As I prepare to move to Virginia this fall, I can’t help but look back on the absolute fever dream that was my law school application process. While I’m incredibly happy with the result, there are some aspects of the admissions process that, had I known about them before clicking submit on my Law School Admissions Council (LSAC) portal, certainly would’ve altered my application strategy.
My dad loves to say that you don’t know what you don’t know until you know it. I’ve never related so hard to a tongue twister as I did during the summer before and the Fall semester of my senior year. I’m the first person in my family to go to law school and, as such, didn’t have a concrete idea of the ins and outs of the application process.
There’s got to be at least one prospective law student at FSU who doesn’t know exactly where to start with their application process. Since hindsight is 20/20, I’ll share some of the knowledge I learned throughout my time in LSAC purgatory.
- Ignore the influencers
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In the big ‘26, it can be all too easy to take the words of webpages on Reddit as gospel. I mean, I was convinced for a solid month and a half that I’d never be admitted to any reputable school if I had a Law School Admission Test (LSAT) score of less than 170, which was so far out of the realm of possibility it may as well have been in Narnia.
Now, that’s not to say Reddit and TikTok pages can’t be helpful. However, when you treat these “influencers” and their sky-high statistics as a rule and not the exception, you’re setting yourself up for a world of hurt.
When applying to law school, to a certain extent, you’re competing against your peers — every acceptance letter someone else receives is one that you won’t get. Even LSAT scores are released with the percentile in which you were placed.
It was when I started to focus solely on my own performance and not how it compared to that of others that I started to feel more confident in my application.
- Personal Statements
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Writing my personal statement was, without a doubt, the most intimidating part of my application process. The concept of fitting one’s entire life story and motivation for pursuing a higher education into two, double-spaced pages was incredibly daunting.
My biggest piece of advice in terms of statements is to start early. I was so scared of writing the wrong thing down. Would William & Mary’s admissions committee be deeply offended by my serial use of semicolons and em dashes and dash my dreams of practicing constitutional law upon the steps of Wolf Law Library?
By the time I finished my personal statements, both universal and school-specific, and clicked submit on my LSAC portal, the application cycle was more than half over. Frankly, it’s remarkable that I received a decision. By all accounts, I should still be in decision purgatory…
In any case, it certainly would’ve behooved me to begin my writing process before winter break, and I implore you all to do the same!
- Application Fees
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Before completing my admissions cycle, I had no idea just how expensive applying to law school could be. On top of the Credit Assembly Service (CAS) fee of upwards of $40 for each application, schools will often make you pay to apply there. Sometimes, you can get fee waivers and will just be left with the CAS charge upon checkout.
I’d recommend looking into whether your prospective institutions have either offered you a fee waiver or invited you to apply for one by filling out a Google Form of some kind. If I could go back in time, I likely would’ve applied to five schools rather than 10, especially seeing as I’ve already committed.
When you’re building your list of schools, make sure to keep these things in mind!
- LSAT Prep
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If you’ve made it this far into the article, you’ve probably heard about preparation methods like those of LSAT Demon and TikTok LSAT tutors. While they work for some, these programs aren’t necessarily the most sustainable mode of study.
Now, I’m well aware that taking a course like the ones offered by Princeton Review isn’t financially viable for everyone. However, I’d be remiss if I didn’t recommend the one linked above as it was my main study method for the LSAT. The downside to an intensive course, though, is that your time to absorb everything is only a month and a half.
On the other hand, if you use a self-paced study program or book like Mike Kim’s The LSAT Trainer, there’s much more flexibility as to how quickly you move through the material. Books like these are also a lot more affordable than taking a whole class.
The last thing I’ll say about the LSAT is something my prep course teacher would say each day: slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.
- You’ve got this
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Know that this entire process can be so incredibly scary, especially when you’re embarking upon it with no prior knowledge about law school admissions, as I did. It can be so easy to get down on yourself, to turn to negative self-talk at each incorrectly identified argument principle.
You have to give yourself grace, though. I know it sounds like such a cliché, but it’s true. You’re going to come out of this on the other side, even if it doesn’t feel like it. What truly helped me the most in terms of successfully completing my applications was becoming more confident in myself and my capabilities.
Take a moment to be proud of yourself for making it this far! You’re a smart and talented person; you wouldn’t be applying to law school if you weren’t.
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