Who do you get into law school?

Question

I am a high schooler wanting to get into a great law school how do i do it?

Answer 1

You are very wise to start early. There are lots of things that you can do to improve your chances for getting into a top law school if you start now. When you say top law school, I am assuming that you mean top 3-5 schools in the country, and will base my comments on that assumption.
The LSAT is the biggest factor in getting into a great law school. You will need to score in the 170's (99th percentile) to have a good chance at getting into these types of schools. Use REAL actual previously administered LSAT tests, and plan on devoting 300+ hours to studying for the test. Remember it is worth considerably more than your GPA when it comes to chances for admission. If you can find a course that will allow you to study for a year or two that is a huge plus.
GPA is the other quantifiable factor that affects admissions. For the schools in question a 3.7 would be the minimum for a good chance of admission.
Choose a major that you will love. One common mistake that people make is to major in political science, english, or philosophy, because they think that law schools will be impressed by those majors. Actually, you have a greater chance for admission at the top schools if you DON'T major in one of these, because it allows you to bring a different viewpoint to the law class than the herds of applicants from those majors. I was recently meeting with the former dean of Yale law school with a high school friend of mine. When this issue came up the dean stated that majoring in music would give this young man a better chance for admission than political science if all other things were equal.
That said there are some classes that you should take to improve the reasoning skills that will help you to do well on the LSAT and in law school. Take whatever formal logic/quantitative reasoning classes are available at your university. Also, taking statistics, and upper division writing classes in philosophy will be very helpful.
When considering these particular schools you should also be looking to publish as much as possible. Submit articles/papers to student journals, and try to work with professors that may help you get published.
Establishing connections with professors early on will be invaluable for cultivating letters of recommendation later on. Visit them in office hours, and try to get teaching/research assistant postitions.
Volunteer work will only be valuable if you can show a consistent pattern of service. So be sure that you are always involved in some way in these types of activities. Helping out in the juvenile justice program is usually possible in most states, and will look fabulous on resumes.
Your personal statement is also going to be a big factor in admissions, but that is far less quantifiable than the other elements. There are lots of things that you should avoid doing, most significantly waiting until a few weeks before the deadline to write it, but that is far enough in the future that I won't spend time here talking about it.
Well, that may be more than you wanted to know but it will at least get you started, if you want more advice down the road I am always happy to give it.

Answer 2

Get the highest grades possible while obtaining your undergrad degree. Get the highest possible score on your LSAT. I cannot stress how important grades & LSAT scores are!! Maybe do some volunteer work pertaining to the type of law that you want to go into. While your major doesn't necessarily matter - English, History or Poli Sci will help you prepare. Also, while obtaining your undergrad degree, create great relationships with your professors so that you can get excellent letters of recommendations. Law schools do not necessarily care about what a great lawyer you will be - they care about what a great law school student you will be. While an under grad, join a club like Phi Alpha Delta Pre-Law; if your school doesn't have a chapter, start one. Go to the local law school forum put on by LSAC, to determine where you want to go to law schools and get tips from the requiters from those schools. Do what you can to get into the best undergrad university that you can - it does make a difference! Good luck - you're going to need it!

Answer 3

What's most important are your LSAT scores, your GPA, and work/volunteer experience. It doesn't matter what your undergrad major is when you're applying to law school. Now this doesn't mean you can just sign up for underwater basketweaving or whatever but you don't have to be a polisci major or a history major to get into law school. Engineering students, premed students, business majors, etc. all get into good law schools. So don't feel like you have to take x amount of courses in a certain field because it's part of the "pre-law" program. Get involved, make good grades, and take the LSAT in your Junior year so if you want to take it again your Senior year you'll have time to get it done and get your applications is early. Best of luck

Answer 4

First, look up the requirements to get into law school at any university that has law as a graduate school. Then, in college as an undergrad, make sure you take the classes that are required to get in. For law, make sure you have a good English background, government and political science classes would be good (of course), but you can have any major in college you want, because graduate schools, like colleges, look for well-rounded people. And STAY MOTIVATED! I am a high schooler wanting to get into medical school so I'm going through the same process too.

Answer 5

It depends what you mean by a State. Michigan State or Ohio State -- good, California State or Minnesota State, not so good. Most of the top private universities accept very few transfer students. Princeton, for example, doesn't accept any. Harvard and Yale accept 20-30 out of a thousand applicants. Stanford is even tougher. But the best state universities do accept transfers. You would do well if you can transfer into a public university like Berkeley, UNC-Chapel Hill or University of Michigan. But a third or fourth tier state school won't help you nearly as much.