Writing a PS without a Tragic Life

If you frequent the TLS boards, you've no doubt read through threads upon threads of people posting their personal statements as examples or for critiques. When I was going through the process of planning and writing my own PS, I definitely drew a lot of advice and inspiration from reading the personal statements of those who went before me.

Pretty much every single PS I read on TLS dealt with some sort of tragedy in the upbringing of the writer. Whether the death of a parent, the loss of a home, the incarceration of a sibling, the drug abuse of a family member, or a battle through some terrible disease, each of the personal statements I read focused on overcoming the obstacles they've faced in life. I see where they're coming from...from a topic statement, their lives are pure PS gold.

There's just one problem: I don't have a tragic past. I'm a white female from a happy and prosperous middle-class family. My parents have been married for 28 years, they're still together, none of my sisters is a raging alcoholic, drug addict, parolee, etc. I've had a normal, healthy, well-adjusted life in a white-bread sort of town. What on earth do I have to write about?! I remember moaning to my parents in my writing haze that my life (at that point) would have been so much easier if one of them had had cancer, or had been in prison.


Don't worry, I didn't actually mean it.


But I did have to think a little harder about what to write. Writing a PS is like toeing a fine, fine line between sincere and genuine or trite and overwrought. Just a little too much emotion or pushing can really make your PS head downhill faster than Heroes after the middle of the second season.

So I have a few tips for those of you planning on writing your PS over the summer in order to get a head start on the cycle (this is a very smart idea, by the way!). Now, bear in mind, these are just my personal thoughts and tips, they definitely aren't the end-all, be-all to PS writing. What do I know? I'm just one applicant.

Here are my thoughts:

• I feel like everyone and their mom writes about the death of their grandparent. Seriously. I must have seen no fewer than 18 PS drafts that mentioned the death of a grandparent and how the writer worked hard in school because they know that's what their grandparent would have wanted for them. If I've seen that many, imagine how many the adcomms have seen.
• Don't try to make a situation sadder or more dramatic than it is. Readers can tell that it's forced. Okay, you broke up with your high school sweetheart, who you thought was "the one." That's terrible, we feel for you, but unless you're somewhat mentally/chemically imbalanced, this should not have been the impetus for your three suicide attempts. If you are feeling clinically depressed or suicidal, please get help. If you're just trying to connect or relate with someone who might know how you're feeling about a break up, don't make it sound worse than it was.
• In general, don't write about a break up. Period.
• It is okay to let your voice come through your PS. You don't need to be 100% formal 100% of the time. If you try to be business like and write formally, you're going to come across as either arrogant, soulless, or like you're trying too hard. My topic was tongue-in-cheek, and I inserted a few silly one-liners in order to show the adcomms that I don't take myself too seriously.
• On the other hand, don't go too far in the other direction. This can't read like the transcript of your stand-up monologue. Don't swear, don't use slang unless you define it, try to include as few contractions as possible, and PROOFREAD PROOFREAD PROOFREAD. People are judging you based on this one two-to-three page essay.

My PS was about clumsiness. Kind of. Basically, I wrote about signing up for an advanced flamenco class when I was in college. I'm not exactly the most coordinated person in the world, and I knew ahead of time that signing up for this class was signing myself up for something where I'd have to work twice as hard to look half as good as my more experience and better coordinated class mates. But I did it anyway, because I wanted to prove to myself that I could, and I enjoy the challenge of pushing myself to get through things at which I am not naturally gifted.

Earth shattering stuff? Nope. But I think it was just light enough to convey my point without bashing the reader over the head with it. It probably made the adcomms smile a time or two. And it accurately reflected my personality, and the approach I'm going to try to take to law school.

Ultimately, you have to write a PS that shows the adcomms who you are while getting the point across that you are a good writer and would be a good addition to their program. You don't need to be Little Orphan Annie in order to write a startlingly poignant PS. My best piece of advice is this: write about what you know, not what you think they want to see. 

Writing an Effective Addendum

Law school applications themselves are pretty easy to figure out. Heck, LSAC does half of the work for you! But what should you do when the numbers themselves just don't show the whole picture?

You write an addendum to your application.

There are a lot of reasons to write addendums: a bad semester in particular, low grades overall, multiple LSAT scores (I'm talking over three), a huge disparity between LSAT scores, a really terrible LSAT score, criminal history, etc. But for as many addendums as you can write, they should all follow the same basic parameters.

