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The Law School Application and Admissions Process: An ATL Google Hangout

The admissions deans at Harvard and Michigan share their insights and advice on the law school application and admissions process.

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Today, our friends at BARBRI and Law Preview present a Google Hangout aimed at helping pre-law students understand and navigate the law school application and admission process. This week, Brian Dalton is joined by Sarah Zearfoss, Senior Assistant Dean for Admissions, Financial Aid, and Career Planning at Michigan Law and Jessica Soban, Assistant Dean and Chief Admissions Officer at Harvard Law.

Prospective students can sign up here to get more news and resources to begin their legal careers…

First, here are a few excerpted insights and observations from our expert guests:

Jessica Soban on personal statements:

Edit, edit, and edit again. Go find your grammar friend — you know, the one who always corrects you — get that person to read your personal statement. Realize that it is not only the admissions staff reading, it is often the faculty as well. Remember that professors are trained attorneys and are sticklers for things like commas.

Sarah Zearfoss on choosing a law school:

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Different schools have different personalities — you should probably visit before making a decision. Great schools can be bad fits for a lot of different people.

Jessica on law school admissions interviews:

It’s not part of every school’s process, but if it is, I would always look at the interview as one more opportunity as opposed to a hurdle, because it gives you a chance to take all that stuff that was on paper and gives you the chance to call out things that are most important to you or perhaps give the chance to explain something you didn’t have a chance to somewhere else.

Sarah on getting off a waitlist:

You want to stay in appropriate contact with the admissions office — the key word is “appropriate” — definitely something short of stalking.

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Jessica on GPAs:

One thing we looked for is trends. It’s not a good thing to have a terrible freshman year, but it’s a little bit different to have a terrible freshman year, turn it around, figure out how to study, and all of the sudden we see a great upward trend … your overall GPA may be lower, but it tells me something about your ability to do the work now.

Here is the full conversation:

Many thanks to Sarah and Jessica for sharing their insights and advice, and good luck to all the aspiring law students out there.

  

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