check everything with the school's website: http://www.appreqs.com

Edit: didn't notice this was in the tranfer forum, please disregard my post.

If schools provide their own LOR forms, call the office and ask if you need to use that form or if you can instead send the letters through LSAC. They'll probably say that you can just send them through LSAC, but it would be best to double check.

As for dean's certifications/letters of good standing, I think all or at least most schools require them from your current law school, and some might also want them from your undergrad. About half of the schools I'm applying to has a specific form to use and the other half just describes what they want (letter of good standing, letter of rank...). Just read the instructions carefully and ask the registrar at your current school how you should go about getting those sent.

Good luck!!