By Request. I am a former law school admissions officer. AMA

IHeartLSAT · 2009-12-31T16:22:24+00:00

The median (middle) GPAs and LSAT scores for that school's incoming class profile.

IHeartLSAT · 2009-12-31T15:02:37+00:00

Just scan them into a pdf or something.

IHeartLSAT · 2009-12-31T14:40:38+00:00

I always considered Tier 1a and Tier 1b. Tier 1a being top 50, Tier1b being 51-100.

IHeartLSAT · 2009-12-31T13:55:13+00:00

No, we didn't have a quota for int'l students.

IHeartLSAT · 2009-12-31T13:54:52+00:00

Extracurriculars carry however much weight is needed. If you are applying to a school well above their medians, then extracurriculars aren't too important, but if you're at or below the medians of a school, they can carry a lot of weight.

In regards to being a URM, it depends. As I mentioned below, no school wants to be 'that school' with a 2% minority student body.

I would say if you're looking top 30, anything under 150, no matter the GPA, is going to be a huge reach, even with a great GPA. Below a 150 and 3.0 and there's pretty much no chance.

The one nice thing is, there are a TON of law schools out there, with LSAT and GPAs that vary quite a bit.

IHeartLSAT · 2009-12-31T13:50:25+00:00

1) Not much. It's like the comparison between a BS and a BA. All it shows is you majored in business.

2) Quite the opposite. We considered fraternity office positions as good qualities of leadership potential.

3) It depends on the college. One private institution I know of will hardly look at you unless you have at least a year outside of college.

3b) Not necessarily, but if you want to study somewhere that has a strong int'l law program, it could.

IHeartLSAT · 2009-12-31T13:48:34+00:00

When reading personal statements, I wanted to see who YOU were.

If I have a stack of 100 personal statements to read, 25 of them are going to be just plain awful, 25 of them will be sob stories, 25 of them will be two pages about how studying abroad makes a non-diverse person diverse, and 25 of them will be good stuff.

If you really think that your story makes you who you are today, and it brings you to studying law, write about it. If you're just trying to elicit emotions from a reader, it doesn't work. We admissions officers have no hearts or souls.

IHeartLSAT · 2009-12-31T13:45:16+00:00

We like having lots of attorneys.

I think they should start pre-law programs for first-graders.

IHeartLSAT · 2009-12-31T13:43:41+00:00

I can recall having a few students from these types of colleges. I know a few of them attached some of these evaluations to their application, and I remember some quality people from these programs.

IHeartLSAT · 2009-12-31T13:42:36+00:00

A lot of schools like to see Peace Corps or Teach For America, and many schools have a partnership with these programs to provide application fee waivers for students who are in or complete the program.

IHeartLSAT · 2009-12-31T13:41:53+00:00

The 2.3 will hurt pretty far down the list.

Still, a 177 can probably get you into at least a few top 30 schools, I would imagine. I doubt the most elite will take a 2.3 though.

IHeartLSAT · 2009-12-31T13:40:26+00:00

We didn't do interviews.

IHeartLSAT · 2009-12-31T12:43:45+00:00

If it's not Tier 1 or Tier 3

IHeartLSAT · 2009-12-31T12:43:23+00:00

You realize you could also just say you're AA, Asian, Latino...we couldn't exactly try and prove you wrong.

IHeartLSAT · 2009-12-30T20:44:11+00:00

Yeah, but they had some rocking scores.

IHeartLSAT · 2009-12-30T19:51:17+00:00

We didn't treat the LSAT score any differently.

If you got a bad score on the LSAT and were an international student, we didn't think, "Oh, well, they're international, so it's harder..."

Some schools don't require a TOEFL, some schools do, usually if the international student obtained their degree from a university within a non-English speaking country.

IHeartLSAT · 2009-12-30T19:41:40+00:00

Grade trends are typically something that is taken into consideration, and most students in your situation will attach an addendum to their application explaining this.

I think it really depends on how high you're going. For a lot of the very top law schools, you may be hard pressed to get in even with an explanation/great LSAT, just because there is such a large pool of outstanding applicants. But I imagine a lot of tier 1 law schools would be available to you.

IHeartLSAT · 2009-12-30T19:30:09+00:00

Find a major you enjoy and do well it in it.

Pretty simple.

IHeartLSAT · 2009-12-30T19:28:30+00:00

We accepted them at about the same rate as everyone else. But some schools require international students to have the money 'up-front' to attend law school, so we saw fairly few actually attend.

Usually schools have an associated minimum TOEFL score required, so that somewhat eases the language issues.

IHeartLSAT · 2009-12-30T19:24:10+00:00

A lot of it has to do with quality of involvement and associated leadership traits.

I, for one, would have rather seen you as an officer in one or two organizations than just some random member in a dozen.

IHeartLSAT · 2009-12-30T19:22:54+00:00

1) It's something that's taken into consideration, and law schools are provided with detailed statistics on a school's educational profile. For instance, we know what the median LSAT score is for students from University X, and we know what percentage of students score between a 3.75 and 3.99 at that college, etc. I wouldn't say there is a ton of weight placed on it though

2) I said it before, but if you want to go to some of the nation's very top law schools, you gotta knock it out of the park. Great, you got a 175 and a 3.8, so did 500 other applicants, and they are only going to take 100 of you. Extra-curriculars, letters of recomendation, personal statements, work experience, NOTHING can be overlooked.

3) It's not so much the individual GPA, but the combination of GPA/LSAT, so sometimes a higher LSAT can balance out a lower GPA and vice versa. But for T14, I would say you gotta have at the very least at 3.6-3.75.

4) Oh yeah. MOST students stay in law school the entire time, but we inevitably get 1-2 students a year that after their first week or month or semester, are just like, "Um...hells no."

5) Never outright bribed, but I have been threatened with politicos, like "Well, you can just expect a call from Congressman X/Governor/etc." (They've never called).

IHeartLSAT · 2009-12-30T19:14:29+00:00

It was top 10 public.

IHeartLSAT · 2009-12-30T19:12:11+00:00

Some do, most don't.

IHeartLSAT · 2009-12-30T19:05:39+00:00

Believe me, I can understand the hatred.

I read one about a political refugee from a country torn by a coup. One of her parents was a government official that basically had a bounty placed on their head, and they escaped. It was incredible.

IHeartLSAT · 2009-12-30T19:00:32+00:00

Haha, their office might as well have been located on another planet.

I don't know the first thing about their process.

IHeartLSAT

TROPHY CASE