Your Four Year Plan

The next module goes into greater depth about the application process.  For now, note that there are specific things you can be doing from Day 1 to increase your success in the application process:

 

Year One and Year Two 

During the first two years of your college career, concentrate on the three "gets":

  1. Get good grades
  2. Get involved
  3. Get to know your professors

The great news is that these endeavors will pay off whether you decide to go to law school or not.  

During this time, you can also do a number of things to verify that law school is a good choice for you:

  1. Read about it
  2. Visit law schools and sit in on classes
  3. Go to court and observe
  4. Take a law-related class at UNT

 

Year Three

During your junior year, you need to start taking more deliberate steps toward law school.  

  1. Develop a plan to study for the LSAT.  If you are going to study on your own, give yourself a year to do so in a "low and slow" style.  That means starting your studying plan at the beginning of your junior year (if not the summer before).
  2. Start researching individual law schools.  You won't be able to pin down the schools on your list until you have a better sense of your GPA and your LSAT score, but now is a good time to start looking at a variety of schools. 
  3. Solidify your recommendations.  If you haven't done so yet, make sure you are building strong relationships with your professors and supervisors.  Tell them about your plans so they start to view you as a potential law student. Talk with them so they learn about your character as well as your performance.
  4. Start your personal statement.  You will be polishing your personal statement closer to submitting your applications, but you can start writing it in the spring of your junior year.  This will insure that you develop a strong statement and turn it into the best writing of your life.
  5. Create your LSAC Credential Assembly Service Account.  If you have transcripts from a community college or from high school duel credit classes, go ahead and submit them.

 

Year Four

Take the LSAT the summer between your junior and senior years or very early in the autumn of your senior year.  This will give you an opportunity to fine tune your studying technique and retake the test if absolutely necessary.

Submit your applications in the fall of your senior year.  The application cycle opens September 1 for most schools.  Earlier applications are almost always better (unless you think, for example, that you can really change your GPA or your LSAT score by waiting).