Advice to Students Interested In Pre-Law



Law as a Profession
The profession of law requires a broad understanding of human history, the ability to think clearly and organize thoughts, and an appreciation of values and responsibility. This is the kind of education that Davidson, a liberal arts college, has provided for more than 150 years. Almost all students who maintain a "B" average at Davidson find a place at a suitable law school. About 10% of Davidson graduates wind up working in the legal field after they finish law school.

The choice of law as a career should be made in the context of general career planning. In other words, the first step is to determine whether a career in law is right for you. Career Services at Davidson helps students determine their interests and skills, and provides opportunities for them to gain experience in a legal setting.

The Careers Office sponsors visits from law school admissions offices throughout the fall, including a Law School Fair on the first Tuesday in November. They will also help arrange an internship in a law office so that students can spend a day or a week finding out what the practice of law can entail. Opportunities for summer jobs are also on file in this office.

Academic advisors also help students design course schedules and plan for their careers. Furthermore, Davidson’s small size allows students and professors to develop strong relationships, thus enabling faculty members to write well-informed letters of recommendation to law schools on their students’ behalf.

Two members of the Davidson faculty serve a special role as part of the Pre-Law advising team. They serve as Pre-Law advisors, providing guidance about law school admissions and helping students decide which school is right for them. These faculty also offer advice on drafting the personal statements most law schools require.

The LSAT plays a vital part in admission to law school and is administered twice a year on the Davidson campus. LSAT preparation courses are also held on campus each semester. We urge students to take the test during the summer between their junior and senior years.

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Advice to Seniors Planning to Take Some Time Off Before Law School

General Information:

After graduating from Davidson, should you take time off or should you go directly to law school? If you need help making up your mind, consider discussing your situation with one of our Pre-Law Advisers.

If you do take time off, try to find something to do that interests you. This may mean working in a law firm. It may also mean something other than working in a law firm. If you really want to find out if law is for you, a short legal internship of some sort might be appropriate. Above all, you should be able to incorporate the maturity and experience you will gain while being away into the personal statement that you will write for a law school application.

Taking time off is not likely to have a significant effect one way or another on your ability to get admitted to a law school. However, the longer you're out of college, and the more you do after graduating, the less important your college experience will be relative to other more recent experiences. But there are limits to this. Your GPA might become slightly less important, but it remains one of the most important aspects of your application file. Remember, academic recommendations still carry more weight than non-academic recommendations.

Recommendations:

Before graduation, seniors who are planning to take time off before applying to law school should at least talk with potential faculty recommenders to explain their plans and to ask if they are willing to write recommendation letters. If they are willing to write letters for you now and keep them in reserve until you apply, terrific. (Even if you do this, when you actually end up applying, you might inform your recommenders of what you've been up to recently; they might wish to alter their letters to reflect your recent accomplishments.)

You might find, however, that some recommenders would prefer to wait until you actually apply before drafting their letters. That's fine, too. In any event, it's still advantageous to talk with them now. Leave them a copy of your resume as it looks now. Keep in touch with them while you are out. An email a year just to remind them of where you are would be fine. At the time you apply for law school, send them a new resume, and remind them of what you did during those years while you were gone. You can also send supporting information (transcript, papers written in their classes, resume, draft of your law school application's "statement of purpose," etc.) to jump-start their memories of you.

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Senior Timeline for Law School Application

August-September

  • Get a check list form for the Senior year.
  • If you have not yet taken the LSAT, register for the October test. See http://www.lsac.org for more details.
  • Decide how you will prepare for the LSAT. Deadline for the on-campus prep course from Cambridge is in August. Contact Career Services for more details.
  • Sign up for the LSDAS. Forms are available both in the registration bulletin and on-line at http://www.lsac.org. Unless you want to wait until fall semester grades come out, take this opportunity to give a Transcript Request Form to the Registrar, asking them to send a copy of your transcript to LSDAS. Forms available in the registration bulletin and on-line.
  • Send postcards or e-mails to all of your prospective law schools requesting application materials (including, if necessary, financial aid forms). As soon as you have your LSAT scores back, develop a list that ranges from "safeties" to "fantasies." Be warned that turn around time here may be as much as a month merely to get the applications.
  • Check with Career Services to arrange interviews with visiting law school recruiters.
  • Consider attending a Law School Forum. For information on cities and dates, go to the LSAC's Forums page.
  • Make an appointment with Dr. Thornberry or Career Services to view the statistical data on law school acceptances for Davidson students.