An addendum is NOT a personal statement, and it's not an essay or persuasive argument. It's not a forum to get the adcomms to come to your same conclusion about a particular issue, or to tell "your side of the story" about your fault. An addendum should be extremely straight-forward, incredibly factual (with little to no "fluff"), and very concise.

Say you had a bad first semester in college. Now you could write a page and a half about the difficulty of moving so far away from home, the steep learning curve, how your newfound independence meant that you didn't spend as much time studying as you did in high school, how having your significant other at another school far away was a real strain on your resources and time, etc., but guess what? Adcomms don't care.


Or say you went to take the LSAT, and the day before your grandfather died, or you got into a car accident on the way there and were understandably shaken by it? Your performance might have been impacted, and you might want to explain why you think you could do better on a retake (make sure you're signed up for a retake) or why your score on one LSAT is 9 points lower than another. Understandable, right? Sure, but only if you don't go on and on about how you'd never been in a car accident before, how bereft you felt by the loss of your family member, or the exact feelings of adrenaline pumping through your body on the test day. Adcomms still don't care.


An addendum should, in an ideal world, be nothing but a paragraph, maybe two, in length. Short paragraphs. And it shouldn't be chock full of excuses. If you have a good reason, then list it. If you had a bad semester all it should say is, "My bad."

Well not really. But it should be straightforward, acknowledge your poor performance, give a legitimate and non-whiny excuse, and then point out the improvements made since then.

Criminal addendums are a slightly different animal, but the same rules apply. Just the facts, and how you've gone about changing your errant ways (even if "it wasn't your fault"). Adcomms don't want to see an essay about the evils of the judicial system. They just want to know what happened and if it will impact you in the future.

Okay, so you got an MIP or got busted with a little weed. Just say, "look, this is what happened. I accepted responsibility then, I accept it now, and since that time in my life I have a) never let it happen again and b) been involved in community service efforts involving alcoholism and/or drug addiction."

I'm verbose, to say the least, and when writing my own addendum I wanted to make sure that the adcomms knew that I wasn't just flighty, or partying too hard, or something of that nature...I was hospitalized and very ill for part of one semester, and it showed in my GPA. But after reading my full-page addendum, it just sounded like a 12-year-old providing excuses for something that they just needed to own up to. 

So I pared and pared and pared it down until I got to a two paragraph, less-than-half-page addendum that didn't try to paint me in the best light possible. It just said, "look, here are the facts, there was a reason for the fault that was outside of my control, but I've moved on and have done significantly better since."

In short, the most important things to remember when writing your addendum: brevity, straightforwardness, and acceptance of responsibility will win the day. Don't make excuses, keep it short, and just give the facts, not your opinion.

Good luck with the addendums!

When to Get Your Applications Out

One thing that always astounds me is when I see people on TLS or when I talk to people in real life that say that since the application deadline is April 1, they've got some time to decide on where they should apply.

People, that's the LAST possible date you should apply! Please please PLEASE don't wait until that date. You won't get in anywhere (unless you've got a 3.8+, 174+) and you certainly won't get any money anywhere.

I am a firm believer in "the earlier, the better" mentality when it comes to submitting applications for admission. Most schools start accepting applications mid-September or October, so ideally you'll have everything ready and uploaded into your LSAC account by the first day applications are available for your dream school. I know, I know, this sounds like particularly gunnerish behavior, but I swear, it will pay off.

You see, the way I look at it, when AdComms first start accepting and  reviewing applications, they're looking for a reason that you should fill one of their x number of seats. As time goes on, their mentality shifts to looking for a reason that you shouldn't fill one of their x number of seats. They're much more likely to find a flaw in your application the longer you wait, because now they're comparing you to so many other students applying at the same time. Plus, earlier in the cycle they've got more empty seats, so they're going to be more forgiving if you have one number that isn't up to par. It is so much harder to get in to a school if you wait a while to apply.

Not to mention, schools are more likely to take your application seriously the earlier you apply. It shows schools that you're genuinely interested in their institution, not just applying as an afterthought.

Here's my take on the timeline: If you apply by mid-October, you're way ahead of the game (in a good way). If you apply by Thanksgiving, you're applying in a timely manner. If you apply by Christmas you're cutting it close. Any time after January, you're really pretty late. And after February 15? Forget it. This is especially true if you're a splitter.

PLUS, the earlier you apply the more quickly you will hear back (in most cases). I personally heard back from over 70% of the schools that I applied to by the end of January, when a lot of students were just getting out their applications!

So, do yourselves a favor. Spend the summer getting everything (and I do mean everything) ready to apply on Day 1. You'll be so grateful that you did. You'll get more acceptances and more money than if you want until later in the cycle, I guarantee it.

