What major should I choose to get into law school?
Should I take any law related classes in undergrad?
What can I do as an undergrad to help my chances of getting into the law school of my dreams?
What organizations should I get involved in as an undergrad?
What criteria should I use for deciding what law schools to apply to?
Should I go to law school in the same state where I obtained my undergraduate degree?
How many law schools should I apply to?
How do I go about researching law schools?
Isn't the most important thing to get into the best (highest ranked) law school that I can?
When should I take the LSAT & when should I start studying for the LSAT?
Should I take a review course?
What review courses are available and how should I decide which one to take?
If I don't take a review course, how should I study for the LSAT?
How long are my LSAT scores good for?
When is the last date I can take the LSAT to apply for the following fall semester?
Will courses and grades that I have taken at other schools show up on my LSDAS summary of coursework? Will it be included in my overall scores? Will law school count graduate school coursework?
How do I find out about and apply for financial aid?
What kind of financial aid is available?
How much debt should I go into to pay for law school?
How much can I make as an attorney?
Why is early admission important?
Are there interviews for getting in?
I have a family member who knows someone who went to a law school I want to go to. Will that help me get in?
Should I type everything in my application?
Why do I need to use LSDAS?
Don't I need to apply or law school during my senior year of college?
Will UNT help me with advising if I am an alumnus?
How do I decide if a joint degree program is for me?
How can I find out about joint degree programs?
What major should I choose to get into law school?
A common misconception among prospective law students is that they should be "pre-law" majors. The University of North Texas does not offer a pre-law major for a simple reason: law schools aren't interested in pre-law majors. Law schools want a diverse student body, not just demographically diverse, but educationally diverse as well.
There is no "silver bullet" major that will get you into law school. The key is to major in something that you enjoy in which you can perform well . Law schools like to see critical thought, analytical reasoning, reading, and writing abilities. Almost all majors are equally suitable to get one into law school. That being said, there are certain types of majors that should be avoided if you're serious about going to law school. Law schools want to see grades that are based more on academic ability than performance oriented fields (e.g. acting or music).
In the last decade, law schools have increasingly been looking for students with a background in natural sciences (e.g. biology, chemistry, or physics). Likewise, law schools have traditionally looked very highly on economics majors. That being said, under no circumstances should you choose a major with which you will struggle just because you believe it is preferred by law schools.
Another consideration when selecting your major is the
alternate career paths that it offers. Should you decide that law
school is not for you, you don't want to have earned a degree that does
not lead to other careers in which you would be intersted.
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Should I take any law related classes in undergrad?
Yes. It is a good idea to take a couple of law related classes just so
that you can get an idea of the style of law teaching and the type of
work and environment you can expect. Additionally, taking law classes
helps you discover whether you even enjoy studying law before you
commit to law school.
A number of departments on campus offer law related courses
that might interest you, Business, Political Science, Philosophy,
Communications, Psychology, Sociology, and Environmental Science.
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What can I do as an undergrad to help my chances of getting into the law school of my dreams?
The two most important things that a law school will look at is you
undergrad GPA and your LSAT score. After that, law schools love
diversity. They want their incoming classes to be as heterogeneous as
possible. Foreign language, study abroad, internships, volunteer work,
work experience, Moot Court, leadership roles, and on-campus
activities, all of these things can help to set you apart from the rest
of the applicants. Remember you want to distinguish your application
from the 2000+ other applications that the typical law school will
receive each year.
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What organizations should I get involved in as an undergrad?
There many organizations on campus that are worth looking at if you
want to go to law school. Phi Alpha Delta is the on-campus pre-law
fraternity. If you meet the requirements, you should consider joining
because Phi Alpha Delta has the inside view on getting into and
attending law school. Additionally, Phi Alpha Delta offers perspective
on what the world is like after you graduate from law school.
Furthermore, Phi Alpha Delta is the honors fraternity for law
schools, which gives you an opportunity to meet people who are ahead of
you in the process.
The Moot Court team is another great opportunity available at the University of North Texas for students interested in a legal career. Moot court is an appellate court simulation where teams argue on behalf of their clients in front of a panel of judges. Moot Court will be required in law school as part of your curriculum and you may even compete at regional, national, and international competitions. The logical reasoning, writing, and research skills you hone in Moot Court may also prove extremely beneficial in your other coursework as well. Undergraduate Moot Court isn't a widespread phenomenon as of yet, although the practice is rapidly growing, consequently your participation on the team can serve to distinguish your application from those of other otherwise similarly qualified applicants.
There are also numerous other non law-related organizations that you can also join depending on where your interests lie. Political groups, public interest groups, fraternities, sororities, honor societies, student government, organizations associated with academic departments, etc. Anything that sets your application apart from the thousands of others that admissions committees review, that draws special attention to you can only serve to your benefit.
