Robert Schwartz on UCLA Law Admissions: LSAT, GPA, Personal Statements, Waitlists, and Application Strategy

^{Last Updated: September 2026}

Law school admissions decisions involve far more than submitting a GPA and standardized test score. Applicants must present a persuasive overall record that helps an admissions committee understand their academic ability, experiences, judgment, goals, and potential contribution to a law school community.

In this interview, former UCLA School of Law dean Robert Schwartz discusses many of the factors that can shape a successful law school application. His observations address academic credentials, personal statements, recommendation letters, supplemental materials, waitlists, transfer applications, and the broader question of how students should choose a law school.

Although the original interview was conducted in 2009, many of Schwartz's broader observations remain useful to applicants seeking to understand how law schools evaluate candidates.

Editor's Note: UCLA School of Law's admissions policies, application requirements, testing policies, deadlines, waitlist procedures, and other administrative practices may have changed since the original interview. Applicants should verify all current requirements directly with UCLA Law and LSAC. References below to particular UCLA practices should therefore be viewed in their historical context.

Key Takeaways from Robert Schwartz's Law School Admissions Advice

Several themes emerge from Schwartz's discussion of the admissions process:

GPA and LSAT performance are important, but law schools may consider many additional factors.
Applicants can use an addendum to provide meaningful context for unusual academic or testing results.
A personal statement should reveal something substantive about the applicant rather than merely repeat a résumé.
Professional writing, careful proofreading, and attention to each school's application instructions matter.
Recommendation letters are most useful when written by people who genuinely know the applicant and can assess relevant abilities.
Supplemental materials should add meaningful information instead of simply repeating what the admissions committee already knows.
Transfer applicants are often evaluated heavily on their performance during the first year of law school.
Choosing a law school should involve more than rankings alone; location, cost, career prospects, programs, and personal fit all matter.

Applicants looking for additional examples can review these law school personal statement examples from Top-Law-Schools.com.

What Does UCLA Law Look for in Applicants?

TLS: How would you describe the ideal candidate for UCLA School of Law?

Robert Schwartz: There is no single ideal candidate.

Schwartz explained that a law school class benefits from students with different backgrounds, accomplishments, interests, and perspectives. Academic achievement matters, but applicants can also distinguish themselves through professional accomplishments, community involvement, leadership, public service, personal experiences, or other evidence of their potential contribution to the law school community.

For applicants, the broader lesson is important: a law school application should communicate more than numbers. It should help the admissions committee understand who the candidate is, what the candidate has accomplished, and what perspective that person may bring to the classroom and legal profession.

How Important Are GPA and LSAT Scores in Law School Admissions?

TLS: Realistically speaking, how large a part of the admissions process are factors other than a candidate's GPA and LSAT score?

Schwartz emphasized that traditional measures of academic ability, including undergraduate grades and LSAT performance, receive substantial attention.

That does not mean the remainder of the application is irrelevant. Admissions committees may also consider the context surrounding an applicant's academic record, personal experiences, extracurricular involvement, professional history, writing ability, and other achievements.

Applicants should therefore avoid thinking of the application as a collection of completely separate components. The strongest application usually presents a coherent picture of academic readiness, motivation, character, and potential.

Can an Upward GPA Trend Help a Law School Application?

An applicant's cumulative GPA is important, but the pattern behind that GPA may also provide useful context.

For example, a student whose grades improved substantially over the course of college may want to make sure the application allows the admissions committee to see that progression. A strong later academic record may demonstrate development, improved study habits, greater maturity, or increased academic focus.

Applicants should generally allow their transcript to speak for itself unless there is meaningful information that cannot be understood from the record alone.

Where substantial context is necessary, an admissions addendum may be appropriate.

When Should You Write a Law School Admissions Addendum?

Schwartz discussed the value of explaining circumstances that might otherwise leave an admissions committee with unanswered questions.

An addendum can be useful when an applicant needs to explain issues such as:

an unusual semester of low grades;
a substantial change in academic performance;
significant circumstances that affected an academic record;
a major discrepancy between standardized testing and classroom performance;
another unusual element of the application that requires brief context.

The key is to provide relevant information without turning the addendum into an excuse.

A good addendum is generally concise, factual, and focused on helping the reader correctly interpret the application record.

Applicants do not need to explain every imperfection. The purpose of an addendum is clarification, not an attempt to argue away every weak point in an application.

How to Write a Strong Law School Personal Statement

Schwartz described the personal statement as one of an applicant's primary opportunities to communicate directly with an admissions committee.

