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Your Ideal Law School Application Timeline

Whether it’s always been your ideal career, or it came to you in a dream one night, you’ve decided you want to apply to law school. If you’ve chosen not to take a gap year before law school, balancing your junior and senior years of college along with law school applications could be tough. Of course, the same difficulty applies to a gap year when you might be working a 9-5 job and struggle to find the energy to study for the LSAT. What you need is a law school application timeline to help you.

No matter your situation, knowing important dates and deadlines can help you stay on top of the law school admissions cycle. In this blog, we have a law school application timeline for you, alongside a more detailed look at the best time to submit law school applications. 

Before You Begin Applying - December-January

• Rack up extracurriculars for law school - common ones such as debate or Model UN are great, but think outside the box as well. Try to find volunteer experiences that can help you stand out. Conduct research with a professor in an area of law that appeals to you. Find an internship as a legal assistant at a law fund. Volunteer to help refugees in your community. The possibilities are endless.
• Work Experience - Beef up your legal resumé through relevant jobs, honing skills that would be useful in the legal world. You can work as a legal assistant at a law firm, or as a secretary for a senator. It doesn’t always have to be directly related to law though. As long as you’re able to connect your goals and skills to those tied to pursuing a legal career, working in almost any field is okay! 
• Prepare for the LSAT. If you are ready, register for an LSAC account and take the LSAT in February.

Once You Have Decided To Apply - February-May

• Continue studying for the LSAT. Create a study schedule and take many, many timed practice tests.
• View upcoming LSAT dates and register for the June LSAT if you haven’t taken it before then.
• Letters of Recommendation Prep - Start talking to potential recommenders so that they can prepare to write letters for you in the upcoming months. Choose recommenders who actually know you well.
• Start formulating your law school list. Don’t just apply to the T-14 schools! Consider a range of fit and safety schools as well. 
• Sign up for the Credential Assembly Service (CAS), a service by the LSAC, which provides law schools of your choice with your law school report consisting of your transcript, LSAT scores, and letters of recommendation.
• Visit law school campuses if possible. Visiting a school can help you get a feel of the environment, get a glimpse of a typical day, and ask current students any questions you might have about their experience. If you schedule an appointment ahead of time, you can even meet with admissions or financial aid officers and talk through the opportunities available and application requirements. If you can’t due to the pandemic, check if they offer virtual tours or information sessions.

June-August

• Finalize your law school list with a good balance of reach, fit, and safety schools. Students usually apply to 10-12 schools.
• The opening date for each application depends on the school. Most open September 1, but some, such as Stanford, open earlier in August. More on that later.
• Prepare to retake the LSAT in September if needed. To avoid mistakes you might have made the first time, practice as much as possible, especially emphasizing trouble areas. Create a study schedule, form a study group, use flashcards - pull out all the stops to make sure you get a higher score this time.
• Start drafting your personal statement. This essay should showcase what makes you a must-have candidate. What unique experiences do you bring that your peers can’t? 
• Finish working on your resumé. Proofread and polish it, ensuring that the most relevant and impressive experiences are listed first.
• Request that your transcript from college is sent to LSAC.
• Check in with your recommenders about their letters. Inform them of academic and resumé updates if applicable. Be enthusiastic and appreciative!

September-November

• Personal Statement - Remember that the length of the personal statement varies by program, so be prepared to modify it according to each law school’s requirements. Or, stay ahead of the game, and prepare multiple versions of different lengths. 
• Diversity Statement - Law schools provide the opportunity for a diversity statement, a prompted response, or an addendum. If not about identity, the diversity statement can elaborate on a unique activity that you’ve engaged in that others may not have. 
• Supplemental Essays - Law schools also ask for supplemental essays. Many schools, like Yale, ask you to write a 250-word essay on a topic of your choice to get a sense of your passions, character, and your analytical and writing skills. Use this as an opportunity to talk about your goals and interests, an anecdote that might define you, or your thoughts on a current event.
• Edit - Finish putting the final touches on your personal statement and diversity statement. Edit, edit, edit.
• Letters of Recommendation - Urge your recommenders to submit their letters by the end of September so that they don’t slow down your application process.
• Retake the LSAT in October if needed.
• Financial Aid - Be aware that the FAFSA opens in October. If you require financial aid, don’t delay! 
• Finish updating the information in your law school report.
• Check and double-check all the components of your application. Proofread your essays as much as possible. Make sure all of the information is correct.
• Submit your applications when you are ready, ideally by Halloween! 
• Confirm that schools have received your completed applications.

