How to Ask a Professor for a Law School Application Recommendation Letter

Hellooooo! To all you 0L's out there, application time is coming up! I have actually had to ask for application rec letters twice since I had to get some for when I originally applied and then again when I transferred and I know they can be a pain, but you have to do them for your application. Today I'm walking you through a step-by-step process of how to get a great rec letter.

Related: Law school admissions timeline

Freshman - Junior year

Ideally you'll start on this sooner rather than later because it just makes it easier on yourself. I wouldn't really worry too much about this your freshman year because you're still adjusting from high school and usually end up taking lots of basics your first year of college, but if the opportunity presents itself definitely take it! If you're like me and like to overthink and have a game plan, here's what I would do. Obviously you want to be aiming for B's and A's in all of your college classes because you're going to want a good GPA when you apply to law school so step one would be the obvious of plan on doing great in all of your classes. 

About once a month, visit your professors office hours so he/she can get to know you. A head's up email to them is always polite but you definitely can just drop by during their office hours. If you have class or our busy during their office hours, you can instead email them and set up a time. This is a great time to make sure you're fully caught up and understanding what's going on in class to help you get those good grades, but it doesn't have to be a full-on study session. A quick 10-minute drop by just to ask a question or get clarification is enough to get a rapport going with your professor. During these office hour times, it is great to casually mention something like how you especially want to do good in their class because you hope to go to law school or somehow find a way to plug in law school.

As the semester progresses, you might notice that some professors are just not a perfect fit for you that probably wouldn't be your best bet to ask for a rec letter, and that's okay. Hopefully you'll find at least one professor who you really click with, are doing great in their class, and you think they would have the time eventually to write you a fabulous rec letter. At the end of the semester you could sign up to take another one of their classes so you can continue on building this relationship (if it works with your schedule) or if you don't think you'll be seeing them in class again then you can go ahead and ask them if in a year or two they'd be willing to write you a letter.

Keep repeating every semester until you graduate! Number 1 this will help you have great grades because you're putting in more-than-average effort into this class. And number 2 it's always great to have a stash of available professors for rec letters! Some may be willing to now but then get busy or move before you need them (or even say no) so it's best to have more than you need. Plus you can always use these recommenders for things like scholarships or program applications too!

Related: How to find scholarships for law school

Senior year

If you waited until the last minute to ask for rec letters, don't worry you're not totally screwed!  Sit down with a copy of your transcript and look back on what classes you did the best in. Remember that law school is a graduate school so ideally your rec letter will sing your praises as a law student, and someone can't exactly do that if you barely got a C in their class. Then go through this list and think back to your relationship with your professors and pick the top 6 (remember it's always better to have more for backups) that you really got along with and schedule a time to come visit their office hours. Some people to look at our professors from classes where you participated in a lot (for me these tended to be smaller classes) or people who were a faculty advisor for something that you were involved in.

One important thing for finding a recommender no matter what year of college you ask for it— choose the person not the class! I mean obviously if you did well in business law or any college class that was taught by a lawyer then they will really be able to know if you're law school material or not and talk on that. But seriously, if you got along way better with your Anthropology professor than you did with your PoliSci professor, pick the Anthropology one! Law schools won't weight one professor over another just because of what class it was. They're looking for some reassurance that you're a great learner who will be able to survive a studious workload, and they don't really care which professor is saying so. 

Anyways, stop by as soon as possible for a little reunion. Since some professors have literally hundreds of students each semester, you're probably going to have to remind them of who you are. Remind them what class you took with them and in what year, and what grade you got. It would be helpful if you had a graded paper or test by them to bring with you to help jog their memory or at least show how you performed in their class so they don't feel like you want them to make up parts of their letter. Ask them if they'd be okay with writing a letter and then schedule a follow-up meeting to discuss the rec letter if you're running out of time or go in to your request right then and there.

Asking for the rec letter

First off, make an appointment with your professor for when you ask them to write a rec letter for you. I think it's much more polite and professional to ask for a rec in person rather than in email. Do this ideally at least a month before you need the letter because you don't want to be cut-off halfway because they already had plans with another student or professor. Take this time to make sure that they understand 1) that they're writing this rec letter for law school; 2) why you want to go to law school; 3) why you want them in particular to write a letter for you; 4) how they will have to go to LSAC and upload their rec letter; and 5) a due date 2 weeks before you actually want to have the letter in (because they get busy).

On the day you go to ask your professor with a rec letter, make sure you bring a copy of your law school application resumé with you! It'll help your recommender know even more about you and why you would make a great law student so they can mention some of that in their letter. This can be longer than your law school resumé if you have even more involvement, accomplishments, or anything else that you think might be helpful for them to think about as they're writing your rec letter. Oh, and definitely make sure you have your GPA on it because at first I didn't have that but then had a professor ask for it.

