Applying to Law School

Applying to law school can be a considerable expense in and of itself, before you even consider paying for tuition. The total cost can be thousands of dollars depending on how many schools you apply to.

Cost Breakdown*

*Costs are calculated as of July 2025 and are subject to change.

Financial Aid for Applicants

• Determine if you are eligible for a Law School Admission Council (LSAC) fee waiver. If you qualify, this will cover your CAS subscription fee in addition to six CAS score reports, two free LSAT tests, as well as other expenses related to applying to law school. Many law schools will also waive their application fees if you qualify for an LSAC fee waiver.
• Look at each school’s fee waiver criteria. Some schools require you to be a resident of that state or submit documentation (like tax returns or a FAFSA), while others will grant a fee waiver based on a written request of need.
• If you are applying during senior year of college, you can use the Beyond Smith fund through the Smith Student Aid Society for up to $400 that can be applied toward application fees or the LSAT registration fee.

Your score on the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) is a significant factor in your law school acceptances and scholarship offers. It’s important to give yourself ample time to prepare and to have a study plan that respects and accounts for how you learn. You may feel some anxiety when you think about preparing for the LSAT—this section will walk you through some important information and options. You can always schedule an appointment to talk through your plans.

Deciding to Take the LSAT or the GRE

Some law schools that require a standardized test for admission allow applicants to take either the GRE or the LSAT.

Some considerations as you make this decision:

• Not all law schools accept the GRE in lieu of the LSAT. Make sure that all of the schools on your list accept the GRE before opting for that test.
• If you take the LSAT, you have to use that score when you apply; i.e. you cannot use a GRE score in your application if you have already taken the LSAT.
• You can take a free diagnostic test online for both the LSAT and GRE (on their respective websites) to see if you perform significantly higher on one test over the other.

The rest of this content will focus on the LSAT because most students choose to apply to law school with that test.

Timeline

We recommend giving yourself four to six months of intensive study time before you take the exam. 

Plan your study schedule by counting backward from when you will apply to law school. Here is a possible timeline based on studying in the same calendar year you will apply:

• January–June: Intensive study for the LSAT

• June: Take the LSAT

• August: Optional retake date if needed

• October: Apply to law school

Note that your LSAT score is valid for five years after the test date. If you have an optimal time to prepare (for example, a semester with a light course load or a summer when you’re working part-time) you can take it in advance and use that score to apply later.

Advice for Preparing for the LSAT

Start with the free materials on the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) website. First, make an LSAC account, then through LSAC’s LawHub you will have access to four full-length tests with explanations, drill sets, and lessons. Start by taking one of these full-length tests as a diagnostic to establish your baseline. This will help you get a sense of how much time and effort you want to invest over the coming months to improve your score. Then utilize the free practice materials to help you get a sense of areas you need to focus on and what study methods will serve you best.

Review the LSAC’s fee waiver eligibility. If you think you might qualify for a fee waiver, start by applying for this. If you receive one, you will get access to free high-quality study materials in addition to two free LSAT registrations and other benefits.

Studying

There is no one right way to prepare for the LSAT. The key is to have a good sense of what works best for your learning and time management style. Some questions to ask yourself before you begin:

• Do you prefer self-directed learning or having an instructor?
• Do you need external accountability for a study plan?
• What timeframe are you working in?
• How much money can you spend on test preparation?
• How significant of an increase are you hoping to make in your score from your baseline diagnostic test?

Self-directed Study

• Some people prefer self-directed study where you can go at your own pace and focus on the areas you need to strengthen. If this works for you, start with the free resources on the LSAC’s website.
• You can pay for a LawHub Advantage subscription and gain access to many free tests for a year. Timed practice is essential preparation.
• You can buy a book from a test prep company. We have examples of these available for check out from the Lazarus Center’s lending library. This is a great way to try out some different teaching styles from well-known test prep companies and see what works best for you. All of the books have online content, so you’ll be able to practice with timed tests in addition to the untimed study materials from the book.

Asynchronous Library of Study Materials

These libraries can take the form of both written and recorded content and allow you to follow a set course or to jump around based on topic. Typically you pay a monthly fee for these companies, so students studying on a shorter timeline may find this is the most cost-effective way to access high-quality content. We’ve had former applicants recommend 7Sage and LSAT Demon, though there are many credible options out there. Make sure that the one you choose is on the LSAC’s list of licensed providers.

Live Course Via Zoom

A live course is usually a more expensive option than asynchronous resources. However, it may be worth it. A live course can hold you accountable by providing you with a schedule of classes and assignments. It also includes a live instructor explaining the material and being available for questions.