December-March

• Check the deadlines - Most schools’ applications close around March-May, so double-check the deadline for each of the schools on your list if you’re still working on your application.
• Interviews - Attend interviews if they are available and if you are invited. Remember to clearly state why you want to become a lawyer, as well as why you are interested in the particular law school you are interviewing for. Prepare at least a couple of questions to ask the admissions officer at the end of the interview.
• The waiting begins - Wait to hear back from law schools on a rolling basis. Early Decision applicants hear back between mid-December and early January. The latest Regular Admissions applicants hear back is mid-May.
• Getting off the Waitlist - If you are waitlisted at a school you really want to attend, send in a letter of continued interest and an updated resumé.
• Make your final decision, and send your letter of acceptance to your school of choice.

April-June

• If you’re still in college, submit updated transcripts to CAS to be sent to your future law school.
• Inform the law schools which you won’t be attending of your decision. 
• Make sure you have housing arrangements for the fall – whether it’s on-campus or off-campus.
• Send thank you notes to your recommenders for taking the time to write letters on your behalf. 
• Attend admitted student open houses, and prepare for law school. 

There you have it, your law school application timeline. Let’s take a closer look at the actual submission period in greater detail.

How to Get Started on Your Law School Applications

The first step in the law school application timeline will be to set up the administrative details of your application. Early in your application process you should register for the LSAC’s Credential Assembly Service (CAS), which provides law schools of your choice with your law school report. The report will consist of your transcript, LSAT scores, and letters of recommendation. 

Upon completing your registration you can begin the arduous process of getting your school(s) to send in all relevant transcripts so that you do not have to worry about that piece when more time-intensive application work really ramps up. You can sign up for an LSAC and CAS account at any time. You do not need to sign up for CAS when you register for the LSAT, but you should sign up at least six weeks before your first law school application deadline as it takes approximately two weeks to process the official transcript upon receipt. You should also plan out your letters of recommendation strategy if you haven’t already. Your recommendations should come from academic references who can talk about what you’re like in the classroom. These are two of the main components of the application that could be the most time-intensive and out-of-your-sole-control. So, it’s smart to start to check them off your list early. 

Opening and Closing Dates + Early Application

Consider the opening and closing date of top schools. Yale for example is open for applications starting October 16 and accepts them until February 28 on a rolling basis, while Harvard opens September 15 and closes February 1. 

While you can have most of your application components prepared, you will be faced with some additional prompts that you won’t be able to prepare for too far in advance.

Even though you shouldn’t wait until the last possible day to submit, it’s still helpful to keep track of the deadline for the window to close. You might also consider applying Early Decision in order to know your fate earlier, increase your chances, and get the process out of the way (if you’re ready of course). Take a look at the dates and deadlines for notable law schools which offer Early Decision options below. 

Early Decision 1 and 2 are both binding. You can apply for either ED round, depending on when your materials are ready. Whether you decide to apply early or in the regular admissions cycle, don’t leave your submission until the last minute.

When to Ideally Submit Your Law School Applications

Each individual students’ law school application timeline could vary depending on factors like your LSAT test date, ideally, you should send in your applications by Halloween. If you can submit your application earlier, that’s even better! If Halloween is a stretch and you need more time, at most, you should definitely send them before the big holiday rush that comes with Thanksgiving and Christmas. While many people do apply in January, it’s not the most strategic decision since a significant proportion of the class will have been admitted already. Be smart and get started early on the application components that you can anticipate and draft in advance, such as your personal statement and diversity statement. When the applications open, you can put more focus on school-specific requirements. 

As you consider your law school application timeline remember that the goal should always be to send in your applications as soon as possible. Similar to any other application, follow the schools’ guidelines and adhere to deadlines to make sure you’ve submitted all the requirements on time. Keep Halloween as a solid target date to get everything done. Hopefully, you’ll have a smooth sailing application process on your way to getting that JD. Best of luck!