Related: What to put in a law school resumé

If you have good grades and feel comfortable showing these to your professor, it's okay to print off a copy of your transcript. This way you can talk to your professor and point out some of your other strong areas. So if in my example above you're asking your Anthropology professor to write a rec letter but all your work in that class was multiple choice quizzes and tests, you could point out if you've been getting good grades in writing classes so that they know you're also a good writer. They might not end up needing/using this information, but it's nice to have a little packet all ready for them to make it easier on them to write a great and compelling letter for you.

Last tips

One tip I have for all law school applicants is choose quality over status! I know this post has been all about professors, but really you can ask a wider variety of people for rec letters. But I have heard over and over again about how political figures in your community or who you have interned for tend to have a rec letter template that is completely generic and used for you and the 3 people who also asked for a rec letter that same day. And partners at a big law firm that you interned for over the summer are usually just as busy and sometimes have a member of their staff write something about you for them, which again will probably a little generic. If this person did not get to personally know you, don't waste your time. The ideal rec letter would be enough that it could convince the ad com committee that they just have to admit you to their school. Sure, they probably won't based off only this one letter, but it definitely won't help.

Don't procrastinate and stay on top of your due dates! Remember that these people have full-time jobs and most likely a family, too. They're busy and have papers to grade, conferences to attend... you get the point. You want to be able to give them enough time to write the rec letter because it's just really rude to ask them to do you a favor, but then be demanding that they set aside their entire life to do you this favor right now since you waited until the last minute. If you haven't heard back from them for a few weeks after you asked, you might want to send a follow-up email reminding them of your highlight points and due dates. Basically enough information that they could quickly type something out on their phone right then before they go to bed.

Do as much work for them as possible! After you leave their office, go to LSAC and register them as a recommender (here's how to do that). Fill out as much as you can and have it all ready for them just in case they decided to upload your letter that day. You probably still can't navigate around LSAC that easily, so imagine how confusing and frustrating it would be for someone who has maybe never even heard of LSAC. Remember that you're the one asking them for the favor, so try to make to make it as easy as possible for them so they don't end up regretting it. Especially because you never know if you'll need them to write you another rec letter in the future.

Related: Law school application checklist

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Law School Application Checklist

Seniors this one is for you!! Ok, well actually law school applications have been open for like a month now so if you're an eager beaver who has already submitted all of your apps and are just sitting around waiting for responses, then you probably don't need this post. So, Seniors with senioritis who are procrastinating or want one last try with the December LSAT, this one is for you!! 

Finalize your school list

If you want to throw down the cash and apply to 30 schools then by all means, have at it. But if not, now's the time for you to decide where you're actually going to apply. The short cut to this is ask yourself, would I be happy going here? would I be proud to have their diploma on my wall and their school on my résumé? Yeah sure it worked out for Elle, but just because you know someone who goes to a law school means that it's the right school for you. I'd say pick between 6-10 schools to apply to. Remember that some schools will have a quick deadline for you to pay a seat deposit if you're accepted so if you aren't quite sure where you want to go, you may get yourself in a sticky situation with those deposits.

Related: How to choose a law school 

Write down due dates

I know you're thinking that there's absolutely no way you could miss a deadline, *Gretchen Weiners voice* but you could be wrong. It's just better to be safe than sorry so double check those deadlines and mark them in your planner in a color that you normally don't use and also add it to your phone calendar with notifications 1 and 2 days out jusssst in case life happens and you don't get your apps in as soon as you thought you would. Knowing these can also really help you prioritize what to do first so that you don't end up rushed on one app in the end.

Find what the school wants from you

Ok, so once you've picked a handful of schools it's time to do some digging. I recommend you check both that school's admissions page and LSAC to see what they're asking for because I've heard stories of school websites giving extra explanation over what they want so it's best to just double check. This also might help you decide where to apply because if a school that you're just meh about is asking for a personal statement, 4-5 rec letters, plus an additional essay, with a video submission thrown in, then you might decide that the effort isn't worth your time and you'd be better off dedicating all that time to an app for a school that you really, really want to go to. If you do end up needing to do an extra essay, start brainstorming and making rough drafts.

Hunt down your rec letters

This turned out to be such a fiasco for me. At the beginning of the summer before my senior year, I chose who to ask for rec letters and asked them to write me one. I figured they'd have the whole summer to write them so they wouldn't feel rushed. Well one person completely forgot to do it and another person wasn't responding to my emails because turns out that professor took a job at another university and wasn't getting my emails! Obviously I had a mild major meltdown. The takeaway from this is give them a nice little reminder that you'll be needing that soon and then a week or two after that is when you have LSAC send them the link to upload it or whatever (it's been a while since I did this okay). Then give them another week or so and if you see that they haven't uploaded the letter, send another polite reminder that your whole future is depending on this or even go visit them in person.

