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When Should You Apply to Law School, and How Should You Prepare?
Published November 15, 2019
When you’re thinking about going to law school, there is much to do to prepare. How do you know when you should start? Let us walk you through a quick timeline of a general law school application timeline and how you can prepare over the course of the year!
| Early vs. Regular applications |
| Rolling admissions |
| UB only has a fall start |
| GRE/LSAT |
| Additional Documents |
Early vs. Regular applications
Choosing to apply for Early Admission to a law school is a very important distinction that needs to be made early on in the law school application process.
If you choose to apply for Early Admission, that means you are selecting that particular school as your top choice, and thereby saying you forfeit the opportunity to go to any other school, should you be accepted anywhere else.
Rolling admissions
“Rolling Admissions” means that a long window of time is available to submit an application, but at an early benchmark in that window, the university will start accepting students as their applications come in.
This is a great thing if you get your application submitted early, because there are many more spots open still! However, the longer you wait to apply, the less spots there will be to fill, so don’t rush your application, but don’t wait too long either!
UB only has a fall start
Many schools have a spring and a fall start to their school years, but UB School of Law only has a fall start. This is an important distinction, as it changes the timeline for preparation. Make sure that you’re aware of the term policy for the particular schools you’re applying to.
GRE/LSAT
Do you have a great LSAT score? How about a great GRE score? Not sure what “great” really means? Don’t worry. The Office of Admissions takes a hollistic approach when reviewing applications. However, to get an idea of what they are looking for, make sure you aim to score at or above the previous years' median LSAT/GRE/UGPA.
Additional Documents (letters of rec/personal statement/law school resume)
As a general practice, most schools only require two letters of recommendation, but to be as safe as possible, try your best to get three high quality letters from three different, but impactful sources.
It is also important to make sure that at least one of your letters is written by an academic reference who can speak to your work ethic and skill in the classroom.
As far as personal statements go, most people have probably already written at least one at some point in their lives.
Make sure you take the time to look up personal statements for law schools and examples of law school application essay questions to make sure you can tailor your response perfectly.
