Sample Applicant Profile --
"Descriptive," or Nonexistent

Some schools simply stonewall; they tell you nothing at all about their applicant pool; what is worse, IMHO, is that they try to pretend it's for your benefit.

What can you do in a situation like this one? Two meaningful things:

1. Look at older editions of the Official Guide. You can buy anything on the internet, and buy it cheaply. For instance, American University has no grid in the 2009 edition, nor the 2008; I can't find my 2007 copy (but I think I can name which client walked off with it and never returned it). But in 2006, they published a grid-- and I have it!

Is there any point to looking at old data? In this situation, YES.

  • It's better than no data at all;
  • The applicant pool has been fairly constant for the last several years; and
  • You'll at least see the "we go no lower" line -- the point beyond which all applicants were rejected.

2. You can look at your school's Action Reports. Law Services provides to each college a list of every applicant, organized by applicant, by school applied to, or both. Your college pre-law advisor has access to this valuable data, which can fill in a lot of holes when a school chooses not to publish. So you may not be able to see every applicant to American University, but you can see the data for every applicant from your school who authorized release of data.

What you shouldn't do is wander off to chat groups. People lie shamelessly there -- isn't that their purpose? "Anonymous" is the antithesis of "reliable" in most situations.

First Sample of "We Don't Believe a Grid is Helpful"

Notice that this description doesn't even give you any sense of how many people applied or how many were admitted. Fortunately, the ABA Median Section will give you that info.

Some schools say the same thing, but try to make it sound a bit cozier, like this one:

Second Sample of "We Don't Believe a Grid is Helpful"

And some schools know that no amount of meaningless verbiage substitutes for knowledge. They don't try to hoodwink you; instead, they simply say: Third Sample of "We Don't Believe a Grid is Helpful"

Not every school chooses to play "Hide the Ball;" fortunately for applicants and prelaw advisors. The Law School Description portion of the book is voluntary (unlike the ABA portion, which is mandated by you-know-who.) A school might choose to display a Numerical or Bar Graph profile instead. In addition, someone at each college should have access to the schools LSAC Action Reports.

 

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