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Although the law school admissions process officially begins in September when applications become available, you can begin to think about the application components in the spring or summer before. A completed application requires an application form with a personal statement, letters of recommendation, Dean's Letter/Certification (for some schools) and an LSDAS report with your academic transcript(s) and LSAT score(s). All steps, ideally, should be completed by late-October/mid-November or shortly thereafter, allowing you to submit and complete the applications well before the deadlines. While this will not guarantee your admission to a particular law school, nor early notification of your status, applying early will increase the likelihood of your admission in a rolling admissions process. You can monitor the status of your online application by checking the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) website. To develop a full and reasonable list of law schools to which to apply, it is essential that you accumulate information on the type of school you believe would be a good fit and a realistic idea about where you are likely to be admitted. Relying on general notions of prestige or reputation is, unfortunately, not enough. If you select the most highly ranked law schools, they may actually turn out to be a poor fit to your personal needs and professional goals. As a general rule, we usually recommend developing a list of 10-15 law schools as a starting point. There are several resources available to you to this end, including:
Career Services Library The Career Services Library has numerous law school reference books, along with publications on careers in law, the law school experience, and sample LSAT tests. In addition, there are binders containing Penn students' law school admissions statistics from past years, and useful comments by Penn graduates on the various law schools they are currently attending. On Campus Law School Visits During the fall semester, many law schools send representatives to the Penn campus to discuss their programs and to answer individual questions from our applicants and prospective students. A schedule of such visits is available and upcoming visits are announced on our Pre-Law listserve. Students must sign-up to attend these scheduled sessions in person at Career Services.
Expenses There are a number of costs associated with applying to law school, including LSDAS registration fees and LSAT exam fees. In addition, most law school application fees range between $50-100, with many more schools at the higher end of the range. Law schools affiliated with state university systems usually have lower application fees. Fee Waivers Students (American and Canadian citizens only) who currently receive financial aid at Penn can apply for application fee waivers. Using the LSAC website, you may either complete the online fee waiver application (which becomes available in September) or download the fee waiver packet and submit the completed form via hard copy. You will be required to provide a copy of your financial aid status statement (available at the Financial Aid Office in the Franklin Building). If you are an alumna(us), then you will have to provide last year's tax information. Keep in mind that it will take some time to complete the necessary financial information for the waiver, and that LSAC will require at least 6 weeks to process your application. The service applies very stringent criteria, so it is important to be realistic about your chances of receiving a fee waiver.
The Law School Admission Council (LSAC) is the organization that administers the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) and coordinates the Law School Data Assembly Service (LSDAS). You can register with LSDAS online. Careful completion of all forms will aid in the quick and accurate processing of your registration materials. We suggest that you become familiar with its services and procedures by visiting the LSAC website. LSDAS organizes and summarizes information about your qualifications into LSDAS Reports that will be used by the law schools in their consideration of your application. All law schools require applicants to subscribe to the LSDAS. A complete LSDAS Report includes your LSAT score(s), a summary of your undergraduate (and graduate, if applicable) transcript(s), information from your registration forms with copies of your academic transcripts, and the LSAT writing sample attached to it. LSDAS does not require transcripts for non-degree courses, but does send copies of such transcripts submitted to law schools. Courses during semesters or years abroad, for which you receive a grade on your Penn transcript, do not require separate transcripts sent to law schools or LSDAS. In addition, your letters of recommendation may be uploaded and distributed to the law schools along with your Report. The LSAT is designed to measure your ability to reason and think analytically. The exam consists of five 35-minute sections (one of which is experimental) and a 30-minute writing exercise. This writing sample is not scored, but a copy is forwarded along to each law school to which you apply. Some law school admissions officers may review your writing sample in their consideration process, so be sure to give it careful attention. The four scored sections include three different types of questions: Reading Comprehension (1 part), Analytical Reasoning (1 part) and Logical Reasoning (2 parts). The scoring scale range is between 120-180. The LSAT is administered four times a year – in February, June, September/October, and December. If you are considering applying as a college senior, the optimal time to take the exam is either in June (between your junior and senior years) or in September/October of your senior year. If you are planning to take time off being college and law school, you may want to take the LSAT following graduation when you may have more time to focus and study. LSAT scores usually remain valid for five years. Above all else, however, is to be well-prepared for the exam and to sit for the LSAT when it best fits your schedule. Ideally, you should aim to take the LSAT once. Many applicants decide to retake the LSAT a second (or, in few cases, a third) time and, in most cases, the higher score will be given more weight. However, keep in mind that your LSDAS Report will list all of the dates for which you sat for the LSAT (including "no-shows" and cancelled tests). It is a rigorous exam and you should make your preparation for it a priority. Online registration for the LSAT is the preferred method. When prompted, please respond "yes" to the question authorizing your pre-law advisor to receive a copy of your LSAT score and other coded information. This information will be held in strict confidence and is used to maintain accurate statistics for Penn applicants each year.
