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6 Steps to Powerful Law School Recommendation Letters

LSAT blog, Law school application, law school admissions, letters of recommendationRecommendations play an important role in the admissions process, and it is also one of the pieces that is out of your control once an individual agrees to write you the letter.  Follow these 6 steps to ensure that you get the best letter possible:

  1. Ask early.  Give each recommender as much time as possible before the deadline.  If you are asking a professor, do so in the early fall before midterm pressure looms.  Nothing guarantees a ho-hum letter like giving someone 2 days to write it.
  1. If at all possible, ask for the letter in person.  Ideally, try to set up a time to chat with your recommender so that you can explain why you are applying to law school.  It is also helpful for the recommender to put a face to a name – especially if it is a professor from a large lecture style class.  If you are not able to request the letter in person, be sure to provide each recommender with a package of information about yourself.
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Applying to Law School? Stressed? Find help here…

LSAT Blog

You’re carrying a full class load and studying extra hours to keep that GPA up and score well on the LSAT. You’re involved in community/volunteer service and extracurricular activities, finals are coming up, you have a part-time job that’s looking more and more full-time, or you have a full-time job that’s asking for more and more overtime. You have friends and a family, oh yeah, it would be nice to sleep sometime and, you’re taking the first step toward your lifelong dream of going to law school. No wonder you’re feeling stressed!  Ignoring that feeling won’t make it go away, instead, look it straight in the eye and show it you’re in charge.… Read full post

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Law School Application Spotlight: Work Experience – Is it Necessary?

All of your applications ask for a resume, but you’ve just graduated and haven’t worked much at all, especially in your related field. Or have you?

“Work Experience” means something different to an admissions committee than it does to a potential employer. For purposes of your graduate or law school application, this isn’t exclusively referring to paid employment.

List relevant coursework you’ve taken. This shows academic experiences that are related to your chosen field, and have given you exposure to the vocabulary and subject matter you will be studying and, after graduation, pursuing as your career.

What about internships, or teaching/research assistantships?Read full post

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Law School Spotlight on: Letters of Recommendation – “Nailing Your Letters of Recommendation”

This is part of a continuing series of blogs from our team of Admissions Consultants here at Kaplan Test Prep & Admissions, showcasing various facets of a candidate’s law school application.Click here for more information on Admissions Consulting from Kaplan.

In recent weeks, there’s been a whole lot of hoopla over the incorporation of LSAC’s new “evaluation” service. But make no mistake about it:letters of recommendation (LOR’s) are, generally speaking, still the most important third-party references in the law school application process.How – you might ask – should you go about choosing your recommenders?

Call me a worrier, but based on nearly two decades of experience in writing such letters, as well as advising applicants on whom to select, the first thing that I strongly advise is that you create an initial list that contains at least one more recommender than you need.Every year, I hear from applicants who are either surprised when a potential letter writer says “no” to their request or are simply unable to track down or get a response from a chosen recommender.Quite frankly, you never know when you’re going to need a back-up.Read full post

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Law School Application Spotlight: Letters of Recommendation Reviewed

This is a continuing series of blogs from our team of Admissions Consultants here at Kaplan Test Prep & Admissions, showcasing various facets of a candidate’s law school application. Click here for more information on Admissions Consulting from Kaplan, including our Personal Statement Review package.

Determining who to ask to write your letters of recommendation can feel as complicated as defining the rule against perpetuities.(That’ll be funny after your 1L property class.)Should you go with the professor with the big name but only knows you as face in a sea of 500 other students?Should you ask the president of the law firm where your mom practices?What about your rabbi who has known you since you were two?The answer to all three of these questions is probably not.Read full post

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Evaluating the New Law School Evaluations

Click here for more information on Admissions Consulting from Kaplan.

For those of us who have been around the graduate and law school admissions game any length of time, reading countless LOR’s can be a frustrating search for “the truth.”

First, potential LOR writers are spring-loaded to be complementary, otherwise they probably wouldn’t bother to write the things. When I was the university’s pre law advisor, a professor once asked me if I would “gently” tell one of my advisees that he never wrote LOR’s for students who received less than an A minus in his course.

Second, seasoned admissions personnel can spot damming between-the-line implications a mile away, even for supposedly positive LOR’s.Read full post

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Five parts of the application

You may be curious as to how the application process works, so here goes…

I view the application process as containing five different pieces:

Over the course of the next few blogs, I will address each piece individually. In the meantime, I feel it is important for you to understand the overarching sequence of the process.

You will need to submit your transcript(s) and letters of recommendation to LSAC. It is your responsibility to make sure that LSAC receives both, and the good news is that you have the ability to track their receipt online on the LSAC website.… Read full post

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Applying to Law School? Get Those Recommendations Ready!

Applying to law school this fall? It’s not too early to start thinking about your letters of recommendation.

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