However, do not place so much importance on your
extracurricular activities that you allow your GPA to slide. No
activity, no matter how presitigious, can make up for a mediocre GPA.
No matter what activities you choose to pursue, your GPA must always
come first if you are serious about law school.
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What criteria should I use for deciding what law schools to apply to?
The basic equation that you use when looking at this question is
fourfold. You want to apply to the best school that you can get into,
that you can afford, that you can do well in, that is located in a
place that you can live in for three years and then possibly work in.
Different people stress different parts of this equation depending on
what is most important to them.
There are other criteria that some people should look at as
well. Look at the different things that the law schools offer that
might be of interest to you. Look at their clinics, journals, and
research centers; find out about the moot court competitions they
compete in, the different student organizations they have, their
faculty, and of course their courses offerings. You will also want to
look at their career services office to examine their first year
placement rates (should be over 90%), bar passage rates, and median
salary.
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Should I go to law school in the same state where I obtained my undergraduate degree?
Law schools increasingly look for a diverse set of students from as
many states as possible. Your application may be unique because you
came from a different state.
The common wisdom is that you should go to law school in the
state or region where you intend to practice. A majority of law
students go on to practice in the state where they attended law school.
It is not necessary, however, to attend law school in the state where
you intend to practice
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How many law schools should I apply to?
You should shoot for somewhere around ten to a dozen law schools. While
this may seem like a lot, you have to remember that law school
applications increase in number every year, so it gets harder and
harder to get in.
You should make sure to include a few schools at which you think you are a sure bet to get in, a few where you have a pretty good chance, and even throw a couple of pie in the sky schools because you never know if you might have something about you that particular school is looking for.
Every law school is different and some law schools may have waviers if you apply online. Additionally, any school that contacts you and indicates that they would like to have you apply, you should contact them and ask them if it is possible to receive a fee wavier.
If you are a student who receives a great deal of financial
aid at the undegraduate level or otherwise has limited financial
resources you may qualify for a LSAC fee waiver. If you qualify for the
LSAC fee waiver you will also be able to apply to a number of schools
free of charge.
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How do I go about researching law schools?
The web is your best friend here. There are a number of resources that
are available to you that we have the links to on our homepage. Look at
these as well as the websites of the law schools themselves to get an
idea of the kinds of things they offer and their details that might be
important to you.
It is also important to try to get to one of the Law School Forums offered by LSAC in the Fall or the Spring. You should try to attend in the year prior to when you plan to apply. The advantage of these is that you can talk to the admissions and recruitment people from the law school and find out the information directly from the horse's mouth.
Talking to people is very important as well. Ask lawyers, us,
other students, law students, about law schools and what their ideas
about various ones are. Phi Alpha Delta, the on-campus pre-law
fraternity, can be helpful here because you will associate with a peer
group that can help in your research of law schools.
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Isn't the most important thing to get into the best (highest ranked) law school that I can?
The common misperception is that you have to go to one of the top ten law schools. Less than 1% of the attorneys in this country went to one of the top ten schools. What matters is that you go to a law school where you do well, so that you are on the moot court board, that you are part of a law review, that you worked in a clinic, or clerked for a judge. You will establish a distinguished career for yourself in law school.
Every student is different. It depends on how you rank the
criteria. For some people getting into the best law school that they
can is the most important thing. For others, the availability of
financial aid will be the most important criteria, and so they may go
to a law school that is a little bit beneath them where they will be
superstars and gradaute in the top of the class.
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When should I take the LSAT & when should I start studying for the LSAT?
THE BIGGEST MISTAKE THAT STUDENTS MAKE IS TAKING THE LSAT BEFORE THEY ARE READY. You want to have simulated the test at least 4-5 times before taking the actual LSAT.
Ideally, you want to take the June or October test the year before you want to attend law school. This gives you the ability to retest if you need to, it gets it out of your way and off of your mind sooner, and it allows you to get your application in for early admission decisions. If you wait to take the December or the February LSAT you are stuck in the regular admission pool with a majority of the applicant and a number of the slots have already been give to those people who took the earlier LSATs.
Ideally, you should start studying about 6-8 weeks prior to
taking the test and you should devote about 2-4 hours a day to studying
depending on the amount of help you need. Some people can get away with
less if they are naturally good test takers and need less work. You
should simulate exams as you go along as well to make sure that the
studying you are doing is paying off and that you are moving in the
right direction.
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Should I take a review course?