Copies of your undergraduate and graduate transcripts will accompany each LSDAS Report that is processed. Law schools will consider your academic record very closely, giving special attention to the academic rigor, breadth, and depth of your undergraduate curriculum. Law schools are particularly interested in your ability to perform well at an academically rigorous level and expect to see some upper-level and/or graduate level coursework, not an undergraduate record comprised of primarily introductory level courses. Keep in mind that the well-roundedness of your academic program is also important. Furthermore, there are no pre-requisite courses or majors for law school. Admissions Committees are interested in students with diverse and challenging liberal arts curricula. You are responsible for sending all of your transcripts to LSDAS. At Penn, transcript requests are handled by the Registrar's Office in the Franklin Building. If you attended other undergraduate institutions for credit towards graduation, follow their institutional procedures for acquiring a transcript and then have it sent to LSDAS using the Transcript Request Form. In addition to reviewing your course selection and major/minor programs of study, law schools are also interested in any trends in your grades. Some allowances for an am anomalous "off" semester are usually made when substantial improvement in subsequent semesters occurs. In many cases, an upward trend is evaluated more favorably than strong freshman and sophomore years followed by a less than stellar junior and/or senior year. Likewise, if your grades improve after a change of major or leave of absence, this will also have some bearing on the way law schools interpret your transcript. Please note that, if you did have a problem semester or year, it is always useful to submit an explanatory addendum with your law school applications to describe and explain the nature of the difficulty and how to came to resolve it. Please consult a pre-law advisor about this if you elect to write an applicatio addendum. Most importantly though, do not use your personal statement to discuss your academic transcript. Fall Semester Grades In January, if your fall semester grades are consistent with or stronger than previous semesters, reflecting an upward trend, you may want to send updated official transcripts from the Registrar's Office directly to the individual law schools and to LSDAS. In some cases, your fall grades will make a difference, and some schools are now requesting that you send your fall transcripts before you receive a decision.
Be sure to open a Credentials File during the spring of your junior year, or during the fall of your senior year at the latest. Although law schools requiring letters of recommendation include their own recommendation forms in their application materials, it is not necessary to use them. All law schools will accept letters of recommendation from the LSDAS Letter of Recommendation (LOR) Service, as well as letters directly from the Credentials Service in Career Services. In some cases, law schools will want the top section of their forms completed by the applicant and returned to them with the letters from Career Services; if this is the case, include this top section when you submit your request for the Credentials Service to send your letters to those schools. Stop by the main Receptionist desk at Career Services to open your Credentials File and collect the requisite recommendation forms, which ask you to indicate whether you wish to waive your right of access to the letter of recommendation. Since most law schools give more credibility to confidential recommendations, we strongly suggest that you indeed waive your right. Most law schools prefer to receive the letters through LSDAS because the materials are less likely to be misfiled. You can either have your recommenders send your letters directly to LSDAS, or first to the Credentials Service from where they can be sent to LSDAS for a $6.00 fee. They should subsequently be sent to LSDAS, accompanied by the LSDAS Recommedation Form for each letter. Depending on the law school, you may be required to send one, two, or three letters of recommendation. The majority of law schools require two letters of recommendation and show a strong preference for academic references for applicants still enrolled in college or recent graduates (1-4 years out). Many law schools may accept more than two letters (up to four letters), but "more is not always more" in this context. If you are unsure about the type and/or number of letters of recommendations to submit, please discuss this with your pre-law advisor. Candidates are also able to direct their letters of recommendation to specific law schools based on each school's required number of letters, or the applicant's desire to target certain letters to certain law schools. This is not a requirement, but rather an option for applicants who want to submit such letters. Please visit the Law School Admissions Council website for more detailed information. Asking for Letters of Recommendation In requesting a letter of recommendation, your goal should be to contact someone who knows you and thinks well of your work. This person should be both willing and able to take the time to write a thoughtful and thorough evaluation. If the recommender is well-known in his or her field, this can be an added plus, but only if the other factors are there. It is better to have a thorough recommendation from a teaching assistant than a few lines from a famous professor who can say very little about your work. Consider the purposes for which you want the recommendations. Try to include letters from people who have seen you in relevant activities and could compare your work with that of other students. For example, law schools are interested in your writing, communication, research, and analytical skills and how they compare with those of past and present Penn applicants. You should aim to initially contact the individual you would like to write your letter of recommendation in person if possible. If not, a phone call is appropriate. Only if no other way is feasible should you ask someone by email to write you a letter of recommendation. When asking for letters of recommendation, it cannot be emphasized enough how important it is to get a genuine sense from the