Once you’re confident in your decision to attend law school, it is time to begin sending out your applications. Despite all of the required documents that each school may request from you, the bottom line is that there are two factors that matter most in affecting their determination: Undergraduate GPA and LSATscore. Due to the thousands of apps each school inevitably receives, it is these two pieces of quantitative data that schools rely upon the heaviest when making preliminary selections from the applicant pool. In other words, if you have a sub-par GPA and a sub-par LSAT score for the particular school you are applying to, chances are that those letters of recommendation from Senator Doe and eloquent personal statement you spent two weeks drafting will never see the light of day.
With that in mind, be sure you are realistic about where you send the bulk of your applications so as to save unnecessary expense and time. It is okay to apply to a couple of dream schools, but just don’t kid yourself by applying solely to Ivy League institutions if you have an LSAT score less than 160. In the next few upcoming posts I will introduce the effect and weight of each law school application factor, and what you can do to maximize its acceptance garnering potential.