SMU Dedman School of Law ASD: A Review

So this past week I took a quick jaunt (alone, completely alone) down to Dallas to check out the SMU Dedman School of Law's Admitted Student's Day. I'd never been to SMU or Dallas, so I wanted to spend a little extra time checking it out, so I flew out of Bakersfield on Wednesday afternoon and flew back Saturday night. It was FABULOUS.

I wanted to take a little time before the program to look at apartment buildings, just in case I decided to attend, so on Thursday I went around to a few buildings that had come recommended to me by a friend, a realtor, and a few people on the TLS boards. I checked out at least 6 or 7 different floor plans in 4 different buildings in the Village, and then went to two buildings uptown. (For what it's worth, I think I'd rather live in the Village than uptown, just for convenience and traffic).

Then I went shopping around Mockingbird Station and drove through University Park, checking out a few of the houses (and getting some phone numbers for town houses and duplexes in the area). I went to dinner at a souffle restaurant called Rise No. 1, and it was great. Overall, I really enjoyed the vibe around (but off) campus.

The next morning I drove the three minutes from my hotel to SMU (I seriously could have walked, I think). We started our program in Carr Collins Hall with a meet and greet and a continental breakfast (and good coffee, thank goodness!). I kind of liked that while there was an undergraduate campus attached to SMU, the law quad was a little more isolated from the school than I had seen at other campuses (on the far northwestern corner of campus). It was like the best of both worlds. The law quad was picturesque with it's rotunda and scampering squirrels. Plus there were amenities that were solely for the use of the law students -- a law parking garage, the law library, and the lawyers inn (kind of like a convenience store/deli on the law quad just for law students), which is great.

After the opening remarks by Dean Attanasio (who started off with the questions "Why do you want to go to law school?" and "Why do you want to go to THIS law school?" and didn't seem at all surprised when he heard crickets for a good two minutes), the whole group headed to Professor Crespi's contracts class. It seemed a little preachy to me -- there was literally zero interaction between the prof and the students, and I felt like I was being talked at rather than talked to -- but a few current students eased my mind by saying that it normally wasn't that bad, that none of the other teachers were like that and that Crespi had tailored his lecture style a little because of all of the prospective students there. That was reassuring, at least.

From the class we split into smaller (well, small) groups and took "campus" tours. They weren't really tours of campus so much as they were of the law quad, but that was fine, because we hit the important points. My tour guide (Cassandra) was a 3L and very sweet and knowledgeable. She talked to us about the pressure of exams and where to live and eat off campus as much as she did about the number of volumes in the library, etc. It was a very well-rounded tour.

From the tour we went back out onto the quad for something everyone was calling "Hamburger Man." I don't know what I expected -- maybe someone in the Hamburgler costume entertaining us? -- but what I got was a nice little cook out. We sat at tables around the quad and soon TONS of students from every building were swarming out to get the food. It was good, because it gave us a chance to talk to really anyone we wanted, rather than the five pre-approved admissions workers.

After a leisurely lunch, we went back into a classroom for the "talking head" portion of the afternoon, but it wasn't as painful as I was expecting. Then the student panel (3 girls) came to speak with us. The thing I didn't like about that was that the admissions director actually stayed in the room during the Q&A, often interjecting answers to student questions. It's not like they were bad answers, but it did seem, at times, that her presence might have been holding the student panel back just a little bit...they had to be more guarded.

(Side note: It kind of makes me laugh that the most common thing I've heard from every law student at every law school I've visited is how much free food is available to law students. I just think it's funny how that's a serious topic of conversation.)

After the program had ended, I took a little stroll around campus, snapping a few photos for my folks and generally taking in the pleasant afternoon (it was about 78 degrees and sunny outside, how perfect!). The campus reminds me of a bigger, southern version of my undergrad -- well manicured lawns, red brick buildings, the whole shebang. I drove over to the rec center to check it out (swanky!), and then hit up "i heart yogurt" for an afternoon treat before heading to the bookstore to pick up a t-shirt and then back to the hotel.

There were far fewer parents at this ASD than at previous events at other schools that I had attended (a personal pet peeve of mine), everyone was REALLY friendly, the campus had a solid, easy-going vibe, which was important to me (I would imagine that 1L is stressful enough, you don't need the undercurrent of stress all over campus), and the location really can't be beat. University Park seems like a quiet suburb, but it's smack in the heart of things. The program itself didn't seem as structured or planned as the program at McGeorge, but was more interactive and enjoyable than my recent trip to Santa Clara. I enjoyed the opportunities for talking to older students that the program presented us with.