Unlike a transcript or standardized test score, the personal statement allows applicants to decide what information they want an admissions committee to remember about them.

The most effective personal statements therefore tend to reveal something meaningful about the candidate.

A strong statement might explore:

an experience that shaped the applicant's goals;
an important personal or professional challenge;
an intellectual interest;
leadership or public service;
an important accomplishment;
an unusual background or perspective;
a formative experience connected to the applicant's development.

The essay does not need to be dramatic simply for the sake of attracting attention. Instead, it should help the reader understand the applicant more clearly.

Top-Law-Schools.com also provides a collection of sample law school personal statements that applicants can use to study different approaches to structure, storytelling, and presentation.

Personal Statement Mistakes Law School Applicants Should Avoid

Schwartz emphasized professionalism.

Applicants should remember that the personal statement is part of an application to enter a profession in which written communication is extremely important.

Common mistakes include:

careless grammar or spelling;
overly informal writing;
gimmicky formatting;
repeating the résumé without adding insight;
writing what the applicant believes an admissions officer wants to hear rather than presenting an authentic story;
failing to answer the school's actual prompt;
submitting an essay containing another law school's name.

That final mistake is especially avoidable. Applicants using a similar core essay for multiple schools should carefully proofread every version before submitting it.

A personal statement should ultimately communicate both personality and judgment.

Should You Tailor a Personal Statement to UCLA Law?

In the original interview, Schwartz indicated that UCLA was interested in experiences, interests, or attributes that could help an applicant make a distinctive contribution to the school.

That principle can be applied more broadly.

Applicants should carefully read each law school's prompts. If a school asks why the applicant is interested in attending, the response should demonstrate genuine research rather than simply replacing one school's name with another.

Relevant points might include:

particular clinics;
academic programs;
faculty interests;
geographic opportunities;
public interest programs;
student organizations;
experiential learning opportunities;
career outcomes relevant to the applicant's goals.

The focus should still remain on the applicant. A strong school-specific statement explains the connection between the candidate's goals and what that particular law school offers.

Diversity Statements and Supplemental Essays

Schwartz also discussed the value of admitting students who contribute a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives to the classroom.

Applicants who are given an opportunity to submit a diversity statement or similar supplemental essay should consider whether they have meaningful information that is not already apparent elsewhere in their application.

Depending on the school's prompt, relevant topics might include:

socioeconomic background;
cultural experiences;
family circumstances;
community involvement;
geographic background;
educational experiences;
obstacles overcome;
unusual professional experiences;
perspectives developed through significant life experiences.

Applicants should always follow the current wording of each school's prompt rather than assuming that every law school defines supplemental statements in the same way.

Who Should Write Your Law School Letters of Recommendation?

Schwartz's advice on recommendation letters remains straightforward: applicants should seek letters from people who know them well and can provide specific evidence of qualities relevant to law school.

A famous or senior recommender is not automatically better than someone who has directly observed the applicant's work.

A useful recommendation might discuss:

analytical ability;
writing;
intellectual curiosity;
work ethic;
classroom performance;
research ability;
leadership;
reliability;
judgment;
communication skills.

For current students and recent graduates, academic recommendations can be particularly useful because professors can directly address classroom and intellectual performance.

Applicants with significant professional experience may also have supervisors or other professional contacts who can speak meaningfully about their abilities.

The important question is not simply, "Who has the most impressive title?" It is, "Who can write the most credible and detailed assessment of my abilities?"

What Should Waitlisted Law School Applicants Do?

Waitlist procedures vary considerably from school to school and from one admissions cycle to another.

In the original interview, Schwartz discussed UCLA's historical use of the waitlist and indicated that applicants could communicate additional meaningful information.

Current applicants should first follow the instructions provided by the law school.

If a school accepts additional materials, a letter of continued interest, commonly called a LOCI, can provide an opportunity to reaffirm interest and supply substantive updates.

Potential updates include:

new grades;
academic honors;
promotions;
new employment;
significant professional achievements;
publications;
major extracurricular accomplishments;
relevant changes in circumstances.

Applicants should avoid sending repeated messages that contain no new information.

The purpose of follow-up communication is to add value to the application—not simply to remind the admissions office that the applicant is still waiting.

The TLS Law School Admissions Forum also contains extensive community discussion about applications, recommendation letters, waitlists, and other admissions issues.

What Do Law Schools Look for in Transfer Applicants?

For students seeking to transfer after their first year, the admissions process can look significantly different from the process used for entering 1Ls.

Schwartz indicated that first-year law school performance can be particularly significant in transfer admissions.

