
Two weeks ago I spent a week doing free LSAT
seminars for pre-law students. We spend lots of time talking about law school applications and getting into law school. Many students spend lots of time asking “what are my chances of getting into law school?” Don’t spend your time wondering about your chances. Do spend your time improving your chances.
At the end of this seminar series, I did an email interview about my “Law School Bound”
. I found myself thinking: What is the single most important piece of advice that you would give to a pre-law
student? Here are my thoughts.
The easiest way to gain admission to law school is to NOT concentrate on getting into law school per se. The primary factor that will determine where you attend law school is your grades. Grading is a competitive and relative evaluation. The people who get the highest grades are the people who like the course the best. If you don’t like your courses you will not get good grades.
The best way to get good grades is to enjoy your courses. Once you find an area of study that you like, you should then make it your goal to get into graduate school in that area of study. If you can get into graduate school you can get into law school. In fact you should carry your undergraduate interests into law school. Not only is there no such thing as a pre-law program, there is no area of study that cannot be carried into law school. For example, if you study economics as an undergraduate student, you can carry that interest into law school. Antitrust law is more about economics than it is about law.
The moral of the story is – be happy and the rest will take care of itself!
John Richardson