Customer Reviews

Getting Into Law School Today (Arco Getting Into Law School Today)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Most of the 'advice' given is pretty common sense to a competitive college student. They pretty much skim over different parts of the application process, like writing essays and taking the LSAT's. It's probably better if you buy a specialized LSAT book or specialized essays book. But if you want an overall, general idea of how to get into law school, I suppose it's a good buy--just not great.

The reviewer from NY summed up this book pretty well. Overall, the book does not offer significant tips to the average law school applicant.

The strongest aspect of this book is the section on the personal statement. Instead of just publishing too many sample essays, this book effectively concentrates on how an applicant ought to attack the essay. Using only a few sample essays that represent the different types of applicants, this section does a great job teaching applicants how to write the statement successfully.

Unfortunately, the other parts of the book do not offer much insightful tips. There is a large section on how the admissions board evaluates applicants, which could have been shorter and more concise. Knowing the exact, mathematical method used to calculate an applicant's GPA and LSAT is helpful, but does not warrant significant attention. The book could have easily stated that an applicant's GPA and LSAT score are considerable factors that affect an applicant's chances of admission.

As for the section about the LSAT, readers can easily obtain the same kind of information off the LSAC website or booklet. And the LSAT questions really just take up space in the book since most readers would prefer to consult a trusted testprep company for LSAT advice and strategies.

I do not recommend buying the book. You can easily go to the bookstore or library to read most of the helpful materials in this book --- it shouldn't take you too long!

I began on my endeavor of applying to law school after having spent 2 years working in human services and social work. No one I had ever known before had ever gone to law school, my parents knew no one, and I had lost all of my acquaintances and advisors at my University after the time I had graduated. This gave me an inside look towards strategies in applying to schools. This also gave equal attention to recommendations, essays and personal statements as well as GPAs and LSAT scores (for those of you, like I, who would like to draw attention FROM the latter mentioned items!)

It suggested how to gain recommendations in the precarious situation of a full-time professional employment, where you may be less than eager to shout-out your plans to abandon your company in a year. It also suggested 3 ways to best design your personal statement, geared individually to what may be your situation. I especially appreciated the personal statement 'design' meant to reflect your motivation and work experience and how it has led you to decide on law school (the exact situation I found myself - and issues that University pre-law offices are not well informed on) In fact, after reading this book I found myself to be better informed than the advisors at my pre-law office, and actually helping them with information, as well as other prospective law students. I highly recommend this book to those who are going at this alone, and need some answers.

If you want to understand exactly how the admissions decisions are made (in terms of committee, admissions deans, etc.) than this book is for you. I agree with the previous reviewer that for filling out specific parts of the application other books are better, but the author really shines when it comes to how admissions works and what qualities will be sought out (intellectual muscle, moral character, diversity - whatever that means). Good book for insight, poor on specifics.