Congratulations. Your transcripts have been processed, your letters of recommendation are on file, your resume is updated and your essays carefully revised. You’re ready to send in your law school applications, but you still need to navigate the logistics of actually submitting.
Here are a few common questions I get each year from applicants I work with at Stratus Prep.
[Find out which law schools receive the most applications.]
1. An application asks me to list information that is already on my resume. How should I respond? Law school applications may ask you to list extracurricular activities, a history of your employment or any awards you have received. Although such information may already appear on your resume, I advise against leaving these sections blank.
Admissions committees receive thousands of resumes, each idiosyncratically formatted to a particular applicant. By providing this information as specifically requested on the application, you help the committee organize their evaluation of your candidacy.
So don’t worry about overlap. In fact, on application forms you may have room to expand on some of your extracurricular or professional experiences that you needed to condense on your resume. Alternatively, if you omitted jobs from your resume (e.g. those two weeks you worked as a cashier at Wienerschnitzel) to make room for experiences more relevant to law school, do be sure to share all employment positions if requested on the application form.
2. Do I need to submit a complete list of all the schools where I’ve applied? Some of my clients find it intrusive when an application asks for a list of other law schools they are considering. I’ve had more than one client ask, “Will it hurt my chances of admission to tell them I’m applying elsewhere?”
The answer is no. Admissions committees anticipate that applicants will submit to more than one school. It is in your interest for schools to know their competition for your enrollment, particularly if you plan to negotiate funding once you have your results.
If an applicant has applied to 10 or more programs, I will sometimes advise my clients to limit their list to similarly ranked or nearby regional programs that are most likely to be regarded as competition. Of course, if an application specifically requires that you list every school you’ve submitted to, please do follow the instructions.
[Use rankings and statistics to narrow your law school choices.]
3. My personal statement is too long. Can I adjust the margins, font size or spacing? Law schools have different page length requirements for the personal statement. Remember that the practice of law is a rules-based profession, so it does not help your candidacy to disregard formatting guidelines. Some programs will accept 11-point font, but I recommend sticking with standard 1-inch margins and double spacing.
Also, embrace the opportunity to edit. Before you delete an entire topic, go through your essay word by word. Make strategic cuts. Tighten language. Eliminate repetition. You might end up liking your two-page version more than your three-page version.
4 . Help! There’s no place to upload additional information, such as a diversity statement or GPA addendum. Not every law school considers diversity statements or addendums as part of their application review. Again, law is a rules-based profession, so be a good aspiring attorney and follow instructions. However, if you believe a particular supplemental is essential to evaluating your candidacy, here are a couple of options.
First, many applications have a catch-all section where you can share any additional information that may be useful to the admissions process. See if there is a section where you can upload supplemental statements.
However, do not feel compelled to share every essay you’ve prepared. Pinpoint what’s most essential to communicate to the admissions committee.
[Explain undergraduate GPA struggles in law school.]
Second, you can potentially include a GPA/LSAT addendum as an annex to your resume. For example, one of my recent clients underwent surgery to treat a medical condition, which forced her to withdraw from the rest of the semester while she recovered. To submit her application without this story would present an incomplete picture of her academic record. On her resume she placed an asterisk after her major, and added her GPA addendum as the second page of the document.
5. Oops! After I submitted I caught a typo in the application. Should I contact the admissions committee? It is essential to proofread before you submit your application. I recommend reading your application materials out loud in order to catch typos invisible to your eyes. A fresh reader can also be beneficial, but do not rely exclusively on someone else to catch mistakes.
After you’ve proofread, take a break and then do a final review before submitting. Be particularly careful to ensure school specific references are submitted to the corresponding program. You don’t want to tell Columbia Law School that New York University School of Law is your dream school.
Sometimes, despite precautions, a typo will sneak into your application. One of my clients spelled an employer’s name differently on her resume and personal statement. She was concerned about creating confusion, but I cautioned against contacting law schools. Unless you’ve submitted information that is materially wrong, I would not reach out to admissions committees to correct submitted content. There’s no need to call extra attention to a small error.
Have other questions about submitting law school applications? Send me an email.
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5 Last-Minute Questions About Law School Applications originally appeared on usnews.com
