9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good for Basic Information, But Not Advice, July 15, 2006
This review is from: ABA/LSAC Official Guide to ABA-Approved Law Schools (Paperback)
This book is a great reference guide to general information about each law school. The information in the book may be available on each school's website or elsewhere on the web, but this book saves time by bringing the data together and presenting it in an organized way, which is especially useful when comparing various law schools.
This book is valuable for those trying to choose the law schools to which they should apply.
It may be obvious, but this book doesn't offer much advice to students beyond providing data in an organized way. But it is a great starting point.
For advice regarding preparing for law school, I recommend Law School Confidential by Robert H. Miller and www.toplawstudent.com. Both have sections for students at various stages of the law school experience.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential to applying to law school, March 30, 2007
This review is from: ABA/LSAC Official Guide to ABA-Approved Law Schools (Paperback)
I used this book 6 years ago when I was applying to law school. The hard part about applying to law schools is that only a few people actually know anything about a particular law school's quality or reputation. Rankings do not help in making any meaningful distinctions between schools and actually can actually hurt the applicant in selecting a school as he may overlook a great law school simply because of a poor ranking. Personally, I find the US News and World Report ranking meaningless because the rankings are based on the personal knowledge of a small number of people who probably don't know much more than you do about the law schools they are ranking.
Use this book properly. Check the ratio between students and professors and the average class sizes. Check the number of available courses and then make sure the courses you want will actually be avaiable to you and that the school isn't simply advertising a course that is open only to 10 students once a year. Is there an abundance of clinics with adequate space available so that you do not have to be a top 10% student in order to get some real-life lawyering experience before you graduate? Lots of schools have various clinics, but it won't matter if your chances of participating are slim to none.
Basically, make sure you are not applying to Law School X over Law School Y just because X is number 35 and Y is number 150. These rankings change every year and school can jump from one tier to another for apparantly no reason or another may stay down at the bottom just because it's small or new even though the professors are outstanding. Decide what type of professor you want - would you prefer a famous scholar or a former practicing attorney with thousands of trial cases under his belt.
Remember that the first year curriculum at EVERY LAW SCHOOL is established by the ABA and must be substantially the same, so make sure that by the time you get to your second and third years you can start focusing on what you really want to do and have the resources and professors to actually have a shot at getting your dream job. In this line of work experience is key.
Remember not to place too much value on the application/acceptance chart as the chart simply represents statistics and much more goes into your acceptance than your LSAT score and cumulative undergraduate GPA. Treat your application the way a lawyer would - convince the admissions board that even your shortcomings and unfavorable circumstances are actually the very reason they should accept you.
In parting, I have attended two law schools - one top and one low in the rankings. The law school with a tier 4 ranking made clinics available to every student and had practicing attorneys teach a multitude of fascinating courses as visiting professors. Consequently, that school produces a huge percentange of succesful trial litigators and politicians. In contrast, the top 50 law school had only 10 classroom in a run-down one-story building crammed full with students who had to scramble to get into the interesting courses but mainly took the courses that had any room left. Plus, the clinics were nearly impossible to get into. Unless you go to an Ivy League or a Stanford, law school is really what you make of it -- think hard about what you want to get out of law school, where you want to live, where the majority of jobs are in your future field of expertise and spend a lot of time researching the law schools using this book.
Good luck!
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Law School Must Have, September 8, 2005
If you are applying to law school, you must have this book. The grids showing the GPA in comparison to the LSAT score, and your chances of getting in are enormously helpful in the application process. There are no opinion pieces here, just the straight facts directly from the law schools.
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