Graduate admissions / Law school admissions / School list and strategy
Law School List and Application Strategy
Help building a school list around your GPA, LSAT score, goals, and budget, and planning the order and timing of your J.D. applications.
Start with your numbers
Law schools publish the GPA and LSAT ranges of their admitted classes. Those ranges are the starting point for a school list. Where your numbers fall relative to a school’s ranges, together with the rest of your application, shows whether a school is a stretch, a reasonable target, or a likely admit.
Build a balanced list
A useful list includes schools across that range. Beyond admission odds, the list should reflect:
Where you want to practice, since regional ties often matter
The programs, clinics, and areas of law you care about
What each school costs and the scholarships it tends to offer
Your own timeline and how many applications you can complete well
Think about cost early
Many law schools award merit scholarships, and offers vary widely between schools. Applicants whose numbers are above a school’s typical range are often better positioned for scholarship offers there. It helps to plan for this before you apply, because the list you build determines the offers you can compare later. We cover what happens after decisions arrive in our guide to waitlists and scholarships.
Timing matters
Most law schools review applications on a rolling basis. Submitting a complete application earlier in the cycle is generally better, but not at the cost of a rushed essay. We help you decide where that trade-off falls for your file. Our application timeline lays out the full cycle.
The LSAT and retakes
If your LSAT score is below the range of the schools you want, a retake may be worth considering. The decision depends on your practice scores, your calendar, and how much time you have before your applications are due. We help you weigh it, and our LSAT tutoring is available if you decide to retake.
How we work with you on it
We review your GPA, LSAT score, experience, and goals, then propose a school list and an application plan. We revisit the list as your score, essays, and timeline develop, so the plan reflects the current state of your application.
LAW SCHOOL ADMISSIONS
School list and strategy
What to Expect
In a free consultation, we review your background, GPA and LSAT, and school list. Strategy work then follows three steps.
Profile Review
We review your GPA, LSAT score, experience, and goals, and discuss where you want to practice and what you can afford.
School List
We build a list of reach, target, and likely schools and revisit it as your LSAT score and essays develop.
Application Plan
We set an order and timeline for your applications, including recommenders, essays, and submission dates.
LAW ADMISSIONS ADVISOR
Law applicants work directly with Robert Farbman, an incoming 1L at Harvard Law School and a graduate of Cornell University, where he earned a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations.
Robert has worked on successful applications to Harvard, NYU, Cornell, Northwestern, Georgetown, Duke and UC Berkeley. He scored in the 99th percentile on the LSAT and recently went through the law school application process himself.
He has years of experience teaching students, guiding writers as an undergraduate law review editor, and mentoring incoming transfers to Cornell. His internships at Cornell spanned legal research abroad, corporate financial compliance, and federal agency work.