Related: How to ask for a rec letter

Personalize your résumé

Remember how extra Paris was in Gilmore Girls and had like 30 different résumés? Be that extra if you can. Here's what I mean... if one of the schools that you're applying to has a great clinic that you want to be in, it'd be great if your résumé reflected that. So like if they have an animal defense clinic you could show how you are always down at the shelter playing with the dogs and then in your personal statement mention that you're an animal lover and would love to work in that clinic. When everything lines up like that, it'll help the admissions committee see you as being involved in that clinic and then wow magic that means they're already envisioning you as a student and what do ya know now they think you're an ideal candidate for them!

Related: What to put on a law school application résumé

Personalize your personal statement 

Here's what I was told— if you take the same personal statement, change out the names, and then send it to all your schools, then you're not being personal enough. I don't mean that you can't keep the majority of it the same, but you do need some personalization at least beyond changing out the names (and dear God plz double check that you don't send X law school a paper over how much you love Y law school). Basically just take what I just said about the résumé and expand some more and either weave personal touches throughout your PS if it'll work out or if not then add a paragraph in there about their school. Show them that you took the time to at least Google what they had to offer. But really, find a clinic or a program or something that the school offers and talk about why they're the perfect school for you and then how you're the perfect student for them because of whatever life experience would make you great to be involved with whatever it is. I mean heck, even just saying something like I saw that your school offers free counseling and student wellness support throughout the year so I want to go to X law school because I can tell that you truly care about our well-being would at least show them that you took the time to see what they're all about.

Related: Personal statement advice

Start on the applications

There are a lot of questions so go ahead and get started now so it's out of the way. The good news is that with LSAC is that it'll save your answers so it's really easy after you do one. On another note, after taking the MPRE and everything I will say this— disclose everything. It's better for you to disclose something and then the schools be like oh that's nbd than for you to not disclose and they later find out and now you're shady on top of whatever else you did bad. You might even need to write an addendum for that. If you're not sure, I suggest you check out this Should You Write a Law School Addendum post.

Request your transcript

My school took like a week to process my request (plus I had to pay for each one so that's always fun). So yeah this can kinda be one of the last things you start on but remember what I said about making sure you're good with your deadlines. But I will warn that even once you get an acceptance letter back that does not mean that you can give up on your grades. Some schools over the summer will require you to submit your final transcript before orientation and if you just gave up and got some D's that last semester well then you might be getting a fun little email from them wanting to talk about that!

And I made you guys a cute little printable checklist to keep track of everything!

Click here to download your law school application checklist

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How to Find Law School Scholarships

This weekend Ry and I watched the movie 21 and if you've never seen it, it's basically about a guy who got in to Harvard Med but can't afford it so he counts cards to pay for school. What really got to me though, is that the whole movie is all about how smart this guy is and how he gets good grades and professors love him and yada yada. So when he didn't win a full ride scholarship I was practically yelling at the TV about how he could still get other scholarships to at least help him pay for it! I think it would be such a shame for someone to put their legal career on hold because of money, so here's how you can get some free cash money for school.

Your school

Even if your acceptance letter didn't include a scholarship, don't give up! My 1L year a bunch of us were talking about how we all got at least $1,000 a semester scholarship from my school when one girl mentioned that she didn't get any scholarship. After we all shared our GPA/LSAT scores, she told us that she had the same as us! We hyped her up and she went in and talked to our school's financial aid advisor and got her $1,000 too!

Even if you don't want to be a litigator, you still will need to get good at negotiating and this is the perfect excuse to practice. It probably did help that she could go in there and point out that her application was about the same as X, Y, and Z, but you should still at least try even if you don't have this information to back you up. I mean ya never know so it's worth it to at least try. And any semester after your grades improve, go back and see if you have earned yourself a liiiitle bit more. Even if you get a measly $100, everything helps! 

Here's two articles on negotiating law school scholarships— Law School Advice and Pre Law Guru

Bar Associations

I actually just got $2,000 from the Bar association that's closest to my hometown. Writing the application was also super easy because I could just take a little bit from my personal statement about who I am, a little bit from my clinic application about my personal goals in the legal field, and a little bit from my externship application bragging about myself. Then all I had to do was give a good way that I'd use the money, which for me was relocating to Dallas for my externship but you could just as easily mention casebooks since everyone knows how expensive that is.