Overall, it was really a wonderful day, and really helped cement my decision -- but that's a story for a different post.

Riding out the waitlist...

There are few things that I think are more aggravating for an impatient potential law student than the waitlist. It comes in many incarnations -- held for further review, deferred until regular applicant pool, etc. -- but it all means the same thing...you need to settle in for several weeks of nail biting.

Personally, there are very few schools that I've applied to where I've been waitlisted. 2 "real" waitlists, and 1 "hold for further review" is my count. And, in my humble opinion, there are not very many instances in which I would consider waiting out the waitlist period in any potential law student's best interest.

I think that there are actually several negatives to riding out a waitlist. It's a gamble, and more often than not (just like in Vegas) you lose.

• coming off a wait list you are less likely (wayyyyy less likely) to get any sort of scholarship money, so odds are pretty good that you'll be paying sticker. Yikes.

• if you ride out the waitlist and foolishly decide not to put deposits anywhere else as a sign to the universe that this is your only option, and then you don't get in, you lose your chance at going to a good school that you actually got in to on a gamble.

• if you ride out the waitlist and play it safe and put down seat deposits elsewhere, and then you get in off of the waitlist, then you lose all of the money you spent (between $250 and $500 each) on seat deposits.

• if you ride out the waitlist and make it in at the last minute (we're talking July or August here, folks), you have very little time to prepare for school. No time to tour apartments, figure out where you're going to live, get settled in to a new area. No time to buy books, examine the syllabi, make friends (either online or IRL) with new classmates. And that's a LOT of pressure.

Not only this, but odds are you can make someone else lose, too. You can cause them to lose out on their spot at their dream school if you stay on the waitlist with no intention of enrolling.

The only time I can see a waitlist being worth it is if it's your absolute dream school. I'm not talking just the highest ranked school you applied to, or somewhere you think you would probably have moderately successful career placement out of. I'm talking about the "eating-breathing-dreaming" devotion, the "I've got their pennant on my wall and will LITERALLY break down in tears if I try to go anywhere else" commitment.

(and if you have that level of devotion, you should be committed...to a mental institution).

But seriously, I think the only scenario in which riding out a waitlist is worth the time, worry, and money is in the case of a DREAM school, one where you didn't think you had a shot of getting in, but applied anyway and getting waitlisted was a SIGN FROM GOD.

Or if you're waitlisted Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Chicago, etc. and in at T2 schools. Then, by all means, ride it out.

As for me, I'm withdrawing from the waitlists at both of the schools where I've been waitlisted. One of them is the best school I applied to, but ultimately I got into good, comparable schools in perfectly decent legal markets, and I think that I would honestly rather attend any of my top three choices instead of this great school I was waitlisted at.

Withdrawing from Law Schools

I always feel bad withdrawing from law schools. And I feel anxious.

On the one hand, I feel like I shouldn't withdraw, I should wait as late as possible to see if I can squeeze any more money out of them or something. On the other, I know that if I was waitlisted somewhere I would want people to withdraw earlier rather than later, so that I could move up the waitlist more quickly.

But, I always feel like calling or writing to a law school and telling them that you're not going to be attending is basically like saying, "You're SO not worth my time and money." They were nice enough to admit me, why do I have to be so mean?

I know that this is a completely neurotic way to feel...the school would rather know I'm NOT going than just be in limbo until the deadline for deposits passes.

Looking back on my cycle, I definitely applied to way too many schools. And sometimes I catch myself wanting to apply to a few more still! Applications are like an addiction for me. So I've gone cold turkey. AND I've decided I'm going to take it a step further. Every week I will withdraw from one school that I know I wouldn't want to attend in light of my other applications.

But this week counts for three weeks, since I withdrew from three schools, RIGHT?

(PS - I withdrew from Thomas Jefferson and Phoenix in addition to Penn State. I applied there when I thought I was literally not going to get in ANYWHERE.)

Calling Law Schools

Calling law schools is always kind of nerve wracking. I don't want them to think that I'm one of those nagging gunners, or get so annoyed with me that they just pitch my file in the trash without even looking at it, but I NEED information. I HATE being at "file complete" for 4 months (I'm looking at you, McGeorge).

