July 3 -- "Please be Patient"

With the Law Schools

Many of you are on Wait Lists. Many of you have received mail in the last week saying, "We're thinking of pulling a few people, but we're not sure how many or when." Ugly words, I know. But the schools aren't saying them to make your life miserable; they're trying to reassure you that there may yet be a spot for you, if you're superhuman enough to hold your breath for four more weeks.

Most schools were overenrolled a bit as of June 19 (the DC Forum) but not so much that they could discharge their wait list. Action in tiny increments (like 2 or 3 people) is still a possibility. So if you have the financial and psychological means to wait until August 1, a seat may open up.

With the Transfer Process

So many law schools receive all their 1L data from law schools that those of you who are transferring as 2Ls don't realize how much longer it takes to get data. Your transcripts and recs don't come from LSAC; they come from your law school. Your law school may dawdle a bit; after all, if you're good enough to transfer to Princeton, your school may be reluctant to see you go.

Moreover, transfer apps are a waiting game of their own. Many schools admit transfers in sufficient quantity to fill emptied seats. So until Princeton accepts you, they don't know that they have a seat to give someone else.

With Me

On June 22, in "The Ball Stops Rolling," I mentioned that I'd crunch some numbers for you, to show the effects on the LSAT curve of taking 3 scores instead of 5. I tried simulating a tiny applicant pool of 100. I got garbage; I could tell that my results were way off.

My only recourse was to generate a humongous, accurate model -- the one indicated by LSAC repeater data published here. (If the link isn't direct, click on "Data" and look for LSAT repeater data at the bottom of the list.) That meant I had to generate -- by hand and brain -- 43,000 LSAT repeaters FIVE TIMES!

• I settled for a 10% model. That means I only have to generate 43 hundred people five times.
• Each time I have to extrapolate the new score distribution, based on the original data.
• I also have to factor in the increase in top-end repeaters.
  • Note that LSAC's data is for the 2007-8 applicant pool.
  • As more schools announced that they were accepting the higher LSAT rather than the average, the number of top-end repeaters was likely to increase.

Overenrolled?

I had also promised some overenrollment data here. It turns out that I can't give numbers, since too few schools would commit to them, but I can give tentative reasons:

• Many schools had higher-than-ever yield rates. My guess is that there are two "let's stay in school" groups:
  • the traditional "I applied for jobs and schools, I didn't get a job, so school wins" group; and the
  • "I've been working for three years, just got laid off, and need an income; a student loan will do" group.
• I learned at the NAPLA Conference in June that for the last three years, LSAC has continued to report averaged LSAT scores on their web page and in the published ABA-LSAC handbook.
  • This has caused many applicants to apply slightly too high, resulting in those humongous wait lists;
  • It has also caused admissions officers to admit too many people, since they think there are fewer top LSAT scores than there actually are.

The result? "Please be Patient."

Law School Preparation

While many of you don't have the seat you want, you do have a seat somewhere, and you should begin preparing to have a brain fill that seat instead of a body.

What Can you Do?

Don't Buy a Computer!

Many schools will include the cost of a new computer into your student loan if you buy it after you're admitted to their school. If you're hoping to be admitted off a wait list, check the waitlist school's computer policy.

And especially, don't buy a Mac.

Many schools allow you to use your laptop for exams by installing Exam Soft, a program that locks out your hard drive, opens your exam, and emails the encrypted answer to the registrar. Several students have told me that Exam Soft crashed their Mac mid-exam, causing them to lose valuable exam time and more valuable calmness. So if there's a new computer in your plans, I suggest that an IBM/Microsoft type is better then a Mac type.

Read. We have three great lists for you:

One is of books every law school student should read at least some of (updated in 2008);

The second is of Wiki Links to famous people and events in as many areas as I could imagine; (prepared in 2008 and updated a bit in 2010);

The third is of You Tube recordings of noteworthy moments in the last 100 years or so, prepared in 2010 by my client Kevin.  

Take my Intro to Law School Class

Knowledge is important. So is practice. To be great at any skill, you need both. That's why I offer the Intro to Law School class.

• You learn how to brief, synthesize and outline cases (as you probably do in many books and commercial courses).
• You learn enough law in one subject area (criminal law) to actually practice writing exams, instead of having to settle for being told how to write them.
• You learn the important things professors forget to mention; the relationship of state and federal courts, the impact of social trends on law, the difference in interpreting common law and statutes.

Class runs from July 23rd through August 1; the schedule is linked above. I still have two seats I'd like to fill.

Okay; you go plan your future, and I'll go crunch numbers.

See you in two weeks!