Must Reading for Law School Applicants

One of my current advisees, a very bright young man now headed for an ivy league law school, brought to my attention this morning an article that all potential applicants to law school need to read. It was written by the distinguished federal judge Patrick J. Schiltz (U.S. District Court, District of Minnesota), a former professor at Notre Dame Law School and partner at the law firm of Fagre & Benson. Entitled On Being a Happy, Healthy, and Ethical Member of an Unhappy, Unhealthy, and Unethical Profession, it was published in 1999 by the Vanderbilt Law Review. With an extraordinary career from which to offer his perspective, Judge Schiltz revealed the minefields that can await one seeking a career in the law. His article is definitely worth the time of anyone contemplating law school. I strongly recommend it to you.

Let me also recommend one another frank, powerful, insightful article. Entitled The Rise and Fall of American Legal Education, written by New York Law School Dean and President Richard A. Matasar, it offers an assessment of the risks one takes in selecting a high-priced law school that is too low in the law school "food chain" to attract the interest of legal employers. Dean Matasar's article is most certainly worth your time, as you consider potential law schools. The law schools will judge you harshly, as they consider you for their student body. You have every right, conversely, to consider their market effectiveness. Most law school students borrow money to invest it with an institution they are trusting to educate them effectively, one which they hope will project them successfully into the marketplace of law-related jobs. Invest your time, money, talent and reputation carefully, in the law school you ultimately choose for your JD program.

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

Law School Applicants: Thinking About Lying on Your Resume? Don't.

Today's Wall Street Journal (4/27/07) reports the sad story of MIT Admissions Dean Marilee Jones. In 1979, she submitted her resume for a junior position in Admissions at MIT. She falsely claimed on it that she had bachelor's and master's degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a degree from Albany Medical College. MIT did not check. She was hired. Over the years, she rose to become a greatly admired admissions dean, for one of the world's most respected universities.

Then...in 2007, 28 years later, someone anonymously tipped MIT off. She hadn't earned the degrees. MIT investigated, and found out the truth. Today, for all the world to see in the pages of the Wall Street Journal, she was fired.

Do not, do not, do not lie on your resume. If you have false information on it, change it. Today. Such lies can surface later in a way that can destroy a professional career. No lie is worth the initial advantage it might gain for you.

If you have an issue of concern on this matter, and you are considering a future application to law school, let's discuss it. Feel free to contact me at BradDobeck@aol.com. For more information about my work for law school applicants, please see my website www.PrelawAdvisor.com .

PrelawAdvisor.com's Estimated 2008 “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 2006 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	173
2	Stanford	3.87	170
2	Harvard	3.84	172
3	NYU	3.74	170
3	Columbia	3.67	171
4	Chicago	3.64	170
5	Duke	3.76	167
5	University of California-Berkeley	3.79	166
5	University of Virginia (nonresidents)	3.66	169
5	University of Pennsylvania	3.66	169
5	Georgetown (Day Program)	3.65	169
5	Northwestern	3.6	169
6	University of Michigan	3.67	168
6	Cornell	3.65	167
7	Vanderbilt	3.69	166
7	UCLA	3.63	166
7	USC	3.61	166
8	Boston University	3.68	165
8	GWU	3.63	165
8	Fordham	3.58	165
8	University of Texas	3.57	165
8	Washington & Lee	3.51	165
8	Notre Dame	3.49	165
9	William & Mary	3.6	164
8	Boston College	3.59	164
8	University of Minnesota	3.5	165
9	BYU	3.6	163
9	University of Colorado	3.56	162
10	Washington University-St. Louis	3.45	164
10	University of Illinois	3.43	164
11	Wake Forest	3.45	163
11	Emory	3.45	163
11	George Mason University	3.44	163
12	University of Washington	3.67	162
12	University of Maryland	3.59	163
12	University of California-Hastings	3.58	162
12	University of California-Davis	3.54	162
12	George Mason University	3.44	163
12	University of Alabama	3.56	162
12	University of Iowa	3.62	161
12	University of North Carolina	3.58	161
12	Ohio State University	3.58	161
12	University of Arizona	3.52	161
12	University of Georgia	3.62	160
13	Southern Methodist University	3.58	161
13	Tulane University	3.53	161
13	Indiana University-Bloomington	3.51	161
13	University of Connecticut	3.47	161
13	American University (Day Program)	3.38	161
13	University of Wisconsin	3.48	159
14	University of Florida	3.63	158

How I Measure Success at PrelawAdvisor.com

"Brad Dobeck’s services at PrelawAdvisor.com were absolutely invaluable. When I started this process, I was a 27 year-old returning student with less-than-perfect grades, and genuine worries regarding law school. From the very beginning, Brad helped me put together a solid, methodical, and effective approach to the law school application process. With his help I was able to conquer the LSAT, and put together an application package that was sure to stand out and get the attention it deserved. But Brad’s services didn’t stop there.

