"The Road to Law-School: In Four Steps"

The maxim “Sometimes it’s not what you know but who you know” certainly resonates outside of school, once a student graduated, but prior to graduating it runs a different course: Knowing the necessary prerequisite to better prepare you for law school will not only ease your burden and lessen the load but it will also save you from taking a circuitous route to subsequently save your parents or perhaps yourself some much needed money. Unless you’re Warren Buffet or Bill Gates, who doesn’t like to save money right?

According to Michelle Fabio, there are five essentials items on the checklist that you must fulfill prior to sending out your applications to various law-schools but I’ll truncate the list to four and they are: A bachelor degree is a must, second is the personal statement; third is letter of recommendations so get to know your instructors if you haven’t figured that out already, and lastly the all-important Law School Admission Test (LSAT) (1).

For starter, unlike dental or medical school, law-school doesn’t warrant any specified major, as a matter of fact they prefers diversity to encourage outside of the box thinking (1). Simply put, be open minded and take courses that you have a genuine interest in so you’ll know without a modicum of doubt if and when an acquaintance on campus were to ask you:

What is your professional aspiration?

‘Law-school’ should spring out of your mouth as fast as it takes for Stephen Curry to hoist up a three-pointer: 0.4 seconds.

Aside from taking classes to obtain an optimum grade point average (GPA), you should take courses that will help foster your creativity as well as those that will also supplement your reading comprehension and writing ability. Oh and I almost left out, one of the most if not the most important criteria, if speaking in the public make your palm sweats and give you jitters, then sign up for one or more than one courses if necessary to ensure that you’ll not only be comfortable speaking in public but you’ll be able to do so in manners that’ll be eloquent yet articulate and concise by the time you are off to law-school.

Secondly, while in school don’t be that nondescript fly on the wall, which was something I was guilty of being my first time around. In other words, be proactive and assert yourself. Get to know your professor(s) especially one who’s in your major so when you apply for an internship or for law-school she’ll be delighted to write you that letter of recommendation you needed to help you stand out to land your coveted internship or fellowship.

Thirdly, all of those essays, term papers, and research papers that you’ve written throughout your undergraduate tenure, well this will be when it matter most: Putting the skills you’ve developed and sharpened over the years into a personal statement to help better your chances at getting accepted into a top twenty-five law school in the country such as the prestigious Notre Dame University (2). 

Fourthly, if you’ve made it this far then congratulations because it means that you are well on your way toward obtaining your bachelor degree and checking off the last but definitely far from the least important item prior to sending out your applications: The LSAT. A poor test score will not mean no law-school for you, but just like GPA, the higher the score the better the chance you’ll have at being accepted in your desired law-school. To be succinct, take your time, do your due diligence and study way ahead of time to be better prepared for the LSAT, which entails “five 35-minutes sections of multiple-choice questions,” and one “35-minute, unscored writing sample [that will be] administered at the end of the test (3).” That’ll be all for now and hopefully this article will help lighten the load for future lawyers.

P.s Next up will be an article on pre-med school.

                                                                                                           References:

1. Fabio, Michelle. “5 Ways to Build Your Law School Qualifications Now.” About.com. AboutEducation. Web. 22nd May. 2015.

2. “Top 2015 Law School Rankings.” Top-Law-Schools.com. April. 2015. Web. 25th May. 2015.

3.“About the LSAT.” LSAC.org. Law School Admission Council Inc. Web 25th May. 2015.