This is really a decision that only you can make. You know how you
learn best and you know if you are better suited to teaching yourself
something or if you need a classroom/lecture type environment. The best
course of action to decide this is to first take a diagnostic test,
either through a test prep course (which they will usually give you for
free) or by simulating one for yourself at home. Second, you should
study on your own for a few weeks and see whether you are improving. If
you are seeing steady improvement and you seem to understand what you
are teaching yourself, then you might not need to take a course. If you
aren't seeing improvement and you aren't seeming to grasp the concepts
that the books are trying to teach you, it might be in your interest to
consider taking a prep course.
Not all prep courses are created equal, and remember, you are
a consumer. Contact each of the courses, and ask them about their
criteria for hiring instructors. Do their instructors have to have
taken the LSAT? Do they make publicly available what their instructers
received on the LSAT? How long have their instructors been teaching?
How long have they been offering the program? What is the probability
that the class will be canceled? What supplementary materials are
available? How much individual attention do students typically receive?
You should go with the prep course where you feel comfortable with the
course as a business decision, as an investment in your legal career.
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What review courses are available and how should I decide which one to take?
The University of North Texas Pre-Law office does not endorse any particular prep course, or even endorse the idea that you should have to take a paid prep course.
There are many different prep courses available. You can find a list of links
on our homepage. What you must remember is that it is a buyer's market
and the courses are geared to meet different needs for different
people. There are a few different considerations to take into account
when looking at which prep course to choose. For many, time is a
consideration. Some courses are a few nights a week for a few weeks
prior to the test. Others are every night for a week before the test
and some are intensive one or two day ordeals immediately prior to the
test. Some are taught locally, some you have to travel to Dallas or Ft.
Worth for, and some are taught online. Money is also a consideration
for some people and the prices for various courses do vary.
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If I don't take a review course, how should I study for the LSAT?
Simulate, simulate, simulate. You need to simulate the test at least 4-5 times before you take the LSAT. Additionally, don't neglect to grade every simulation so that you can monitor your progress and identify areas where you may need further practice. Please contact the prelaw office about concerns you have, if you are concerned that are scoring too low on the LSAT. In order to be competitive for appllying to law school you need to score at least a 155 on an LSAT simulation. The common wisdom is that in order to have a choice of law schools you need to break the 160 barrier. That being said, approximately 80% of all students will not break the 160 barrier, but you should know that it is the goal that you are shooting for in order to get into law school.
The office of prelaw advising also has a number of sample
tests and books that you can borrow to assist your preparations. There
are also materials available in Willis Library. Additionally, the
office of prelaw advising sponsors simulated LSATS every fall and
spring. Check the prelaw calendar for the test dates and locations.
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How long are my LSAT scores good for?
Five years
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When is the last date I can take the LSAT to apply for the following fall semester?
Generally speaking, you can usually take the February test date and
still be able to apply for the following fall. Be advised though that
this could be different depending on the school that you are applying
to. Some schools will only accept LSATs up to the December test date
for consideration for the following fall. Be sure to check with the
schools that you are interested in applying to and see what their
policies are.
There are some schools that allow admission in the spring or summer. A list of those schools is available on our website.
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Will courses and grades that I have taken at other schools
show up on my LSDAS summary of coursework? Will it be included in my
overall scores? Will law school count graduate school coursework?
All courses that you have ever taken are to be included in your LSDAS
summaries. Law schools look very negatively upon students who do not
report all of their transcripts because that information is available
through LSDAS. Make sure you have included all transcripts.
Additionally, if you are considering doing graduate coursework, please
check with each law school to which you are going to be applying to
ensure that they will use their graduate coursework GPA. Many schools,
especially the higher tier schools do not use masters work as part of
the LSDAS index. Every law school is different and you need to be sure
to check with each one.
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How do I find out about and apply for financial aid?
After you have applied to law school you should file for an application for financial aid. Part of the reason why early admission gives students a strategic advantage is because your financial aid application will be considered before the remaminder of students who apply later in the admissions cycle.
In most cases, your application for admission to the law school also serves as your application for the law school's scholarships and grants. If it does not, you need to check the law school's financial aid information to see what sort of process they use. Sometimes they ask you to apply for scholarship after your have been accepted, and sometimes they have supplemental forms for financial aid that go in with the admissions application.
Students loans are also available, and are applied for in the same way as undergraduate students loans by filling out a Free Application for Student Financial Aid that can be found in the financial aid office of UNT or online at www.fafsa.gov .
There are also any number of independent scholarships that are
offered by individuals, foundations, governmental organizations,
non-profits organizations, and corporations. These require some hunting
to find depending on the types of interest (e.g. public interest or
environmental law) or background factors that you have.
The most commonly used resources are Finaid.com and Fastweb.com, be sure to check for all aid for which you may be eligible.
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What kind of financial aid is available?
There are scholarships and grants that are offered by the law schools
and outside sources as well as student loan money from the government.
Some law schools also offer work study options as well as research or
teaching assistant positions.
