The Triangle

Issue date: 10/7/05 Section: News

With the Pennsylvania Department of Education's Sept. 28 approval for the University to open Greater Philadelphia's first college of law in over 30 years, it is increasingly difficult to avoid discussion in the University community of the law school admissions process.

To this end, the University hired Grant Keener, pre-law professional coordinator at the Steinbright Career Development Center and former Director of Admissions at the University of Illnois College of Law, in early July to help advise prospective students about the details of the law school admissions process.

Keener sat down with The Triangle to discuss both the general aspects of the admissions process as well as the necessary ingredients of a solid law school application. The following feature dissects the various components of a standard law school application as explains the significance each plays in the admissions process.

Overview

Although the application process for admission into law school is highly individual, guidelines and requirements for a complete application are put forth by the Law School Admissions Council, the governing body responsible for helping facilitate the admissions process by centralizing and standardizing academic records between its member institutions.

Prospective candidates are encouraged to take the Law School Admissions Test, the standardized yardstick used to assess diverse array applicants from different academic and socioeconomic backgrounds. A half day exam, the LSAT is offered four times a year and scored on a range of 120-180 with a score of 180 being the maximum. The exam itself is composed of five sections ­- four actual and one experimental - as well as a writing sample, which although not part of the 180 point scale, will still be submitted to law schools along with the completed law application.

The LSAT

The LSAT, and the role of standardized testing in law school admissions it has come to symbolize, has long been the object of anxiety for a number of eager pre-law students.

"It is unquestionably the single most important factor in law school admissions process," Keenar said. "This does not mean it is the sole factor in the admissions process but it does help to make or break an applicant."

Keenar claims that law schools will often place such a heavy emphasis on the LSAT, moreso than undergraduate grade point average, because of its ability to predict success in law school. Consequently, past failure in law school, according to Keenar, is "the kiss of death" for any law school applicant.

"If you go to law school and are unsuccessful for academic reasons, it is probably the single worst thing that can be in your file," Keener added. "Once you have demonstrated an actual propensity for success or lack of success in law school, the predictive value of the LSAT and the undergraduate GPA is out the window."

In addition, although law schools take little, if any, interest when students retest for the LSAT, Keener advises applicants to take the exam as early as possible since most schools follow a rolling admissions process - a process designed to fill an incoming class on a first come, first serve basis.

"However, law schools are very sensitive to the academic profile of their entering class," Keenar added. "Median LSAT scores and median GPA scores are heavily weighted factors in various ranking schemes that purport to evaluate the relative quality of law schools."

Because law schools are required to report all LSAT scores to the American Bar Association, regardless of score or circumstance, applicants who have taken the LSAT more than once may be disadvantaged if their respective school has borderline median LSAT score or GPA.

The Grade Point Average

Although not weighted as equally as LSAT scores, the GPA nonetheless has considerable weight in the admissions process. The GPA, coupled with coursework, demonstrates a consistent effort on the part of the applicant over a long term period.

"[As an admission officer,] you need to be aware of the fact that different schools have different grading systems and different conventions," Keenar said. "We in admissions know which schools have succumbed to grade inflation; the service academies, for example, tend to have very stringent grading as opposed to liberal arts colleges. Part of the game is knowing what the standards are in different fields."

In regards to isolated poor grades, Keener believes they are rarely a concern among law school admissions officers and can often be dismissed as "outliers." However, the problem arises when the candidate consistently performs poorly in a series of classes, often indicating a shortcoming on the part of the student to grasp the concept. Keenar also cites the GPA and undergraduate coursework as an indicator of preparedness for college.

"There a number of students for whatever reason don't do well in college," Keener added. "They either have to work their way through college or party too much or are not mature yet. They may work for a few years and then rejoin the applicant pool with better LSAT scores and some work experience and in general are well received."

Ideally, Keener believes the GPA should complement the various academic components of the application. Depending of the selectivity of the school in question, low grades, regardless of a particular course or level, may influence the admissions for individuals in the committee review category.

"Virtually all law schools have a target number to reach in terms of median LSAT and median GPA," Keener added. "All admissions decisions are made in reference to that target. Hence, the applicant should match the school's selectivity as much as the school matches the applicants needs."

Extracurriculars

Unlike LSAT scores and GPA, extracurricular activities usually do not have enough weightage in admissions to make or break an applicant. However, extracurricular activities do help admission officers gauge the candidate's interest and passion for the study of law that may not be so readily apparent form academic indicators. Keener warns against the infamous "laundry list of extracurricular activities" that show little, if any, depth to an applicant.

"Admissions officers would much rather see someone that was deeply involved in one or two activities rather than someone joined 15 activities but did nothing more than pay their dues," he said.

Aside from making meaningful contributions to those organizations which naturally arouse a candidate's interest, Keener warns that not all extracurricular activities are created equal.

"The larger and more powerful an organization, the more heavily weighted the leadership position will be," Keener explained. "There may be several hundred student organizations and several hundred officers, but there can only be one student body president or one editor-in-chief."

Admissions officers will often trust in the sincerity of a student's efforts to become actively involved in student organizations unless there is reason to believe otherwise. However, Keener warns that admissions officers are trained to "sniff out cynical attempts to bolster a resume."

Letters Of Recommendation And Personal Statements

Both the letters of recommendation and the personal states help to identify a unique personality in an applicant; the former allows the admission officer to examine third party perceptions of the candidate while the latter allows the candidate to explain his goals and interests in his own terms. At the most selective law schools, the letters or recommendation and personal statements are critical at identifying the "cream of the crop" candidates who may otherwise be all exceptional students at their respective schools.

"The letter of recommendation serves to round out the picture of an individual taken in tandem with everything else in that applicant's file," Keener said. "It is extraordinarily difficult to compare letters of recommendation across applicants since it is an inherently subjective process. You use the recommendations to help portray a coherent picture of a person whereas more objective criteria like LSAT and GPA is used to compare different applicants."

Keener adds that it is more worthwhile to seek candid recommendations that show the applicant as a real human being complete with faults as opposed to recommendations that paint an overly perfect picture that may not necessarily be in tune with the other components of an application.

"Applicants have tendency to seek recommendations from people who have only good things to say about them," Keener warned cautiously. "Those letters are viewed with a great deal of suspicion and may in fact hurt your chances of admission if they are deemed inconsistent with your character especially since virtually no applicant is perfect."

Like the letter of recommendation, the personal statement should present an aspect of the candidate that is not obvious from other aspects of the application. To this end, Keener strongly advises that applicants refrain from making overexaggerated claims to why they wish to study law or their future plans to practice law. In addition, Keener recommends that students do not try to explain the reason why they should be admitted to law school since such a decision ultimately rests on the admission officer's judgement.

"In simple words, the personal statement should say something about you," Keener explains. "A personal statement should flow naturally, as if I was to have a meaningful conversation with the candidate and discovered a side that numbers don't tell."

In essence, candidates writing personal statements should provide concrete and well supported reasons to why they have made a decision to invest over $150,000 and three years or more of their time to study law.

Keener advises students who may be borderline admission candidates should make an extra effort to stand out from the crowd with an extremely well written personal statement and supporting letters of recommendation.

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