person whether he or she is indeed willing to write for you. We recommend that you phrase your request in such a way that, if the potential recommender does not feel comfortable writing for you, he or she can gracefully decline. Pressuring someone to write a letter for you is likely to result either in a lukewarm or qualified recommendation, which ultimately may do more harm than good. A tactful question, for example, might be, "Do you feel you know me well enough to write a letter of recommendation supporting my applications to law school?" Once he or she agrees to write a letter on your behalf, it is helpful to discuss your career plans with your recommender. Letters are most effective when the writer can describe you as being well-suited to a particular goal. Remember that career goals are a work in progress and that you can easily discuss your general interests, as well as specific plans, depending on your situation. Your recommender will also be curious about your backgound. To that end, providing an updated resume, current transcript, and any other relevant information is usually very helpful. During your meeting with your recommender, it is useful to mention your timeframe and, if necessary, a general "deadline" by which you would like this letter submitted. Be sure to be as flexible as possible, while still maintaining a realistic sense of when this task must be completed. After the initial request has been made, you may follow up with an e-mail or telephone contact after one week (at the earliest), thanking the person for writing you a letter and asking if he or she needs anything else. Please follow up appropriately, but not excessively. A Career Services form must accompany each letter of recommendation sent to the Credentials Service. If you are sending a letter directly to LSDAS, include an LSDAS recommendation form for each letter (and a stamped envelope addressed to LSAC) for your recommender. It is your responsibility to keep track of the status of your letters of recommendation. You may check to see whether the Credentials Service or LSDAS has received your letters by using the online status check services available. As letters of recommendation are received and placed in your Credentials File in Career Services, they are scanned into Credentials' database system. At Career Services, letters of recommendation must be logged into our system before you can request to have them mailed to law schools or the LSDAS. To check the contents of your Credentials File, please click here.
Some law schools require a statement of good standing, often called a Dean's Letter/Certification, from each of your undergraduate and graduate institutions where you are/were a full-time student, in order to complete your application. This is not always the case, so please read individual law school's admissions materials carefully to determine if this is necessary. Each of Penn's colleges requires that you complete their school-specific forms in order to request a Dean's Letter. For a full, step-by-step description of the process, please visit the Dean's Letter/Certification Forms website. If you attended any undergraduate institution other than Penn, you will likely need a separate Dean's Letter to submit to law schools. Please check with that institution's pre-law advisor and/or Dean’s Office for the correct procedural information. Once requested, you may submit that Dean's Letter to be included in your Credentials File in Career Services.
Your law school personal statement provides Admissions Committees with the opportunity to evaluate your writing and your ability to communicate in a clear, concise, and effective manner. It is most important that your ideas be well-organized and focused. Your theme choice is not typically limited to "Why do you want to attend law school?" but should be a topic that reflects personal values, decision making processes, significant contributions, accomplishments and/or special experiences that are not fully revealed elsewhere in your law school application. Think of the personal statement as your opportunity to share your strengths in a positive way. This should not be viewed as an opportunity to explain, apologize for, or defend a negative issue or experience, such as a poor academic record or LSAT score. In choosing a topic take time to first analyze your personal history, evaluate experiences most influential and determine the personal significance of learning or events in your life. Most importantly discuss the "hows" and "whys" of your experiences. Why did you make a particular decision? How did you benefit from the choice you made? What did you value or gain from your experience? Discuss the personal significance of an event. Keep in mind that the topic is your choice. Law schools will be interested in analyzing the content quality of your essay as well as learning more about you. In fact, since law schools do not usually provide interviews, personal statement serves as an opportunity for admissions officers to get to know you as an applicant. Think: What can I write in a couple of pages that would serve as an introduction to who I am? Try to personalize your statement by avoiding the use of passive expressions. Instead use active language. Perfecting your grammar and spelling is a given. Vary your sentence structure and write engagingly. Many law schools will ask for a personal statement to be two pages, while others will set word limits (i.e., no more than 500 words). As long as the personal statement strongly holds the reader's attention, a slight deviation from the suggested length will not be a problem. Two double-spaced pages with readable font (size 11 should be the smallest you use) and appropriate margins are acceptable by most law schools. Finally, realize that you will probably be making several drafts with many revisions and refinements. Your pre-law advisor will be happy to assist you in the critique of two drafts of your personal statement; unfortunately, the volume of requests precludes advisors from critiquing more than that. You may either drop off your personal statement drafts with Liz Brainard, our Administrative Assistant, or e-mail your drafts to your pre-law advisor as an attachment. Please allow 5 days for this critique can be returned. Click here for an additional article on writing a personal statement for law school.
