Am I Ready for Law School?

If you have any doubt about your level of skill, interest, or readiness to study the law, purchase and read a copy of The Bramble Bush—The Classic Lectures on the Law and Law School, now updated and published anew in 2008 by Oxford University Press. The author, the late Professor Karl N. Llewellyn (1893-1962), who taught at the law schools of Yale, Columbia and the University of Chicago, was one of the most respected American legal educators and scholars in the profession. Oxford University Press invited me to comment on its publication.

In its latest form, The Bramble Bush, one of the most famous American lawbooks, is enhanced and clarified by a new introduction and notes from Professor Steve Sheppard of the University of Arkansas. Professor Sheppard’s additions are essential for the modern reader to understand the context and witticisms of Professor Llewellyn. Professor Sheppard also offers a useful bibliography of further reading on law school, the law, and preparation for law school.

The person considering law school will find The Bramble Bush challenging reading. Each sentence—and each footnote referenced—must be thoughtfully considered. The modern reader will find it dense, challenging, but ultimately insightfully enlightening…if the time is taken for a careful and thorough reading.

The book’s name was prompted by a nursery rhyme provided on the opening page. You might find Professor Llewellyn’s penchant for obscure puns a bit annoying, but the future student of the law must adjust himself or herself to the eccentricities of law professors and judges. Law professors often write to impress first their colleagues. New law students will discover a world in which the major players are only law professors. They harshly and humorously interact with each other, and they feel fully empowered to take liberty to criticize, condemn and belittle the very judges and jurists one might expect them to treat with respect.

Think of The Bramble Bush as a qualifying exercise. If you have the patience, persistence, comfort level, and interest to read it, this suggests that you are ready for law school work. If you cannot stand this book, and find it an ordeal to read more than a few pages at a time, steer clear of law school. Law school is a bramble bush. You need to prepare yourself for the reality of its experience.

The Bramble Bush offers rich and nuanced answers to questions about what the law is, the case system, the nature of law school, and your legal studies beyond the first year. You will greatly benefit if you let Professor Llewellyn (with Professor Sheppard’s essential assistance) take you by the hand for this journey. But pay close attention, don’t skim, have patience…and read every footnote as you go along.

For more information useful to law school applicants, please see my website www.PrelawAdvisor.com. For questions, send an e-mail to BradDobeck@aol.com.

PrelawAdvisor.com's Estimated 2009 “Yes-Points” for Law School Applicants

This table represents a current estimate of the GPA and LSAT score at which a law school is likely to accept an applicant from Georgetown University (the "Yes-Point"). For other schools, adjust upward or downward based on the competitiveness of your undergraduate institution. Use these estimates only as a starting point; results will vary significantly based on the applicant's achievements, ethnic background (in some cases), family resources, supporting recommendations and application strategy.

The data examined for this table include the Top 50 law schools' fall 2007 admission decisions. Schools are grouped by Difficulty Category (1 through 14). Within each Difficulty Category, schools are ranked according to estimated admission difficulty.

Rank	Law School	GPA	LSAT
1	Yale	3.9	174
2	Harvard	3.85	173
2	Stanford	3.85	170
3	NYU	3.7	173
3	Columbia	3.7	172
4	Chicago	3.6	171
5	University of Pennsylvania	3.7	169
5	University of Virginia (nonresidents)	3.7	169
5	Duke	3.7	168
5	University of California-Berkeley	3.8	167
5	Georgetown (Day Program)	3.63	169
5	Northwestern	3.6	169
6	University of Michigan	3.64	168
6	Cornell	3.66	167
6	Vanderbilt	3.7	166
6	UCLA	3.7	166
7	GWU	3.63	166
7	USC	3.6	166
7	University of Texas	3.6	166
7	Notre Dame	3.58	166
8	Boston University	3.66	165
8	Fordham	3.58	165
8	University of Minnesota	3.5	165
8	Washington University-St. Louis	3.5	165
9	Boston College	3.6	164
9	BYU	3.6	164
9	University of Maryland	3.65	163
9	Washington & Lee	3.53	164
9	University of Illinois	3.5	164
9	Emory	3.45	164
10	University of Washington	3.65	162
10	University of Georgia	3.64	162
10	William & Mary	3.6	162
10	University of Colorado	3.58	162
10	George Mason University	3.5	163
11	University of Alabama	3.58	162
11	University of California-Davis	3.57	162
11	University of California-Hastings	3.55	162
12	University of Iowa	3.64	161
12	University of North Carolina	3.63	161
12	Ohio State University	3.58	161
12	University of Connecticut	3.44	162
12	Wake Forest	3.4	162
13	Southern Methodist University	3.56	161
13	Tulane University	3.56	161
13	University of Arizona	3.48	161
13	American University (Day Program)	3.37	162
13	University of Wisconsin	3.53	160
13	Indiana University-Bloomington	3.35	161
14	University of Florida	3.64	159

Advice for the Waitlisted Law School Applicant

Negotiate for future assured 2L transfer admission if they won’t let you in now.

