Who can answer my law school admission questions?

I can. Right here.

Send your question to me, attorney Brad Dobeck, president of PrelawAdvisor.com. My e-mail address is BradDobeck@aol.com. I've worked in law school admissions since 1996, and have served law school applicant advisees privately since 2000 at PrelawAdvisor.com. I've helped over 1,000 people since 1996 in one aspect or another of the law school admissions challenge.

If you need a private answer, I am happy to provide that. Otherwise, good questions that will help others find important answers will be published by my blog "The Prelaw Advisor."

For more information that will assist law school applicants, please see my website www.PrelawAdvisor.com

Do Law Schools "Buy" Students with High LSAT Scores?

You bet they do.

This point is powerfully demonstrated yet again by the bold, creative, aggressive advertising of third-tier Quinnipiac University School of Law (Hamden, Connecticut) in recent issues of the Wall Street Journal. (See the 9/7/06 edition of the WSJ for a copy of the ad.)

Quinnipiac announced the availability of "2007 Dean's Fellows Scholarships." If one has an LSAT of at least 160 (an 82nd-percentile score) and an undergraduate GPA of at least 3.5, Quinnipiac might offer such a student a "full-tuition award." (Note that the advertisement did not specify whether such a full-tuition award covers only the first year, or all three years, and what other qualifying or disqualifying terms might be.)

Why is Quinnipiac doing this? Because their current public numbers are a 25th percentile score of 155 and a 75th percentile of 159, with 25th percentile and 75th percentile GPAs of 3.08 and 3.53, respectively. (In the ad, they claim even higher more recent numbers, 157 and 160, but they may not be using the USN&WR methodology in calculating these numbers.) They want to move their numbers up, via the 2007 Dean's Fellows (and their innovative Wall Street Journal advertising), and they are willing to pay, by offering a significant tuition discount.

The lesson here for present or future law school applicants is that you can use an above-75th percentile LSAT score (as reported by your target law school) to not only interest that law school in you, but to get them to reduce their price, sometimes enormously. Thus an investment in LSAT preparation is strongly recommended. Consider this advice in dealing with the LSAT: Top 15 LSAT Tips. For other information helpful to law school applicants, please see my website www.PrelawAdvisor.com.

Can a cellist go to law school?

Recently, Wall Street Journal reader "S.M.R." from Bryn Mawr, PA asked outstanding WSJ Careers columnist Sue Shellenbarger if their son, a cellist, planning to study in an undergraduate music conservatory program, could get into law school in the future. The short answer is, "Of course." But the right question to ask is, "How should my son, a cellist, best prepare for his future, which will include law school?

Law schools want the widest possible field of potential students, so they wish to encourage all interested applicants--with appropriately high GPAs and LSAT scores--to apply, no matter what their background or major is, or what life and work experience they have had. That is why law schools do not require a specific major to be admitted. But understand that law schools are quite content to create a competition each year between new students of vastly different abilities and backgrounds. They really don’t care institutionally which student comes in first, or last, in this competition for grades and other law school honors. If the double major in political science and American history with two years of post-college, law-related work experience obliterates his very bright but utterly inexperienced competitor who is a master of the cello, so be it. But of course students and parents care greatly about how to best prepare for the coming battles of law school.

So, here’s what I recommend to the cellist.

1. Advance in the cello, and pursue excellence with it, but major as well (or at least take many courses) in political science and American history. These will serve as a useful foundation for your future law school studies. If you don’t like political science and American history courses, you might, might be on the wrong path if you want to go to law school.

2. Seek to have law-related experiences in college. Be a volunteer in a legal services organization. Serve in a political campaign. Be involved in the debate of important legal issues in your community. Work part-time for a lawyer or law firm. Connect to and serve the prelaw student organization(s) of your college. Climb a law-related learning path, even if you have to design it yourself.

3. Recognize what is going to become the vocation in your life (the law, and legal work) and what will be your beloved avocation (playing the cello). You will make your living through legal practice.

4. Recognize the critical importance of the LSAT, and thus your LSAT preparation. If you plan a timeline that includes an appropriate period of law-related work, you can push the dreadful preparation for the LSAT entirely outside your college years. If you feel compelled to take the LSAT while in college, take a timed, practice test. Score it. Then look at the LSAT score demanded by your favorite law schools.

5. Work in a law-related job before you start law school. Plan for such a position carefully, with your prelaw advisor.

6. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t advance in both the cello and the law. It’s certainly possible, but you don’t want to be diverted by your love for music from critically important law-related developmental experiences in college.

For more information about my recommendations for prelaw students, please see my website www.PrelawAdvisor.com.

Should personal statements to law schools be a "confessional"?

No.

Often, applicants preparing a first draft of a personal statement to law school feel the need to make a "confession." They feel compelled to describe what they perceive as a profound character weakness. They then to ask the law school for "forgiveness," with the awarding of an admission offer becoming proof of "assurance of forgiveness."

Don't go down this path. Instead, construct a personal statement with carefully crafted positive images of your life and achievements. When you really need to discuss problems or issues you've overcome, package them in a framework of a determination to succeed--with a creative resilience and an overcoming, or at least thoughtful, admirable efforts to overcome, with a retained positive attitude towards challenge.

Remember as well the powerful persuasive principle of "Excellence plus modesty." Demonstrate your excellence in your story, but let the reader draw his or her own conclusions about it.

For more information about winning the fight for law school admission, please see my website www.PrelawAdvisor.com or send an e-mail to BradDobeck@aol.com.