You also might look into the Bar association for whatever city your law school is located or if you have a job lined up in another city, you could try their Bar, too! Just make sure that within a week of receiving the check, you write them a personalized thank you letter. Remind them again of who you are and how much their support means to you. Definitely don't forget to do this and for sure don't make it sound generic or half-assed because if you get in these people's good graces, you might be able to network your way to a job!

Here's two ways to find national Bar association law school scholarships— ABA and ABA law student division 

Local scholarships 

Every now and then (especially in the Spring) my school's daily email will have an announcement about a local scholarship to apply to. Some of these are by alumni, some are from different Bar associations (Women's Bar, Criminal Bar), and some are in memory of a student who passed. The application for these are usually not too much effort and again just want you to have decent grades and a paper telling them who you are and how you can benefit from the money. 

Even if a thank-you note isn't required, it's best to go ahead and send them. You can type them, but a hand-written note is always a nice touch. My grandma actually got me these thank you cards and I get a lot of use out of them! I love that they're nicer than just store-bought cards and show that I put a little effort into genuinely thanking them. These are also handy to use for writing thank-you's after an interview, too.

Here's three lists of local law school scholarships— US News and Yale and LendEDU

Scholarship match service

My school suggested that we use FastWeb scholarship matching. What you do is give them information about yourself and it gives you a list of scholarships that you could apply for. For example, since I'm a girl I would get matched with scholarships for women. It also matches by location so I would get matched with scholarships for Texans. You get the picture. It's just a way to keep you from having to just go through tons of Google pages.

Make a scholarship binder

If you're applying for lots of scholarships, it's super important that you have a system to keep yourself organized so that you don't end up missing deadlines or accidentally send the wrong application to the wrong scholarship organization. I recommend getting a 3 ring binder to keep all your paperwork in. Get some page dividers and make sections for important information, the applications themselves, the essays, recommendation letters, copies of your transcript, and your resumé. 

I also made you some printables to keep all of your scholarships organized! The first one is a scholarship checklist so you can keep track of what you have and haven't applied to. The next is a monthly scholarship tracker so you can mark what scholarships are due when. The last one is a weekly scholarship tracker so you can check off your scholarship progress.

Get all three printables for FREE here!

Law School Podcast

Hey guys so today my "guest post" comes from a collaboration between me and Chance from Law School Outlines! Recently he reached out to me and invited me to be apart of his weekly podcasts (find those here) and obviously I was super excited to do it. Some things we talked about:

How the LSAT relates to law school finals and the Bar exam 

(Related: What I Wish I Knew Before Taking the LSAT)

The one surprising thing I encountered when I was transferring law schools 

(Related: How to Transfer Law Schools)

And how to stay humble through the good grades and motivated through the bad grades 

(Related: How I Got an A in Law School and How to Bounce Back From a Bad Grade)

A little about today's collaborator Chance, an attorney in Fort Worth

Created Law School Outlines to connect with and tutor law school students

Law School: Oklahoma City University School of Law, Class of 2015

Undergrad: Texas State University

Major: Communication Studies

Minor: English

You can click below to hear our conversation, but you can also find all of his podcasts on iTunes! I hope y'all enjoy it 😊 (P.S. -- if the podcast doesn't work, you can use this direct link)

Why I Decided To Go To Law School

Hello again! Today I finally decided to share with y'all my story of why I decided to go to law school just for any undergrad who is still considering signing up for this major life change or anyone out there who was just generally curious.

Why Law School

My "why law school" story actually isn't all that great so I hated trying to work it in to my personal statement and still kinda hope that no one asks me about it in an interview because truthfully, I just kinda decided law school on a whim. It wasn't exactly like a Legally Blonde "I think I'll go to law school today" whim but also I definitely am not one of those people who had this great moment in my life that impacted my decision to come here. 

My freshman year I was an extreme type-A person who had my whole life planned out. I was going to be married by 21, a doctor by 26, a mom before 30, and have my own practice by 35... But by the end of the first semester of my freshman year, I was heartbroken and had failed chemistry so my life plan kinda fell apart. I realized that the only reason I was upset was because I had set all these unattainable goals for myself so I decided to become a go with the flow kinda of person. 

The next semester I was complaining to a friend about retaking chemistry and she told me that she didn't have to take that class because she was going to be a lawyer and there were no prerequisite classes for law school (ironically she actually ended up switching to pre-med). My mom had always joked that I'd make a great lawyer because I'm very argumentative so I started to consider law school a little more seriously.

I joined the pre-law fraternity Phi Alpha Delta and loved it when we had lawyers come talk about what they actually do. One day we had a panel of current law students come talk to us and I remember this one 3L talking about how she decided to go to law school because she's a lesbian and one day decided that participating in rallies wasn't enough for her so she decided to be a lawyer to work for her cause from the inside. Obviously my story isn't as great as hers, but I loved the idea of the real power that comes from being a lawyer.