Today I called a few schools just to get some information about scholarships and possibly getting a travel stipend...visiting these campuses is even MORE expensive than applying! But knowing what a difference a campus visit makes (my visit to my undergrad choices is what sold me on my eventual alma mater, and made me decide that the "best on paper" school I was gunning for was definitely NOT for me) I can't possibly make this important decision without visiting the different school I'm seriously considering.

Unfortunately, DePaul doesn't offer travel stipends, and neither does SMU, so it looks like I'm going to Chicago and Dallas on my own dime.

Eek. I don't have many dimes lying around these days. Stupid economy.

Withdrew from Penn State

Today I sent an email to Penn State Law (Dickinson) asking to have my application withdrawn from consideration. I decided that even if I did get in that I wouldn't want to move to Pennsylvania for school, and that I wasn't likely to get enough money to make that move worthwhile.

For me, withdrawing before hearing back was hard, but only because sometimes I live in a dream world where EVERY school might give me a full ride and stipend.

At this point in my cycle, I've gotten more acceptances than I thought I would, and I have to realistically think about where I would be interested in attending, and unfortunately Penn State just didn't make the cut.

I expect to be withdrawing from a few more schools this week (Thomas Jefferson, Phoenix, Marquette, etc.). Hopefully narrowing down my pool of possibilities will make my choice easier in the end!

My Original Mission

My original mission with this blog was, among other things, to keep track of when I heard back from which law schools and what that method of communication was. I think the handiest site to do that is on LSN, because there are fields for every date that you can fill out, and then everything looks nice and neat.

Unfortunately, there is only one field for any sort of narrative, and it's just not the best laid out format for my slightly OCD, symmetry-loving brain to enjoy. I'll continue to update on LSN for the people on that website -- a lot of people can use comparison dates from previous cycles to estimate when they might hear back from a particular school, etc. -- but I think I'll use this blog as more of a platform for remembering dates and methods.

So, without further ado, here is my timeline to date on hearing back from law school admissions offices:

11/3: Gearing up to get a majority of my applications out by Thanksgiving. Just made the 11/1 cut off for Santa Clara EA. I kind of feel like if I apply everywhere then at least I'll get in somewhere.

11/17: Almost all my applications are out. I sent fee waiver requests to almost everywhere I wanted to apply, and got almost all of them. Saved some $$.

11/23: Associate Dean at U Ark called to discuss my application today, wanted me to submit a supplemental "Why Arkansas" essay. Okay!

11/29: USC Status Checker updated to Decision Letter Sent.

12/1: Accepted at Akron via phone call. I'm counting my first decision as an acceptance, because I haven't gotten the USC letter yet! YAY!

12/2: DePaul Status Checker updated to Decision Rendered. Should hear from them in the next few hours. 12 HOURS LATER: In at DePaul via Status Checker!

12/3: Letter (small envelope) in the mail from South Carolina...I'm in!!

12/9: Decision Rendered and Letter Mailed at UK. It looks like (from TLS updates) I might be out. First rejection = harsh.

12/13: Decision rendered at Ole Miss, letter in the mail (according to an email I got this morning). LATER: I guess they sent it out last week, because I got the letter this afternoon. Dinged at Ole Miss and UK via snail mail.

12/14: AHHH!!! Still says "In Committee" on my SCU status checker, but I have a "Decision Letter Mailed" under my mailings. I'll be on pins and needles until it gets here!!!

12/16: My letter hasn't arrived yet, but...I'M IN AT SANTA CLARA! Yay, secret top choice!! (I didn't want to jinx it). Also, got an email today from Marquette saying that I should have received my acceptance by now. Well, that's good news. In at Marquette PT.

12/17: Sent my supplements to UArk, got an email from the dean saying my acceptance letter would be mailed out next week. In at UArk - Fayetteville. Also: got my letter and scholarship offer from SCU - $15,500!

12/20: Letter received from UArk. $4,000 per semester (weirdest way I've seen scholarships described).

12/23: Merry Christmas to me from Whittier! In via email today! Got a second email asking me to call them to discuss my interest in Whittier for consideration for a merit scholarship. Odd.

12/30: Didn't check any of my status checkers at all over the last week (how liberating). Checked today -- in at Phoenix as of 12/23.

12/31: Email from Whittier Financial Aid...$26k for the first year, with a weird tiered requirement for finaid for all following years (top 5% get full ride, top 10% get 3/4 etc.)

1/10: Haven't been checking status checkers at all in the last week. Dinged at Texas Tech (surprised) via small envelope, Case Western by email today.

1/16: Emailed just before midnight (PST) on a Sunday -- in at UALR.

