Getting Into Law School: Strategies for the 90's

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.