And that was kinda that. By the time that I was applying to law schools, I just had this gut feeling that I was doing what I was supposed to be with my life and that being a lawyer was meant for me. Two years later, I'm still just going with the flow and have kinda decided that I want to do business/commercial law but have absolutely no reason except for that I just like it so why not. 

Why I Stay in Law School

First things first, I have come to realize this week that there are two kinds of people in law school — ones who love it (me) and ones who really really don't like it. At first I just thought it was 3L's having senioritis and wanting to be done with school already, but recently I met a girl who was explaining why she sincerely doesn't like it and now I realize that there actually are a lot of people who would drop out but they want to be a lawyer that bad that they stick it out for 3 years. I mean remember how Nick Miller from New Girl dropped out his 2L year because he hated it? I respect their commitment to being lawyers and really feel bad that they're not enjoying it as much as I am. 

I think the reason why I enjoy it so much and kinda have the attitude that everyone should go to law school is that I genuinely love the challenge of it. That's not to say that I love law school all the time because I definitely don't. Some days I cry because I'm stressed and other days I have to scream into a pillow because I'm so frustrated. Frustrated at professors, frustrated at classmates, frustrated at the casebook author, at the majority's opinion, at the dissenting's opinion, at a certain subject, at the deadlines. It's hard most of the time, tbh. Think of it like college except for you're studying for finals all semester instead of just two weeks and there aren't any frat parties for you to go to after a bad week.

On the flip side, I love that I'm finally learning something that new all the time. Not to be braggy, but in college I felt like most of what I was learning was something that I could figure out on my own. For example, one time I took anthropology and honestly I already knew most of the things we learned from reading an article about it or watching an episode of National Geographic. But here in law school, almost everything I learn is brand new. 

The self-satisfaction you feel after the challenge of learning some hard concept is amazing. And I love that what I'm learning is real-world applicable. I mean honestly I'll probably never use what I learned in most of my undergrad classes again, but I can use my legal knowledge all the time! That's another thing I like, that the legal profession is one where you're always learning. I like this because I still am a perfectionist so I'm always wanting to improve myself.

Lastly, I just love the power that the law gives you. Just like the girl who visited my pre-law meeting, I can change laws one day if I want to, or I have the chance to help someone be righted for a wrong. The other day this very rude man in a Walmart parking lot got heated at me and yelled "I'm going to sue you!" (it was really over nothing, don't worry) and I turned right back around and said "Oh yeah? Under what theory??" If I hadn't gone to law school, I probably would've cried when a huge man was yelling at little 5'2 me, but I wasn't intimidated by him because I knew better. And when my old landlord initially didn't want to give me my deposit money back, I wrote him a nice little letter like I'd learned in my legal writing class and informed him of the various statutes he was violating and he suddenly changed his mind about keeping my money. Again, if I hadn't gone to law school there's no way that I would've had the confidence to stand up for myself against a business owner. 

Final Thoughts

I know my story isn't exactly going to motivate anyone to come to law school, but I hope it helps anyone out there not be dissuaded from coming here. Sure some students' parents and grandparents are lawyers and that's all they've ever dreamed about being, but you don't have to have this big compelling reason to decide to come to law school. Sometimes you just know. So if you're up for a challenge (and no, I don't use that word lightly here), then maybe you'll end up loving law school, too.

What to Put on a Law School Application Resumé

Recently one of my readers emailed me asking about what to put in her resumé and I realized that I haven't talked much about the application process so I figured I'd share what I put on my resumé when I was first applying and then applying to transfer. Application resumés can be hard because they're a little different than a job resumé and I know from experience that if you Google law school resumé all they have as examples is someone who was super involved in undergrad and when they got their masters and oh yeah they have like 10 years of experience working in the legal field. This is a little more realistic post.

From Undergrad to Law School

So here's everything what mine had:

Heading
Just like everything you put on a job resumé

Education 
My school name and location, graduation date, degree, minors, and GPA

Honors and Scholarships  
Scholarship I was awarded because of my ACT score and the GPA I maintained to keep that, and that one time I made the deans list (with dates)

Leadership experience 
I tried really hard to make being in a sorority and pre-law fraternity sound like I was really involved when really I just chose what flowers we'd use one day during recruitment (dates again)

Extracurricular activities 
This is where I put those organizations that you get in to based on your GPA but only meet like once ever and that I was a part of my school's pre law program too (dates)

International experience 
Where I studied abroad and where I worked during my internship for one of my classes. a friend of mine hard participated in our school's DC internship at the Capitol so she put that here and I just kinda copied that section of hers :)

Volunteer experience 
Basically just all of the philanthropy participation I had to do because of my sorority and fraternity

If I had any legal experience like working at a law office or shadowing a judge, I definitely would've added that in here and put it towards the top because it is the second most relevant part after my education. If you have it, good for you. If you don't, just know that it's not going to ruin your chances. You also might consider having career services take a glance at your resumé before you submit it to get any tips on how to improve your wording.

