Getting Information Regarding ABA-Accredited Law Schools

There are over 176 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, to fill out a time-consuming application form, and to file letters of recommendation and other supporting documents. Even if you have the money, there isn't time to apply to every school.

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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 sources, both publications and people. 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 others.

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 all the information gathering to the end of your college years. Unique sources pop up at unexpected times. Each 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 information gathering 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.

You will need some way to keep track of it all. The most organized student I know of bought a special notebook during his freshman year and carried it with him at all times. Whenever he heard something about a law school, he wrote it down. After he outgrew the first notebook, he bought a loose-leaf binder and organized his information by school. To this scrapbook, he added information from publications. Every few months, he spent an evening cross-referencing it. By the time he applied to law school, he had six fat binders full of data. When he graduated, he passed his files on to younger friends. You don't need to be as thoroughly organized-or as compulsive-as this young man. But if you can develop some system to keep track of and share the information you gather, you will find it much easier to choose the right law schools when the time comes.

What follows in this article is a list of various commonly 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.

Buy a city newspaper. It will have more information about local problems, classified ads for apartments and rooms, and ads for supermarkets and restaurants. From it, you can make an assessment of the local cost of living. Saturday newspapers often contain advertisements for local places of worship. Collect whatever student publications you can find. They're not intended for promotional purposes and they often contain candid discussions of campus problems. I once saw a headline in a campus publication that said "BUDGET CUTS THREATEN FACULTY LAYOFFS."

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You will meet with a campus representative who will have a prepared presentation about the school's good points and who should be able to answer your questions. You'll be able to collect information about special programs and features, and you should also ask the rep to discuss any problems you've observed. If you have reservations about the quality of student life, you can also ask to speak to some students. If none are available, ask for the phone numbers of student organizations.

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The representative will provide a tour of the campus. Although the tour will focus on whatever facilities the law school is proudest of, you should keep your eyes open. Sometimes you can spot a crack in the facade, an indication that things aren't as wonderful as they look. I was visiting a law library one day when I heard a student loudly complaining to a librarian that for the third time that semester an article he needed to read had been ripped out of a law journal. Vandalized research material is a classic sign of cutthroat competition among students. Whichever one gets to the material first sabotages the efforts of the others.

Several years ago, when computers were still a novelty, one of my students was visiting a law school that boasted of a microcomputer lab for student use. While her tour guide was rhapsodizing on the value of the new machines, she idly turned on one that was not in use and tinkered with the keyboard. She noticed that it had some sticky keys. When she typed "MAN" it consistently came out "MAAN," or even "MAAAN." She looked over the shoulder of a student who was working. His machine did the same thing. Being well versed in computer technology, she readily diagnosed the problem. Later, she casually mentioned to the recruiter that the computer lab was due for a visit from the maintenance technician, who should come around periodically and lubricate the keyboards with a silicon spray.

The recruiter responded, "What technician?"

If you stay late or return to the campus after dark, you should study the campus's security arrangements. Access to school buildings should be controlled. In big cities, security personnel should be visible. Unless the weather is very bad, there should be some pedestrian life until at least ten or eleven o'clock. Don't be upset if you see only people in groups, or women walking only with escorts (who usually wear orange vests or armbands, or some other identifying insignia). That doesn't mean that crime is rampant; it means that they're sensibly protecting themselves against the unpredictable residuum of crime that exists everywhere. But a campus should not appear totally deserted after dark on a weeknight.

Remember, all these are just impressions. Don't be too quick to write a school off. All cities have some noise, pollution, and crime. All law schools are hectic, busy places and a certain amount of congestion and stress is both normal and desirable. But as you travel from school to school, you can compare one with another.

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