Submittin’ Apps and Bustin’ Caps

This blog will take a jurisprudential turn as I begin gearing up for law school, and then actually begin my studies next fall. Right now, it’s a suspenseful waiting game.

The first thing I’m waiting for is my LSAT score. The LSAT—Law School Admission Test—is a standardized test of reading and reasoning that is the single biggest factor in admission decisions. It’s still done with pencils and paper, and let me tell you—it is remarkable to look down at a few square inches of paper, lined with five tight columns of bubbles, and know what a preeminent influence they will have over your future. The placement of 101 graphite marks I made on the morning of Saturday, October 1, will determine what law schools I get into, and what sort of law jobs I can get when I come out. Study at Yale, and you waltz to the legal job of your choosing. Settle for Cooley, and you’ll be among the lawyers expunging J.D.’s from their resumes in order to get jobs waiting tables.

I think I did pretty well on the LSAT. Timing is a big challenge for most test-takers, and unfortunately, I had to guess on 5 questions. I’m hoping that I’ll get about that many wrong—with perhaps a couple lucky guesses, and hopefully no more than a couple wrong answers elsewhere. But I won’t know for sure until I’m emailed my score on or around October 22. I’m expecting a score in the high 160’s or the 170’s, on a scale that runs to 180. And as big as that LSAT score is for any aspiring lawyer, it might be especially big for me. Because I had a decent undergrad GPA at a good school – but nothing earth-shattering. No 3.9, no ivy. Teach For America lends a little shine to my resume, but I still need a high LSAT score to have any realistic chance at the top schools.

Besides the aforementioned shine, Teach For America has also given me the gift of fee waivers. Many schools offer to waive their application fees for TFA alumni. I find it hard to pass up most free offers, so I’m sending off a whopping 23 applications. Any kind readers who have traveled this far are offered the list: Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, Chicago, NYU, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Duke, Northwestern, Cornell, Georgetown, UT Austin, Boston College, Boston University, George Washington, Washington in St. Louis, University of Arizona, Lewis and Clark, University of X, University of Y, and Z State. They’ll receive my applications after my LSAT scores post. Then I wait for decisions, which will likely begin arriving in December, and continue trickling in for months.

Wish me luck!

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