On this note I'd like to add that a lot of people tend to get super involved their junior/senior year once they decide they want to go to law school so they try to make their resumé sound great. My word of caution is don't get too involved and sacrifice your grades for it. Grades & LSAT > rec letters > resumé  Just to put things in perspective. Also it looks better to be really involved in a few things than barely involved in a ton of things. 

Related: 0L Advice

If you're interested in seeing what other law students did for their resumé, then check out

Telling Twenty's Application Process: Step-by-step and

Justifiably Blonde's What In the Heck Am I Going to Write About

From Law School to Law School

Heading 

Shocker 

Education 

Law school name and location with GPA and class rank first, undergrad second just like what was in ^that^ one

Extracurricular activities 

The scholarship I got and the information similar to ^^, my participation in my 1L moot court, and that I volunteered for this event that my professor held

Organizations and memberships 

The two organizations I joined my 1L year

Legal experience 

My summer internships. I put the information just like I have on my job resumé too about my job requirements. 

Related: How to Get a Summer Internship in the Legal Field 

Language skills

I got a degree in Spanish so yeah everyone is going to know that

If I had been on the ball my 1L year and did pro bono service, I definitely would've listed that on here. I feel like that looks a lot better to a school but again, if you have it great, if you don't obviously it won't ruin your chances.  

Related: 6 Steps to Transferring Law Schools

Deciding Whether to Retake the LSAT

A long, long time ago in my very first post I briefly talked about how I retook the LSAT after getting a slightly-below-average first score and wanting to raise my score by 4 measly points. Unfortunately in my case, my second score ended up being 12 points lower than my original so safe to say that plan backfired on me. I haven't really thought much about those two scores until recently I've had a friend ask me for advice on whether or not to retake the LSAT (lol yes I've surrounded myself with generations of future law students). So if you're contemplating retaking the LSAT, here's my insight on that. 

Related: What I wish I knew before taking the LSAT

Why you shouldn't retake the LSAT

I'll start off by being frank. I regretted retaking it. Think back to the pressure that you felt as you took it the first time, knowing that your future career came down to this one test. Now imagine that pressure on top of the disappointment and self doubt you're carrying around because of your first score. Add to that the pressure of now you're going to have to wait to submit any of your applications until you get this next score back. It's a lot of pressure so just because you've taken it before doesn't mean that the second time is any easier.

I got my first score back and then only had a week to decide whether to take the leap of faith and apply then with that score or to risk cutting it close to application deadlines in hopes of getting a higher score. Because of this, I really only had what felt like two good weeks to study for the second round. I thought I could be strategic and just work on improving my worst section since I didn't have time to try to improve my better sections. Obviously this plan did not work out for me. 

I studied originally with Kaplan and they have some guarantee about how if you're not satisfied with your score you can get more classes for free when you try to improve it. However, I couldn't find out how to try to get these free classes since I had taken online classes (which I don't recommend) so I didn't even know who to talk to. I tried to go back through my books and re-read and try to get a better grasp on what it was saying but if you don't understand something in the first place it's really hard to try to teach yourself to understand it.

I really thought that retaking it a second time would be easier because in high school I retook the ACT every year and each time I got faster and better on it. The LSAT is not like the ACT in this way. I underestimated how hard it would be to not only be as smart and efficient as I was the first time, but also how to somehow improve more than I was that first time.

Lastly, this test is fucking expensive. I felt like I wasted $200 and definitely did not feel like I got my money's worth. It didn't help that I procrastinated on deciding whether or not to retake it so I ended up having to pay the late fee. 

Why you should retake the LSAT

However, that's not to mean that you shouldn't consider retaking it. For starters, law schools only consider your highest score, so if you do worse it won't hurt you. Not only will a better score increase your chances of getting accepted, it will also increase your chances of getting a scholarship or increase the amount of scholarship that you will get. This means it's a low risk and potentially a high reward so you might as well try, right?

PS - here's data on what people's second scores were when they retook it

Also, it takes 4 years to earn your GPA but only 4 hours to earn your LSAT score so this is the easiest way to bump your chances of getting in because by now your GPA is pretty set in stone. If you truly did have a bad day the first time you took it, then now is the perfect time to try to make up for that and make you a stronger candidate. And even though I personally regretted retaking it, I will admit that it was less intimidating the second time.

