Gathering Information on Law Schools

There are hundreds of ABA-accredited law schools. You could theoretically maximize your chances of acceptance by applying to all of them. But each one requires you to pay an application fee, fill out a time-consuming application form, and file letters of recommendation and other supporting documents. Even if you have the money, there isn't time to apply to all of them.




To make a proper list, you'll need information: about the size, location, and programs of each of the law schools you're considering; about how selective each one is, about how students live on each of the campuses; and about how successful each one is in placing its graduates. This information isn't available in any single location. It's scattered among many published sources and informants. You'll have to collect it. You can find some of it in commonly available books, but you'll also have to dig information out of the minds of law students, lawyers, prelaw advisers, law school representatives, and other informants.

Since you need to collect a lot of information, you'll have to work at it systematically. Many traditional applicants devote their junior years, or the summer between their junior and senior years, to this task. This is an ideal time to visit at least some of the law schools you're considering. But you shouldn't postpone gathering information until the end of your college years. Unique sources pop up at unexpected times. Every time you meet a law student or attend a lecture given by a lawyer, you have an opportunity to learn something about law schools. It's never too soon to begin. You can work at gathering information all through your college years. If you have friends who are also planning to go to law school, or if you're a member of a prelaw club, you can divide the workload and collect information together.

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You will need some way to keep track of it all. What follows in this article is a list of various readily available sources, in no particular order, and a description of what, in my experience, you can expect to learn from each. No single source will provide all the information you'll need. And each source has its blind spots and pitfalls, its distortions and deliberate omissions. Actually, the task of collecting and sorting out all this information is good training in reading systematically and thinking critically!

Screening Publications

Since there are hundreds of law schools to be researched, you'll find it handy to have a single source that provides thumbnail sketches of each of them and is arranged to make comparison easy. The best single browsing source is The Official Guide to U. S. Law Schools, which is put out annually by Law Services itself "in cooperation with the American Bar Association and the Association of American Law Schools." The Official Guide, as we can refer to it, is the horse's mouth of information about law schools. It contains a two-page article on each accredited law school, covering such topics as facilities, admissions policy, programs of study, joint degrees and other specialized programs, student activities, profiles of students currently enrolled, expenses and financial aid, housing, and placement. The Official Guide provides a mailing address and telephone number for the admissions office of each school. In tabular form, it compares schools, state by state, on such variables as the size of the student body and the faculty, and the number of books in the library. Finally, and most important, for most of the schools it discusses, the Official Guide provides information about the LSAT scores and GPAs of students recently admitted; this information, usually presented in graphs called "grids," can be used to calculate your chances of getting accepted.

The Official Guide is the handiest browsing source one could ever know. It provides a quick way to slam through the attributes of many law schools. But a word of caution: the information is provided by the law schools themselves.

Other Law School Publications

Law schools sometimes publish leaflets, brochures, and even videotapes. Like the catalogs, these specialized materials are combinations of information and promotion. Some of them are pure advertising fluff, such as promotional videotapes.

The leaflets and brochures may also describe special programs and facilities not fully discussed in the catalogs. Many law schools have special brochures on financial aid, minority programs, and similar matters that are not of concern to all applicants. As with catalogs, the leaflets will be factually accurate but won't dwell on the school's shortcomings. (One law school takes great pride in pointing out that its new building, which houses classrooms and libraries, is fully wheelchair-accessible. But it doesn't mention that the cafeteria, which is in a separate, older, building, is accessible only with difficulty.)

Sometimes law schools send bunches of these specialized brochures along with their catalogs. To be sure that you will get everything you need, you should mention any special needs or interests when you order the catalog.

Law schools also publish newsletters and magazines directed at alumni and philanthropic organizations; these often discuss recent campus activities, awards and honors won by faculty members, and notable achievements of students. You may occasionally come across otherwise obscure information. Many law school's newsletters sometimes contains a discussion of campus placement activities. Many law schools have been opening new buildings recently; they are often extensively photographed and described in alumni publications.

Don't be overly impressed by a newsletter's reports of the achievements of faculty and students. All law schools can point to a record of accomplishment and you don't yet have the knowledge to tell which honors and distinctions are important and which are not. Nevertheless, the newsletters can give you an idea of what, and how much, is going on in a campus. In my experience, newsletters are especially valuable for their discussion of clinical programs, moot courts, and similar student activities.

If you show an interest in some law schools, they will put you on their mailing list, and you will receive these newsletters in the mail. If you have friends or relatives who are attorneys, ask them to pass along any newsletters they may receive.