That makes sense because the applicant now has a record of actual law school performance rather than simply undergraduate credentials and predictions of future legal academic ability.

Transfer applications may consider factors such as:

first-year grades;
class rank, when available;
the applicant's current law school;
faculty recommendations;
reasons for transferring;
writing ability;
professional goals;
the applicant's explanation of why another institution better supports those goals.

Students considering a transfer should research both the opportunities and potential tradeoffs involved, including recruiting timelines, journal participation, academic credit rules, scholarships, and relationships developed at their original institution.

Why Location Matters When Choosing a Law School

One attraction of UCLA Law is its location in Los Angeles, one of the country's largest legal markets.

But Schwartz's broader advice was not simply that applicants should attend UCLA because of its location. Instead, he encouraged students to evaluate which factors matter personally when comparing law schools.

Geography can affect:

internship opportunities;
networking;
alumni relationships;
recruiting;
exposure to particular industries;
post-graduation employment possibilities;
cost of living;
personal quality of life.

Applicants who already know where they hope to practice should investigate how effectively each law school connects graduates with that geographic market.

Students should also remember that law school is the beginning of a professional career, not merely three years of education. LawCrossing's guide to building career clarity as a law student explains how students can connect academic decisions, practical experience, networking, and longer-term career goals.

How Should You Choose the Right Law School?

One of Schwartz's most evergreen observations concerns the final decision about where to attend.

Applicants should take time to determine what they want from their legal education instead of treating rankings as the only consideration.

Factors worth evaluating include:

total cost of attendance;
scholarship conditions;
location;
school size;
employment outcomes;
bar passage results;
academic programs;
clinics;
externships;
public interest opportunities;
faculty;
alumni network;
recruiting access;
career services;
student culture;
areas of legal specialization.

Career goals should be considered particularly carefully.

Students who understand their professional priorities can make better choices about courses, internships, networking, and extracurricular activities once they enter law school. LawCrossing's Law Student Career Framework for Long-Term Success provides additional guidance on connecting law school experiences with long-term career development.

Similarly, students who want to become stronger candidates for legal employers can review The Law Student's Guide to Building a Competitive Career Profile.

Law School Admissions Advice from Robert Schwartz

Schwartz's broader message to prospective law students is to maintain perspective.

There are many strong law schools, and the best choice depends partly on what an individual student wants from a legal education and career.

Applicants should research their options carefully, understand their priorities, and make decisions based on more than prestige alone.

The application process can easily become dominated by GPA medians, LSAT scores, rankings, acceptance rates, and online speculation. Those factors matter, but applicants should not lose sight of the larger question: Which law school provides the right combination of education, opportunity, affordability, and career access for the future you want to build?

That question is ultimately more useful than simply asking which school carries the highest ranking.

Frequently Asked Questions About Law School Admissions

How important are GPA and LSAT scores for law school admissions?

They are important academic indicators, but law schools may also evaluate essays, recommendations, professional experience, extracurricular achievements, background, leadership, and other evidence of an applicant's potential.

Should I explain a low GPA in a law school application?

An addendum may be appropriate if there are significant circumstances that help explain the academic record. It should be concise, factual, and focused on relevant context rather than excuses.

What makes a good law school personal statement?

A strong personal statement is well written, professional, specific, and personal. It should help an admissions committee learn something meaningful that is not already obvious from the applicant's résumé or transcript.

Should I customize my law school personal statement for each school?

Applicants should follow each school's prompt. When a school asks about institutional interest or fit, a customized response based on genuine research is more persuasive than generic praise.

Who should write my law school recommendation letters?

Choose people who know your work well and can provide specific evidence of your academic, professional, analytical, or personal strengths.

Should I send a letter of continued interest after being waitlisted?

If the law school allows or encourages additional communications, a LOCI may be useful. It should reaffirm genuine interest and, when possible, provide meaningful new information.

What matters most for law school transfer admissions?

Strong first-year law school performance is typically highly important. Schools may also consider recommendations, reasons for transferring, career goals, and other application materials.

What should I consider when choosing a law school?

Consider cost, scholarships, employment outcomes, location, career objectives, academic opportunities, experiential programs, school culture, and professional access in addition to rankings.

Related Top-Law-Schools.com Resources

Related LawCrossing Career Resources

Discuss Law School Admissions on the Top-Law-Schools Forums

Originally based on Top-Law-Schools.com's interview with former UCLA School of Law dean Robert Schwartz. The original interview was published in November 2009. Admissions requirements and policies can change, so applicants should confirm current UCLA School of Law requirements before applying.