If you do decide it's worth the cost to retake it, my advice to you is to decide fast so that you can avoid the late fee and so that you can get started on studying ASAP. Like I said, I focused on trying to improve my weakest section, but if I could go back what I would probably focus on instead is improving my speed. The time crunch seems to be everyone's biggest hurdle when taking the LSAT (sad truth: this is also one of the hardest parts of law school finals). You'll probably only have a couple of weeks to get ready for your next test and that's not a lot of time to master a section that you don't understand. I personally think it's a better strategy to try to get a little faster so that you can quickly get to the questions you do know how to answer so that you don't have to risk guessing on those, and then just give up on the confusing ones and save those for your guessing.

One warning about that though is that after focusing on my weakest sections I had already started to forget little things about my better sections because I didn't spend hardly any time reviewing that. Make sure that you still skim back through your notes and are practicing all of the sections, not just your problem ones. 

Not to call anyone out, but if for your first test you thought oh this isn't too bad, I don't have to crack down on studying, then now is the time for you to crack down studying. Just like with finals, it can be really beneficial for you to go to a quiet library a couple of evenings a week and study for several hours.

What to do if you still have a low score

In the end, if you still find yourself stuck with a not-so-hot score then you might consider writing an addendum about it. A note on this: I don't think you should write an addendum if you made a slightly-less-than-average score. I'm talking about if it's like bad. Don't try to make it a sob story or make excuses because admissions committees are over that. Own up to it and admit that it was bad, but then focus on why they should still seriously consider you and why you're still a strong candidate. 

No matter what, don't give up on your law school dreams just because of a bad LSAT score. Plenty of people haven't gotten in to law school with a meh score. And even if you have meh grades and a meh score, you can still go to whatever law school will take you and then work hard to transfer (they don't really care about your LSAT when you transfer). Don't listen to any of the negative blogs or articles that talk trash on badly ranked law schools. Yes, if you go to these law schools you probably won't be balling like Harvey Specter on Suits, but if you're just in it for the money and don't even like the law or being a lawyer then you might consider other careers. Just because you won't be going to a topped ranked school and having a starting salary of $200k doesn't mean that you won't make a great lawyer. Have faith in yourself!

When did you take the LSAT for the first time?

— Brazen and Brunette (@brazennbrunette) August 8, 2018

Did you retake the LSAT?

— Brazen and Brunette (@brazennbrunette) August 8, 2018

If you retook the LSAT how soon did you retake it

— Brazen and Brunette (@brazennbrunette) August 8, 2018

Should You Go to Law School?

Law school application season is upon us, so I wanted to take the time to give some perspective to anyone out there who is on the fence about law school. Law school is the hardest thing I've ever done, but that doesn't mean that I regret my decision one bit.

It's nothing like the LSAT

Or anything you've ever done before. So just because you got great grades your whole life doesn't mean it'll be easy. On the flip side, if you struggled with the LSAT or thought it wasn't real-world realistic, that's okay because law school is literally nothing like that at all. In one of my classes we're already doing practice Bar questions and thankfully there are no logic games involved. 

It is time consuming

Ok let me do a quick breakdown for you.

  24 hours in a day

- 8 hours sleeping

- 1.5 hours getting ready/getting to class

- 2 hours cooking/eating (breakfast, lunch, dinner)

- 4 hours of class

- 5 hours of studying
-1 hour working out
-1/2 hour doing chores around the house

2 hours of free time

Now I'm not saying that's how little free time you have every day, but it isn't uncommon for you to spend 5 hours reading or writing for a class. The one down side to law school is that during the busy parts you're really busy.

It isn't crazy competitive

And people aren't rude savages trying to get ahead of the curve. Everyone's suffering through this together so you kind of bond with your classmates because of this. That's why people study in groups because at least it's y'all together against everyone else. But after two schools, I've found that people are always friendly enough to offer old outlines or whatever to help you along. 

It's not like debate team or mock trial

Two things about this. 1. If debate or mock trial weren't your thing, or you didn't even like it, then you can still go to law school. Not every lawyer spends all day arguing in front of a jury. That's a litigation lawyer. There's also transactional lawyers who write wills or file companies for bankruptcy. 2. If you were super into debate or mock trial, that doesn't necessarily mean that you're ahead of the game.

Sure you have the opportunity to join a mock trial (or moot court) team and occasionally a professor will have you debate a side in class, but that's not what this is about. Mostly all you'll be doing that first year is sitting in class learning about how a contract is formed or what the term "delivery" means for property. Remember, it is law school.

It is expensive

Another breakdown, this time of my costs through my first semester as a 2L.