The University of North Texas Office for Nationally Competitive Scholarships assists undergraduate and graduate students in identifying and pursuing externally funded research and study opportunities. Dr. James Duban, director of the office, invites students to inquire about the preparation and credentials necessary to compete successfully for such postgraduate awards as Rhodes, Marshall, Fulbright, James Madison, Harry S. Truman, Andrew W. Mellon, and National Science Foundation scholarships and fellowships.
Remember, the University of North Texas office of pre-law
advising will assist you in negotiating for financial aid after you
have been admitted. Be sure to speak with us about that.
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How much debt should I go into to pay for law school?
The general formula is that you should go into only so much total debt,
undergrad and law school, as you expect to make in your first year out
of law school. That means that a person wanting to do corporate law
could probably stand to go into more debt than a person who intends to
do criminal prosecution immediately following law school.
If you are interested in going into public interest law
please note that many of the positions have significantly lower
salaries than in the private sector. You may want to look into loan
forgiveness programs.
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How much can I make as an attorney?
You can make anywhere from 25k to 125k depending on a variety of
factors. The kind of law you want to practice, how well you do in law
school, where you go to practice. What you need to look at is the
median salary for the schools that you are looking at to get a rough
idea of what their graduates make. Usually they will break these
figures down by the types of employment so that you can have an idea of
where you might be headed.
The National Association of Law Placement
is the national organization that monitors and tracks the placement of
attorneys after law school and they provide comprehensive information
on the legal market. You can also find information on attorney careers
on findlaw.com.
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Why is early admission important?
Increasingly law schools are going to an early admission model because the market has become so competitive. In the 2004 academic cycle, over 100,000 students applied for 56,000 seats.
Please be cautious, however, when pursuing early admissions. There is a distinction between early admissions and early decision. Early decision applications are binding, if accepted you will be committed to attending that law school. Do not apply through early decision for any schools where you would be unwilling to make such a committment.
Another plus about early admission is that there is more money available for them to offer to you. As opposed to later on, when a big chunk of that money is gone.
And the biggest benefit of all, you get to find out where you are going sooner than all of your lazy friends.
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Are there interviews for getting in?
In almost every circumstance, no. If, by chance, you are offered a
chance for an interview, be it for acceptance or scholarship, do
everything that you can to make it to the interview. They are offering
you the chance to expand on your application because they are
considering between you and the other applicants they are offering
interviews to.
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I have a family member who knows someone who went to a law school I want to go to. Will that help me get in?
A common misperception among persons applying to law school is
that if you know someone, that person can held get you in. Increasingly
this is simply not the way law school admissions are done. Letters from
family or friends who went to the law school are really only effective
if the person still has some close connection to the law school or if
they have made a name for themselves within the local legal community.
Legacy standing, where a family member has attended the law school to
which you are applying, is generally more important these days at
private institutions as opposed to public ones.
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Should I type everything in my application?
Your law school application is the first time that you are
preparing a document to be an advocate, only in this case you are being
an advocate for yourself. Law school admissions committees think to
themselves "if this person does a sloppy application to become a law
student, when their future is directly involved, why will they care
about how a client's application looks in court?" YES, you should type
everything in your application, everything should be neat and orderly.
You should give a law school every reason to admit you, not raise
questions about the quality of your work.
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Why do I need to use LSDAS?
Another simple answer, because the law schools require you to.
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Don't I need to apply or law school during my senior year of college?
If you are trying to go to law school in the fall immediately following
your senior year, yes. You want to be sending out your applications in
the early part of the Fall semester of your senior year.
This is not to say that you have to apply at this time. Law
schools love to see diversity and working for a little while after
graduation can give you that extra something that can help you get into
a law school that you might not have been able to get into immediately
following graduation. Remember, the average age for entering law
students is around 26 years old, not 22.
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Will UNT help me with advising if I am an alumnus?
Yes, UNT has a lifelong commitment to ensuring your
professional career success. We will also advise faculty members and
students who are soon to be joining the university.
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How do I decide if a joint degree program is for me?
A lot of it really depends on the type of law you want to practice when
you are done. If you want to do in depth business law, then a joint
JD/MBA might not be a bad idea. If you want to do public policy
analysis, then a JD/MPP might be something for you to look into. On the
other hand, if you want to practice your garden variety law, you
probably don't need to consider a joint degree. Joint degrees are
primarily for people who want to go into some sort of specialized field
with the law that also has applications and implications with other
fields of study.
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How can I find out about joint degree programs?
The best place to find out joint degree programs is by looking at the
websites for the schools that you are interested in applying to. Bear
in mind that you will usually have to submit an application and be
accepted to both the law school and the graduate school that is
offering the joint degree.
Our website has list of schools which offer joint degree programs.
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