1/20: Decision Rendered at Western State. Based on new "requirements" and "tuition deposit" sections, I'm pretty sure I'm in. LATER: IN at Western State via phone call.

1/21: In at Cal Western via small envelope. In at Dayton via phone call.

1/24: Waitlisted at Wake via email and status checker. "Hold for further Review" at Campbell, but they said specifically that it's not a WL, so I don't know how to qualify it. Scholarship offer(s) from UALR - In-State Tuition ($11.6k) PLUS an $18k merit scholarship...WOW!

1/31: In at SMU via status checker!!! According to TLS, people who called got news that admit packages will contain $$ info, and will come in next week.

2/4: Scholarship offer from Cal Western today via mail. $15k per year, contingent on keeping GPA above 80% (3.0). Scholarship offer from Thomas Jefferson, too...$20k per year, contingent on staying in top 30%.

2/6: Happy Super Bowl Sunday! Will probably withdraw from Marquette, Thomas Jefferson, Phoenix, Western State, and maybe one or two more in the upcoming week.

2/7: In at STCL via email.

I'll attempt to update more regularly on this site (with more information) every time I hear back from a particular school.

A Little Update

So, it's been a while. I know, my bad. I was definitely going to update more often, but my personal life has been in upheaval recently. Now that it's a little more "smooth sailing" (hopefully) rather than "don't rock the boat, baby" I should be updating more and more frequently.

Instead of an instructional or informational post, I just wanted to update with the fact that I got waitlisted at the top-ranked school I applied to (I was seriously expecting to be rejected) and in to the second-best ranked school I applied to. Yayyyy!!

It makes me feel better to know that I got in to these good/great schools in the face of the rejections I've gotten from far lower-ranked schools. Rejections always suck, whether they were schools you reeeeeally wanted to get in to or not.

So far I've been accepted at 15 schools, rejected from 4, and waitlisted at 1.

That's pretty good, right?

You can track my progress on my LSN profile, if you'd like!

The Birth of Yet Another Twenty-Something Rambling

Okay, so I was sitting here at my desk, thinking about how I wished I remembered which exact day it was that I noticed one of my status checkers changing, and I realized that even if I was the ONLY one to read it, it might be helpful for me to start up a blog specifically about the law school application process and, hopefully, in the months and years to come (I've always been ambitious) about the process of actually being a law student.

Voila, the birth of this blog!

I'll post my comments, thoughts, ramblings, and updates about my quest for a law school that will take me, picking the right law school for me, any and all campus visits I go to, and eventually the process of getting ready to leave home and move away to start my dreaded 1L year.

A little about me: I graduated from a small liberal arts college in Central Ohio (there are a million there) in 2009 with a B.A. in Communications and a minor in Political Science. Since I was little everyone has told me I should definitely consider a career in law. Don't worry, that's not my only reason for going to law school. Since then, I've often found myself fascinated by the intellectually stimulating and often complex problems that the law examines, and as such, I've decided that, yes, this is actually the course I want to take in my life.

But, just to make sure, I took two years off of school between my undergrad and now and have been working at a law firm. When I first started at this firm, I worked in the transactional (mostly real estate) department. I moved from there into the bankruptcy department, moved from there into business litigation, and am currently back in the bankruptcy department. I like it here, the work is interesting but not that bad (at least, MY work), and it's an enjoyable place to be...as long as it's not permanent (thankfully, I know it's not).

Before working at the law firm, I was considering getting my masters in communication, something my friends in law school advocated passionately as a much better alternative to law school. I worked in the communication (graphic and development) field for about 9 months, and I was good at it, but ultimately would find this crazy path I'm setting down to be more rewarding.

So, after much consideration, and one retake of the LSAT, I decided it was time to get all of my applications out. Most law schools have priority deadlines in mid-February, regular deadlines in April. I, however, am what is known as a splitter: my LSAT is often at or above the 75th% of my target schools, while my GPA is at or below the 25th% -- I had a LOT of fun in college. As a splitter, my chances for admission are increased the earlier I apply. So 90% of my applications were in at the schools I've chosen to apply to by the middle of November.

Hopefully this means adcomms (admission committees) can overlook my dismal LSDAS GPA.

The process of picking which schools to apply to can be daunting and difficult, but I'll discuss how I came to my conclusions in my next blog.

If you want more solid information (from the intrawebz) about law schools and the process of applying, check out these sites that I've found helpful, even if they do tend to feed my neurotic and obsessive tendencies: Top Law Schools (TLS), Law School Numbers (LSN), and Law School Predictor (LSP).