A recent graduate of an elite national university had everything top law schools wanted…except for a deal-making LSAT score. Doors were shut to this student, despite obvious, proven talent. The elite national law schools did not want to take an incremental hit to their US News & World Report 25-75 enrolling student LSAT band, for this student.

But one elite national law school made the student a creative offer. Earn at least a 3.0 GPA at some lesser law school, and you’ll have an assured spot next year with us. This would allow the elite national law school ultimately to win a very talented student, but without any LSAT penalty (as of course there is no official public tracking of the LSAT scores of successful transfer applicants). And the elite national law school’s risk was further reduced with the requirement for proven success during the 1L year somewhere else. If the student didn’t earn solid 1L grades, no deal. What a clever arrangement by the elite national law school.

So this student ended up at a respected regional law school, with a significant scholarship, and nailed the first semester. The student is well on the way to meeting the required GPA goal.

In this situation, this student could get the last laugh. With strong performance all the way across the first year, it might be possible for the student to win a transfer offer from a top 10, perhaps even a top 5 law school. But the assured admission offer is an outstanding safety net in a very tough market for transfer admissions.

The lesson for you if you are currently wait listed? Show continued enthusiasm throughout the wait list period. At the right moment, ask for an assured 2L admission if it looks like they won’t offer you admission now. If they resist, tell them you’ll prove your talent with at least a 3.0 GPA performance at a school to which you are admitted. They might go for this. You’ve taken out all the risk for the law school. They don’t have to “suffer” your LSAT score, and you have to prove your talents in the competitive game of the first year, which will be demanding anywhere you go. This might be the best possible play for you, given your wait listed status.

For information about my work for law school applicants and transfer applicants, please see my website www.PrelawAdvisor.com or send an e-mail to BradDobeck@aol.com .

Accommodated LSAT Scores and US News & World Report

An accommodated LSAT usually entails extra time for the test taker. This can be either time-and-a-half or double time. An LSAT applicant seeking accommodations for a learning disability or other impairment must provide a recent physiological or medical exam (which can cost $2,000), documenting the learning disability or impairment. One can also expect to have to prove an extended history of accommodations (in high school, on the SAT, and in college).

LSAC tends to be stricter in granting extra time than the College Board, which administers the SAT.

If you have taken the LSAT with accommodations, your score is not to be reported to the American Bar Association, which is where U.S. News & World Report gets its data for ranking purposes. And if you took the LSAT once with accommodations and once without, NEITHER score is to be reported. I have found that some law school admissions personnel do not know about that last provision of the rule. They think that their option is to report: (1) the higher accommodated score; or (2) the lower unaccommodated score. This is incorrect.

The ABA rule on this matter states:

If a matriculant took the LSAT under nonstandard conditions you should exclude this matriculant from your calculation of 75th, median and 25th percentile calculations. This exclusion should apply whether the matriculant took the LSAT one time or multiple times, so long as at least one test was taken under nonstandard conditions.

For more information see Part 2, Enrollment, of the ABA’s Annual Questionnaire.

For more information from LSAC, see Accommodated Testing.

For more information about my work to assist law school applicants, please see my website PrelawAdvisor.com or send an e-mail to BradDobeck@aol.com.

PrelawAdvisor.com Advisee Admission Successes, 2006-2007 Admission Cycle

PrelawAdvisor.com advisees earned admission offers from the following schools during the 2006-2007 admission cycle. This cycle appears to me to have been the most challenging for applicants since I began working in law school admissions in 1996. Plan carefully as you think about application efforts this fall for a 2008 law school start, or if you are considering an effort to transfer upward from your current law school. Feel free to contact me at BradDobeck@aol.com. Please see my website www.PrelawAdvisor.com for more information about my approach to assisting law school and graduate school applicants.

1. American University, Washington College of Law.
2. Boston College Law School.
3. Boston University School of Law.
4. Brooklyn Law School.
5. University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall).
6. Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University.
7. The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law.
8. Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs.
9. Cornell Law School.
10. Duke University School of Law.
11. Fordham University School of Law.
12. George Mason University School of Law.
13. George Washington University Law School.
14. Georgetown University Law Center.
15. University of Michigan Law School.
16. New York University School of Law.
17. Northwestern University School of Law.
18. University of Pennsylvania Law School.
19. Seton Hall University School of Law.
20. University of Virginia School of Law.
21. University of Washington School of Law.
22. Washington University in St. Louis School of Law.
23. William & Mary Law School.