0L

1,200 Kaplan LSAT prep

175 CAS registration

180 1st LSAT attempt registration

180 2nd LSAT attempt registration

50 1st school application fee

45 2nd school application fee

45 3rd school application fee (I got waivers for the 2 other schools)

$1,875

1L

20,500 government loan (FASFA)

900 interest on government loan from Aug. 2015 - Aug. 2016

27,500 private student loan

1,300 interest on private loan from Aug. 2015 - Aug. 2016
200 Declaration of Intent fee

$50,500

(these two loans covered my tuition, housing, books, and living expenses)

2L

20,500 government loan

13,000 private student loan (because I transferred to a cheaper school)

$33,500 (so far without interest)

Total

$85,875 approximately because I've been rounding

The Law School Bubble has popped

You might hear stories from people about how law school isn't worth it. This is because from like 2005 - 2013, the law school market was flooded and the economy was bad. This means that a lot of lawyers were super in debt and were having a hard time finding jobs. Some people even argued it wasn't worth it unless you received a great scholarship to a Tier 1 school and graduated in the Top 10% (although I think this is a little extreme). 

But thanks to this bubble, right now there are not as many law graduates as there used to be and the economy is slowly getting better so our job prospects are more optimistic and it isn't as big of a financial risk to go into debt getting a law degree.

It isn't like what you see

As much as I love Legally Blonde and HTGAWM, those don't accurately portray what you'll be doing as a 1L. There are professors who still have a practice (called adjuncts) but I almost guarantee they're not going to pull people out of your class to help them with a case. Criminal Procedure and Evidence are 2L classes so you wouldn't even know how to help a professor. 

That's like teaching a 5th grader how to make a volcano out of baking soda and vinegar and then a scientist taking that kid along with him to Hawaii to collect lava samples from a volcano. If anyone is going to work with a professor it's going to be a 2L or a 3L and they'll probably be helping them research and publish a book.

You don't have to know what kind of law you want to practice

It's always weird to me when people ask me what kind of law I'm studying because truthfully, I'm studying all the types of law. What's weird about the bar exam is that it's not like a normal comprehensive test because you end up being tested over subjects that you haven't even taken classes for. So you have to take as many different subjects as possible to learn a little about a lot in only 3 years.

Because of this, you can end up figuring out what kind of law to practice. You might take a class and realize that you love it and want to do that for your career. Or by process of elimination you can find what you absolutely don't want to do. I'm a 2L and still don't know what kind of law I want to practice, so don't think you have to know either.

It is a challenge

That's about how your 1L year feels, especially during that first semester. There's really not much you can do to prepare for law school before you experience first hand. I mean, no book you read or class you take can prepare you for how helpless you feel when you aren't understanding a topic a few weeks before the final or stressed you feel reading for 4 classes every night. Eventually you learn to swim and then it starts to be more manageable. And after dedicating so much time and effort into law school, you have immense pride in yourself each time you pass a class.

There is a "law school game"

When you get here, you'll hear people refer to law school as a game. Think of this game as like Monopoly. As long as you don't break any rules, you can do whatever it takes to win. Just like Monopoly, a few people interpret this as sabotaging others to make so they can finish higher. But other people just are smart about it. You have to learn how to prioritize what's important, how to find and take advantage of help that's offered, how to strategize and plan to be successful.

Just one example is learning how to multitask really well. Sometimes the professors slide says one thing and he's talking about something else, but because I can multitask I can mindlessly copy what's on the slide into my notes while still listening to what the professor is going over and write down a summary of what he said when he pauses. Because I can do this, I don't miss out on as much information as someone else who either focuses purely on the slides or purely on the professor. 

Other ways to work the system is to visit office hours and get a sense of what the test is like, or to take advantage of a program that your school offers to help make you a more competitive applicant once it's time to fight for a job. The law school game is all about taking advantage of your strengths while either strengthening your weaknesses or at least not letting them slow you down. 

It is fun

Despite all of the "law school sucks" tweets and texts law students send to our friends, we actually love it here. To me, college was mostly just blow off classes or classes that I didn't really care about. Even the ones I liked, I still wasn't passionate about. But I am passionate about all of my law classes. Sure, I might've fought to stay awake through the Dormant Commerce Clause during Constitutional Law, but then I was wide awake when we began to talk about First Amendment rights. 

And even though you read a lot of cases, they're interesting! Torts is full of examples of people just being complete idiots and Criminal Law is like reading a real CSI case. Literally my favorite part about my Wills class is reading about people's dirty laundry, like the wife finding out her husband had a mistress when he left her half of his money. So, at least it's not completely terrible.

Stole this from my friend Jordan