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5 Harsh Truths About Getting Into Law School

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By Evan Jones on November 7, 2013 Admissions

It’s time for a dish of cold, harsh reality. Why? Because you are considering law school now. This is no game. This isn’t something where you are walking by an LSAT testing center and think, “hey, why not.” We are talking about the direction of your future here. That’s why we want you to view the process of getting into law school with your eyes fully open.

Here a law school veteran, U Chicago grad Evan Jones, will help you see the law school admissions process for what it is, and give some advice on how to approach it. A warning to old hands: much of this is addressed to those just getting acquainted with the world of law school admissions.

1. The LSAT is The Entrance Exam That Determines Where You Get In

Stop thinking about the LSAT as a piece of your application. While it is a piece, it’s a gargantuan piece that almost eclipses every other consideration. To illustrate it’s singular importance, let’s say you have a GPA that is acceptable to any law school, a 3.75. From there, your LSAT score is going to predict where you get in something close to 100% of the time, and a lot of the time, moving it up or down by just a couple points will make the difference.

Yes, law schools do use a holistic process of reviewing applications. However, that only affects people on the margins. What I mean to say is, chances are close to 100% that you’ll be judged entirely on your numbers, mostly the LSAT. If you have truly outstanding soft factors, it is possible they’ll come into play. Likewise, if you have very detrimental soft factors, they might hurt you (think an extensive criminal record). Other than that, you are going into either the accept or reject pile based on your numbers alone.

Again, of the two numbers, LSAT is by far the more important. Most law schools use an admissions index to make an initial determination regarding acceptance. From just that index score, you are going in one of two piles: presumptive reject or presumptive admit. The typical index puts something close to 70% weight on LSAT vs. 30% weight on GPA.

Now, they will use other factors to pull a few files from the presumptive rejects into the admit pile and vice versa, but again, that’s just on the margins. You’ll have to have something outstanding either way to flip the script on them. 95% or more of applicants don’t have anything that compelling. They’ll stay in the same pile they landed in initially. That means if you want to survive the initial sorting you’ve got to have the numbers, mostly the right LSAT number.

GPA is better thought of as kind of a pass/fail sort of thing. A bad GPA might keep you out, but a good GPA won’t get you in, not without a good LSAT. However, a high LSAT score can and frequently does eclipse a low GPA. For more on this, see our post on getting in with a low GPA.

Now that’s a simplification of the process, but this is one of those times where the simplification gives you a clearer picture than the details. It’s harsh, but try to think of it as a positive: you can erase a lot of weak points with your LSAT score.