ITT we talk about personal statements, LORs, transcripts, and anything else related to the 2016-2017 law school application cycle. Figured this would be a good place to talk about general concerns related to getting app materials together, before we start applying to specific schools, etc.
Q&A with Former Admissions Officers — a lot of the questions you may have about the application process have probably been answered here (there's a link to a PDF with a lot of the answers in the OP). It is a Q&A with Mike Spivey, who worked at Vandy and WUSTL and Colorado, and Karen Buttenbaum, who was Director of Admissions at Harvard Law.
Check out Spivey's blog - super helpful blog about everything related to law school admissions.
Is applying on X date late? Early? Etc.?
As a general guideline — pre-Halloween is very early, pre-Thanksgiving is early, pre-Christmas is on time, and anything after New Years is on the late side.
Do I have a hidden fee waiver?
Check out the hidden fee waiver thread
Where can I find **legit** employment stats?
Law School Transparency
What are my chances at X school?
Check out myLSN!
Additionally, you can check out this compilation of self-reported admissions/scholarship data of TLS users from the last 3 cycles:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/w9wo8eibhc54j ... .xlsx?dl=0
Thank you, TexasENG, for putting this together!
When do apps open?
T14 Quick Reference:
August 15 - U Chicago
September 1 - NYU, U Penn, Columbia, Berkeley
September 15 - Georgetown
When/how will I get my decisions?
See What to Expect When You're Expecting (will be updated with current cycle thread if/when one is created)
How can I figure out what my law school COL will be?
Law School COA Calculator and Comparison Spreadsheet
How much will applications cost me? Use the Application Fee Calculator spreadsheet linked below:
TexasENG wrote:So for anyone interested I put together a quick spreadsheet with all application fees for this year for the top 20(the raw data is below). It will allow you to pick if you are applying / have a fee waiver and calculate your out of pocket cost with Application Fees + LSAC Fees.
Application Fee Calculator
School Applications Open Application Fee
Yale 10/1/2016 $60
Harvard 9/15/2016 $85
Stanford 9/1/2016 $100
Chicago 8/15/2016 $75
Columbia 9/1/2016 $85
New York 9/1/2016 $85
Penn 9/1/2016 $80
Berkeley 9/1/2016 $75
Virginia 9/1/2016 $80
Michigan 9/1/2016 $75
Duke 9/1/2016 $70
Northwestern 9/15/2016 $75
Cornell 9/1/2016 $80
Georgetown 9/15/2016 $85
Texas 9/15/2016 $75
Vanderbilt 9/1/2016 $50
UCLA 9/1/2016 $75
WashU
USC 9/1/2016 $75
Boston 9/1/2016 $85
INDIVIDUAL SCHOOL THREADS
Yale
Harvard
Stanford
Columbia
U Chicago
NYU
Penn
Berkeley
UVA
Duke
Michigan
Northwestern
Cornell
Texas
WUSTL
Boston University
Notre Dame
Admissions data spreadsheet for individual school OPs: Blank Admissions Workbook (make a copy then fill in the schools name / medians)