Completing your Application and Admissions Decisions You, and you alone, are responsible for getting all application materials in on time. Make copies of everything (including checks) and keep track of dates. Allow sufficient time when requesting materials (i.e., letters of recommendation, Dean's Letters) for your applications. Be sure that law schools have received all your materials and that each file is complete. The Credentials Service generally takes 3-4 business days to process requests. However, between Winter Break and the end of January, processing make take up to 5 business days once a request is received due to the high volume of requests. Please plan accordingly. If you do not receive notification from LSDAS within 6 weeks of submitting your transcript, you may call LSAC directly to investigate the issue. However, you should first check the status of your application through the LSAC website. If there is a processing error or unreasonable delays through no fault of your own in materials being received, we recommend that you contact the individual law schools and the pre-law advisors in Career Services. While some law schools may inform you (usually via e-mail) when your application is complete, you should not rely on this method to keep tabs on your applications. If you do not receive verification of either the receipt and/or the completion of your application within two weeks of submission, contact the admissions offices via e-mail to check the status of your application. Please refrain from calling these offices, since most admissions offices are unable to process status checks over the phone. Hold and Waitlist Categories If you find yourself on "hold" or on a waitlist, it is usually a good idea to write a letter to the law school reiterating your interest in their school. Be sure to mention any academic endeavors or extracurricular achievements that have occurred since the time you applied. Do not hesitate to send further, supplemental information that will aid them in evaluating your application (i.e., Fall grades and, if necessary, Spring grades, an additional letter of recommendation, an updated resume). A good rule of thumb is to remain confident about your candidacy, keeping your applicant file "current" with pertinent information as appropriate. Each year the number of people admitted from the waitlist varies and sometimes you are not notified until late in the summer. It is important that you remain patient in this process. Offers of Admission Upon admission, many admissions offices hold on-campus programs for admitted students to learn more about their law school firsthand. These programs are usually one- or two-day events that feature tours of the law school campus, mock law school classes or the opportunity to sit in on an actual class, panel discussions that highlight their unique strengths and resources, and opportunities to socialize with current law students. Prior to making a final decision to attend a law school, we recommend that you plan to visit the law schools, either through such a structured program or independently when class is in session. Once you begin to receive notification of your admission status to law schools, feel free to discuss your options and thought process with your pre-law advisor. If you work closely with your pre-law advisor, and if you are organized, realistic and pro-active, you should be able to navigate through this process very well. After hearing from all of the law schools to which you applied (typically by mid-April), many will ask that you submit a tuition deposit to hold your place in the class by late April or early May. Due to the timing of your decision notification and, in some cases, your financial aid considerations, it is often necessary to request an extension on an individual law school's deposit deadline. Many law schools are amenable to this request, within reason, so do not hesitate to contact the Office of Admissions to that effect. Once you have decided which law school to attend, be sure to withdraw your offer of admission from the other schools (if you have not already done so).
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What form of application should I use? Although paper applications are still acceptable to law schools, the majority of law schools prefer that you apply online through LSDAS. What about letters of recommendations and Dean's Letters? Likewise, our Credentials Service, and the LSDAS Letter of Recommendation (LOR) Service, can substitute for all the law school recommendation and dean’s letter forms. You need not submit law school-specific forms. If you are sending more recommendation forms than the required amount by the particular school, where you are to list your recommenders, list the one or two you want to be sure that they read. If you send your letters of recommendation to LSDAS, you still have to send your Dean’s Letters to the individual law schools that require them. It takes about 3 weeks to get a Dean’s letter in your file. Be sure you have opened a Credentials file first before submitting your request. Information for obtaining a Dean’s letter or certification can be found here. How should I respond when law schools ask about class rank? Penn does not provide a class rank for its students. If you are asked to provide your class rank, you may write N/A.
The approximate class sizes for Penn undergraduates are: College of Arts and Sciences (1500); School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (350); Wharton (600); Nursing (100). How should I respond when law schools ask about the other law schools to which you are applying? It is important to answer this questions honestly and directly, though it is not necessary to provide law schools with a full, exhaustive list. As long as you complete this answer with an accurate representation of your schools, that is is sufficient. Yes. You may submit either a one or two page resume with your application and it should be both descriptive and professional. However, please be sure to fill out all possible information as long as space allows. The essential information should be on the application, unless the school indicates differently. How should I send my letters of recommendation? 1. Using LSDAS. Be sure, if you are sending your letters directly to LSDAS, that you include a signed LSDAS recommendation form along with each letter of recommendation. Be sure to allow 2-3 weeks for your letters of recommendation to be processed by LSDAS. 2. Using the Credentials Service at Career Services. This is often the most reliable way to get the letters of recommendation to law schools directly or to the letters of recommendation service of LSDAS. 3. Using individual law school forms. This is only advisable if you are applying to less than five law schools and your recommenders are able to accomdoate.
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