All law schools will want these. It's really very simple, when you think about it.
- Four Year Degree
You either already a) have a bachelors or b) will be getting one some time soon, preferably before you start law school. There are some very few programs that will let some dedicated juniors in early, but you will need that diploma, and you will need that bachelors of arts, or science, or engineering...
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Transcripts
This is where all your failures come back to haunt you. Every school wants a transcript, and every school will want that transcript sent to LSAC, who will reorder your GPA into some arbitrary number based on the phases of the moon. For those who transferred from one college to another to restart their GPA (since old grades don't transfer, just in general), you will hate this part the most. A transcript is required from every single school you attended for that four-year degree mentioned above. Basically, any school you got credits from. And yes, your old grades do get factored into your LSAC GPA for your new GPA. Got a 4.0 at a community college before transferring into a bigger school? This works in your favor. Failed out of an engineering major and then got a 4.0 in your second school as an English major? This will work against your favor. Typically, your GPA will be a bit lower than what it says on your current school record.
This is also best done early. Schools are notoriously slow about this sort of thing. Slow as in "Oh! I'm sorry, I put that underneath the table and the janitor swept it up three months ago; I'll send it out today!" Remember to check back on this repeatedly. Woe be to you if the said school you're trying to extract your transcript from is far away. This will suck.
P.S. Don't fail classes in your major, particularly those that you need to take again in order to graduate. Getting a F in a 3 credit course and then an A in the same said course will be factored into your LSAC GPA like this: 3 credits of F, 3 credits of A. Do the math and you'll realize this is very harmful towards your overall GPA.
- LSAT
This, occurring approximately 4 times a year (typically February, June, October, and December), is also lovingly known as the Hell-SAT. Rather like the SAT, this determines where you can go, regardless of what glorious leader of community/street bum you were before. It's also very expensive, and unlike the SAT, law schools would prefer you take this once. Not twice, not zero, but once. And if you should screw up the first time (say 150) and do wonderfully the second time (180)? A lot of law schools will take the mean (165). It is a cruel world, folks. Deal with it.
People, in their fruitless attempt to score very well on it, pay big bucks for Princeton Review, Kaplan, or whatever test prep course is the flavor of the month. The LSAT, from personal experience, cannot be "studied" for, as there is nothing you need to study (unlike, say, cramming useless vocabulary definitions in your head for the SAT). Your best bet is to buy the old test exams from LSAC and do them over and over and over again until you cry when you see another critical reasoning section or logic games section. (And if you think I'm not qualified to give this piece of advice and you're one of those score whores, I broke 170 by doing what I just advised above. So there.)
There is also a 30-minute writing section on the LSAT. This does not get graded, nor read. It is sent to the law schools when they request your score from LSAC. Admissions officers usually just give this a once over to make sure that a) you can write proper English and b) you're somewhat mildly coherent. Do not, do not, under any circumstances joke around with this bit. There have been perfectly intelligent people who made the idiotic mistake of writing about how pointless the writing section is for their writing piece. Admissions officers are not humorous people. Expect a big fat rejection if you do something as stupid as that.
- Recommendations
Some schools ask for none. Most will ask for one or two, and some very few crazy places will ask for three. They will all prefer that you get it from a professor, though if you've been out of school for a few years, it's A-OK to get it from your boss/supervisor.
A word of caution: It is best to overdo it on this. If you catch your professor early and he/she is nice and punctual, this will work out very well for you. If you happen to be unfortunately gifted with a lazy, tardy professor, ask as early as possible (as a late recommendation will screw you over, since applications are not considered until they're complete, and they're not complete until every piece of information has come in). If a law school needs 2 recommendations, ask 3 people. If they need one, ask for 2. You get the picture. LSAC will hold up to 3 recommendations, so take advantage of that.
For those with lazy/slow professors: streamline it as much as possible. Don't spare the expense. Give them your recommendation form with a prepaid express envelope (granted, it's $13.65 for flat rate Express mail, but the peace of mind you get will be worth far more than that). Be explicit about when you need the recommendation. If you need it by, say, January 1st, then say that it's due December 1st (that way you can cover your butt when things go all pear-shaped). Professors are much more likely to get things done if you've laid it out clearly for them.
- LSAC Registration
LSAC is the administrator of the LSAT exams. They are a cartel, a monopoly... you have no way out of this one. Just about every school will require you to register with them, because you do not send your transcripts directly to the law school themselves, but instead through a proxy known as LSAC. Registration is also an expensive process; as of March 2004 it is $99.
Since every school you apply to will ask for a report from LSAC to get your transcript/LSAT score/recommendations, this will cost you a pretty penny. Reports are not free. In fact, as of March 2004, this is $12 per report (note: if you register for the LSAC, they have a "special" in that you can buy reports for $10 each, but usually when you register, you honestly don't know how many schools you're going to apply to). This adds up. You will cry when your credit card bill comes in.
Personal Statement
Ah. The ~500 word personal statement. Do you remember, a long time ago, how 500 words used to be a lot? Well, it's not. In fact, it is so crippling that you will resort to some creative formatting, especially if the requirements are "approximately 2 pages" instead of "approximately 500 words" (which is supposed to work out the same but really doesn't). How else are you going to tell your life story in a lousy 500 word paper?
To immortalize the words of a friend: "Write the essay you intend to write. Then do a director's cut of it and hand that in." This may work for you. It certainly did for him.
As for a suitable topic, well, I can't give you advice. Just don't write about how your dad/mom/relative/brother/sister/cat/dog was a lawyer and you want to be one too because they told you to. Also don't mention your poor LSAT skills or grades; that's best left up to an addendum of some sort. Don't try to be funny. I think admissions officers are rather dour people and will not look at your attempt at humor all that well. You plan on being a lawyer, remember? That means you are the butt of jokes, not the propagator.
If you feel like it, leave about a paragraph empty at the bottom of the essay and do some research on the university you are applying to so you can write about why you want to go there: "I would like to go to fill in blank because they are #1 in Intellectual Property blah blah blah". You don't have to be all that creative.
- Dean's Certification (optional)
Some schools will want this during applications, some will want it after you've been accepted. Regardless of when they want it, they will want it eventually, since it's required (ABA regulations). A dean's certification is basically a sheet of paper that the dean of your undergraduate school signs off on and sends to the law school that basically informs the law school of a) your existence in said school; b) whatever misdemeanors you committed while in said school (going on probation because of crappy grades counts, too) and c) your potential in law school. C is not likely ever to come into effect, as few people rarely get to know their dean, much less get a good recommendation from them. Really, it's just to reassure the law school you're not lying about who you are.
If you are so unlucky that the law school wants it beforehand, a word of advice. Hand the dean's certficiation as early as possible. I belive all colleges and universities have a crappy bureacracy thing going, and there are always, always people who will conveniently "forget" to send your dean's certification. As this is part of your application, your application will not be complete if they don't send it in on time. Do this part as early as you can with your school and make sure you follow up on this (i.e., ask if they sent it after a week or two). Better safe than sorry. Nothing will irritate you more than receiving a letter from a law school saying that your application is complete EXCEPT for this one itty bitty thing.