Finding the Right Law School

With more than 200 law schools in the United States, narrowing down the field can be a daunting prospect. The school that you ultimately choose to attend can impact everything from your lifestyle for the next few years to your ability to achieve your professional goals throughout your career. With these and many other factors at stake, how can you make a well-informed decision?

Explore Your Professional Goals

Generally, law schools offer the same classes to first-year law students. During this critical year, many law students refine their interest in law to a specific niche. As you prepare to apply to law schools today, you may have a vague idea about the type of law that you want to practice. Perhaps you have no idea. Each school offers its own mix of electives, academic support programs, clubs and more, so some schools are a much better fit for specific niches. Consider the benefits of choosing a school with a wonderful range of opportunities for you to explore and to suit your interests once you find your specialty.

Think About the Bar Exam

The academic courses, clubs and other opportunities at your law school will impact your professional opportunities and the course of your career. However, your first hurdle will be to pass the bar exam. The bar exam is not specialized in any niche area. Because of this, your law school should provide you with a firm foundation that supports your success with the bar exam. The best school will prepare you well for the bar exam as well as for the specialty that you decide to focus on.

Focus on Your Learning Preferences

By the time you finish your first four years in college, you have a very clear idea about the type of learning environment that you thrive in. Do you want to go to a large school where you will actively compete for opportunities and for attention from professors? Do you thrive in small environments where you can get to know your classmates and professors? Do you prefer seminar-style classes, classes that encourage small group activities or another style of class? You can gather basic details about the learning environment that a school provides by reviewing class size stats and other details online. However, you should visit the schools that you are interested in during a typical school day so that you can look in classrooms, speak with current students and make other observations.

Search for a Comfortable Environment

To thrive in law school, you must feel comfortable in the environment. However, the environment extends beyond the size of the campus. Everything from school pride and activities to the size of the community that the schools is in must be taken into account. Weather conditions, the opportunity to establish professional connections while in law school and even housing options should be reviewed closely. It is often helpful to focus on schools in states that you want to practice law in because many law students utilize connections established in law school to launch their careers.

Dive Deep When Analyzing Rankings

If you are like many other aspiring law students, you have been researching school stats for a while. It is important to know stats like the average LSAT score and GPA of accepted applicants as well as the acceptance rate. If you have a reasonable idea of the niche that you want to pursue or if you have narrowed down the possibilities to a few specialties, dive deep into stats for those specialties. Examine bar passage rates for the school overall, and look deeper at the rates for specific specialties.

Review Finances

Commonly, prospective law school students weigh the cost of tuition against their ability to pay that tuition directly or with student loans. Before you analyze the cost of tuition, review the cost of living in that area. With more than 200 schools, you can expect to find a significant differential in the cost of living between the options. The cost of living may affect the amount of student loan debt that you take on as well as how comfortable your lifestyle is while you are law school. You may easily write off schools in areas that are exorbitantly expensive and far outside of your comfort zone. However, keep in mind that you may qualify for aid and obtain scholarships. Keep schools that may otherwise be a wonderful fit for you on the table. After you apply and explore your aid package in detail, you can finalize your decision.

Weigh the Return on Investment

Law school is an investment, and not all schools are equal in terms of the impact that they can have on your career. Depending on the type of law that you want to practice and where you want to settle down in, it could be more cost-effective to choose a more affordable school. If you have significant professional goals with a competitive path, your degree may produce a better return on investment from a prestigious school that offers ample enrichment opportunities or that is well-suited for your specialization.

Focus on Reputation

One of the more common questions that you may be asked throughout your career is where you went to law school. This question will come from colleagues as well as clients. Some prospective employees may eliminate some applicants from consideration based on where they went to school regardless of anything else printed on the resume. The reality is that reputation does matter in this field, but it is not the only factor to consider. Reputation should be weighed against many other relevant factors.

Use All Resources

Forming a well-rounded picture of what a law school provides requires you to maximize the benefits of all resources available to you. These resources extend beyond stats, law school websites and on-site tours. For example, you can connect with alumni to learn about their experiences and recommendations. For the best insight, talk to alumni who have recently graduated. Your undergraduate school advisors and professors can be excellent resources. You can also gather more in-depth research through various independent websites and forums. Each resource that you rely on can transform your overall opinion of a specific school, so tap into all resources available to form a well-rounded opinion.

Apply to Schools Strategically

As the time to apply to several law schools approaches, the number of schools that you apply to may understandably be limited by time, energy and money. Some applicants will apply to two dozen schools or more. However, if you need to conserve your resources, a good rule of thumb is to apply to 10 or 12 schools. This should be broken up fairly evenly by schools that you feel confident that you can get into, schools that are a comfortable fit for you and schools that may be hopeful wishes.

With so many factors to consider and resources to tap into, where should you start? A smart initial step is to narrow down potential schools to the states where you may be interested in practicing law. If your GPA is not at the highest echelon, you may further narrow down the schools that are outside of your reach from a qualification standpoint. Your next steps should be to get familiar with the schools in your preferred states and to define what you are looking for in a school. Through these initial steps, you will be in a better position to compare all other relevant factors and to choose your top law schools.