    October-November

  • After receiving your law school application forms, write your personal statement. For feedback, submit a rough draft to Dr. Thornberry or Dr. Wertheimer by mid-October.
  • Think about making campus visits (see Career Services for Davidson contacts at various schools).
  • Decide which professors you will ask for recommendation forms. Prepare a resume to take to them. Also, provide pre-addressed, stamped envelopes to prospective recommenders addressed to LSDAS or to the law schools, not to you. If you cannot give recommenders all necessary materials at once, warn them that more will be coming. Also, provide relevant information about yourself so that recommenders can write well-informed letters.
  • Adjust application choices as appropriate once the October LSAT scores are reported.
  • Try to get your applications in by Thanksgiving (earlier if there is an early admission deadline). Always make a photocopy of your applications for your records.

    December

  • If you are applying for financial aid, complete a FAFSA form, keeping a photocopy for your records. The form is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, a free need-analysis tool developed by the U.S. Department of Education. It can be found on the web at www.fafsa.ed.gov.

    January-February

  • Monitor your admissions files to assure they are complete. Re-submit all missing items.

    March-May

  • When you commit to a school, send a deposit to secure your place there and notify all other schools of your decision.
  • Stay in touch with schools that have "wait listed" you if you remain interested. If there is one particular school to which you would definitely commit if admitted, let them know. (Obviously, do this with a maximum of one school and only if you really mean it.)
  • Send a final transcript (showing graduation date) to your chosen school as soon as the Registrar’s Office has one available.

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    Advice to Pre-Law Students

    General Advice

  • Pick a major you love
  • Keep up your GPA
  • Keep reading and writing
  • Join the Pre-Law Society
  • Talk with lawyers about their work
  • Get to know several professors well
  • Plan when you will take the LSAT

    First Year Students

    1. Almost any combination of Davidson courses will be a good preparation for law school. Fulfill your core requirements and try to become fluent in a second language. Decide what you enjoy doing and what you do well.
    2. Read as much as you can. Good fiction, newspapers, and specialized journals all help. Try to notice the rhythm of the prose. Read out loud. The Bible is an excellent source of beautiful language and allusions that crop up frequently in law.
    3. Attend plays and concerts. An appreciation of music, art, and poetry will enrich your life and help make you an interesting person. Participate in any extra-curricular activities that appeal to you, but remember that law schools rank them far down the list of what they consider.
    4. Develop good study habits. Keep up your GPA. There is no other single factor which will be as important in deciding which law school will accept you.
    5. Don’t be afraid to get tutoring early. Ask questions in class. See your professors often whether or not you find their class especially difficult. Take advantage of their office hours.
    6. Attend meetings and functions of the Pre-Law Society. Especially valuable will be the panel of young lawyers that comes to campus each year to present information about the various types of legal practice.
    7. Consider finding a summer job that is related to the legal field. Having experience in a law office will probably not help you get into law school, but it may convince you that law is (or is not) the career for you.
    8. Try to develop personal relationships with faculty members whose interests are similar to yours.
    9. Join the Pre-Law Society to learn more about law school admissions, legal education, and the legal profession.

    Sophomores

    1. Continue doing everything mentioned above. Finish your core requirements.
    2. Choose a major that will be fun and interesting for you. Law schools want variety and they are as eager to have some biologists and music majors as English or Political Science majors.
    3. Start getting to know a few professors well. Pick at least one person in your major who might be willing to work with you. It should be someone from whom you are likely to take at least two courses.
    4. Think about including at least one economics course in your course of study. Accounting and logic may be other good courses. Anything that keeps you reading and writing will be of great help. Collect titles of books you want to read but don’t have time for during the school year. Read them during breaks or over the summer.
    5. Do something interesting with your summer. Internships are fine, but not the only possibility. Work in a new city. Travel abroad.
    6. If you get the chance, talk with lawyers and others about the nature of legal education and the legal profession.
    7. Talk with members of the faculty Pre-Law Committee or the Career Services staff about your future goals.

    Juniors

    1. Consider at least a semester abroad. Law schools are more than eager to have students who have seen the world beyond our borders. Get a genuine fluency in a foreign language.
    2. Pick an area of the world of special interest to you. Read newspapers, follow the politics there, and think how the future of that area will relate to the future of the United States.
    3. Plan your major courses for the next two years. Leave room for electives that will emphasize reasoning, communication, and writing skills. A double major is not necessarily more impressive than a single major with a wide range of courses across several fields.
    4. Consider signing up for informational interviews with law school representatives who visit campus. Call Career Services for times and dates.
    5. Study materials put out by the LSAT and LSDAS. Pick up an information and registration form. Think about how you want to prepare for the LSAT.
    6. Take the LSAT test in June of this year, if possible. If you plan to take an LSAT preparation course, sign up well in advance. If you are going to study on your own, carefully plan an extensive study regimen and stick to it. Plan to take the test only once.
    7. Remember that this is the last set of grades that you will have to show law schools if you plan on applying early decision anywhere.

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