With Brad’s guidance, I managed to receive admission offers and scholarship offers from more than a dozen law schools located all over the country, and as a result I was faced with an entirely different kind of challenge. Suddenly I had more offers than I knew what to do with, and Brad once again came through by giving me no-nonsense advice, and sharing real life experiences from his former advisees who now attend those very same schools. I cannot begin to stress the importance of Brad’s advice here.

While it is important to perform well on the LSAT and to have your ducks in a row for the application process--in order to open up as many doors as possible--deciding which school was right for me was a far more difficult task. With Brad’s help, I learned that rankings aren’t always the most important thing in the selection process, as there are so many variables to consider when investing in a legal career. In fact, the school I chose to attend was not the highest-ranking school in my pool of admission offers. However, it was without a doubt the school best suited for my needs in terms of location, faculty, student body, programs offered, and opportunities offered to help me succeed upon completion of law school.

Believe it or not, the struggle was not quite over yet. While I had survived the application process, and made an informed decision as to the school I wanted to attend, I still had to survive the real challenge: my first year in law school. With Brad’s advice, I was able to take this bull by the horns. The first year in law school can be one of the most challenging experiences of one’s life. Very little of what I had done in school up to this point actually prepared me for this experience, so having someone like Brad on my side to help me devise a plan of attack was an advantage that helped me quickly rise above the rest.

I am currently ranked in the top 25% of my class, am the founder of one of the most innovative and highly regarded programs to emerge from legal academia in recent years, and have landed a lucrative summer associate position with one of the top law firms in Denver. All of this was made possible because of the knowledge and guidance Brad shared with me, and because he has been a genuine advocate for my success.

I can’t thank him enough for helping me achieve so much."

---An advisee now at the University of Denver's Sturm College of Law.

The New 2008 U.S. News & World Report Law School Rankings: What They Tell the Law School Applicant

The law schools may hate the U.S. News & World Report ranking system, but in my opinion it is genuinely helpful to law school applicants. The new 2008 rankings, just published, reveal valuable pieces of information that law school applicants need to consider.

Here are some insights, school by school, focusing on the top 15 law schools. I'll compare 2008 versus 2007 USN&WR ranking data.

1. Yale: Remains on top. Achieves a stunning new advance to its 25-75 enrolling student LSAT band. Now, it's 170-176. Thus an enrolling student at Yale in the fall of 2006 at the 25th percentile of the class has an LSAT score at the 98.1 percentile of all LSAT takers. Yale really wants it all in terms of talent. LSAT. GPA. Life achievements. Definitely the toughest target in the world of law school admissions.

2. Harvard: Moves up from 3rd place to tied for 2nd with Stanford. Yet loses ground on its 25-75 LSAT band. It's now 169-175, down from 170-176. Slight increase in the admission rate, from 11.5% to 12.6%. To me this suggests that the most competitive students, with offers from both Yale and Harvard, moved more towards Yale, in the class that began in the fall of 2006.

3. Stanford: Tied with Harvard for 2nd. Had a slight increase in the admission rate, from 7.8% to 8.7%.

4. NYU: Overtakes Columbia for 4th place, a seismic event at the top of the law school rankings. Yet Columbia is still stronger in terms of LSAT band and lower admission rate.

5. Columbia: Falls to 5th place. Needs to look hard at every factor of its institution. Should never have been beaten by NYU, but now it has been. Ouch.

6. Chicago: The LSAT "price tag" goes up by one point, to 169 at the 25th percentile, for Chicago. A below-3.5 GPA appears also to now be unwelcomed.

6. Penn: Now ties for 6th place, with Chicago. Another point of LSAT performance is needed for the 25th percentile, which is now a 167.

8. Berkeley: Slips slightly to a 163 at the 25th percentile, down from 164.

8. Michigan: Drawing a slightly higher GPA at the 25th percentile, and a one-point increase in LSAT at the 75th percentile.

10. Duke: Moves into the top 10, from 11th place. Is now demanding a significantly higher GPA, from 3.54 to 3.66, at the 25th percentile.

10. Virginia: Falls from 8th place to tied for 10th. Ouch. Ends up with a slightly lower 25th pecentile GPA, falling from 3.53 to 3.49, while increasing its admission rate significantly, from 20.2% to 25.2%. This is surprising to me, as UVa boasts one of the most loyal law alumni populations in my experience (thus saying something very positive about its institutional culture and organizational competence).

12. Northwestern: Appears slightly easier to earn an offer from, as 25th-percentile GPA and LSAT numbers and the admission rate all softened just slightly.

13. Cornell: Gains another LSAT point, to 166, at its 25th percentile.

14. Georgetown: About the same as last year. A slight increase in the admission rate. Note that Georgetown's data in USN&WR do not include its large night program, which offers an easier path to admission there.

15. UCLA: About the same as last year.

In a future blog, I'll continue to share insights on changes in the USN&WR law school rankings farther down the list, and in the key areas of speciality programs. If you have questions, don't hesitate to contact me at BradDobeck@aol.com. Please see my website at www.PrelawAdvisor.com for more information about how to deal with the challenges of elite law school admission.