The Princeton Review offers Smith students and graduates substantial discounts on two of their LSAT courses and a GRE course. Find more information and instructions for signing up for those courses.

One-on-One Tutor

This can be the most expensive option for hourly cost, but if you’ve identified a few key areas you are struggling with and want to work with a seasoned professional on addressing those, this can be very helpful.

Financial Assistance for Preparing for the LSAT

If you want to enroll in an LSAT prep course but the cost would be a financial hardship, the Lazarus Center offers up to $700 in reimbursement for LSAT prep courses or study materials. You must be a current student or an alum within five years of graduation to be eligible, and before applying, please check if you qualify for the LSAC fee waiver (our application will ask if you’ve checked).

Requesting Accommodations

Candidates can request accommodations for the LSAT. Read more about requesting accommodations on the LSAC’s website. Be sure to start the process well in advance.

Rather than focusing on law school rankings, focus on the criteria that matter to you. We highly recommend the Law School Admission Council’s Law School Transparency search tool to research schools by the criteria that are most important to you. Once you’ve identified a school of interest, go to that law school’s individual website for more information.

Criteria to Consider

Location

The majority of law school graduates begin working in the same state they went to law school. Law schools have strong local networks of graduates, law firms, and other organizations they are connected with. Think about where you might want to live not just for law school, but for some amount of time after. 

Cost, Debt, Financial Aid

Some law schools offer merit-based aid, some offer need-based aid, and others a combination of the two. The amount of debt that you have when you graduate law school has a significant impact on your next choices.

Specializations

If you have an area of law that particularly interests you, look for law schools that offer resources in this area: such as concentrations, certificates, law journals, clinics, externships, research opportunities.

Faculty

Read about the faculty, what they teach, and their areas of expertise.

Student Body

Note the size of the first-year class, diversity along many axes of identity, and active student organizations.

Bar Passage Rate

This can be a reflection of how well a school prepares students to take the bar exam in terms of academic support, curriculum, and resources for bar prep. 

Job Placement Rate, Types of Employment After Graduation, Salaries

Note whether graduates are working in state or nationally, the types of jobs they’re receiving, and the average starting salaries.

Admission Rate

Note how selective the school is (i.e. what percentage of students are admitted) and compare your LSAT and GPA numbers to their averages as you’re putting together a list of schools to apply to.

Law schools vary in the number of letters of recommendation they require. Most require two and allow up to four or five. Your recommenders should be able to write convincingly and supportively of you in their letters. They should know you and your work well and be able to write specifically about your strengths. 

Most law schools prefer letters of recommendation to come from faculty members who have taught you. They use these letters to gain a sense of you as a student: your academic work, your reasoning, your analysis, your writing, your oral communication, as well as a sense of your character and how you interacted with others in the class.

Deciding whom to ask can be difficult. Here are some factors to consider:

• How well the person knows you and your work
• In what capacity they know you (professor, adviser, supervisor, etc.)
• How your letter writers will complement each other

Some law school applicants choose to have two letters of recommendation written by faculty members and then an additional letter written by a supervisor from a job or internship. If you’ve been out of college for a number of years, you may feel that professional letters of recommendation are more relevant than academic letters. If you’re feeling conflicted about whom to ask, this is something you are welcome to discuss with our pre-law adviser. 

How to Ask

Schedule an appointment with potential recommenders to make your request. Meet in person if possible. If not, try via Zoom or an email. Give your recommenders at least six to eight weeks to write and submit their letters. Let your recommender know why you are asking them specifically. You may wish to remind them of research you did for their class, what you learned, and specific feedback they had for you. You may also want to discuss your coursework, interests, experiences, and motivation for applying to law school. If someone declines, they are letting you know they are unable to write you a strong letter, and you are better off asking another potential recommender. 

Not Applying Right Away

If you know you’re interested in applying to law school but plan to take some time off between college and law school, connect with faculty members that you plan to ask for letters of recommendation before you graduate. Let them know about your future plans for law school and that you hope they will write you a letter of recommendation. Faculty can write a letter in advance and upload it to the Law School Admission Council’s Credential Assembly Service (CAS) if they choose, though most will prefer to wait until you are actually applying before they write the letter. In the meantime, you should keep in touch periodically with that faculty member. These check-ins and updates on your life will make it easier for you to reach out when you are ready to apply.

CAS

CAS organizes your letters of recommendation. This makes life easier for your professors and for you. Your recommenders will upload their letters to CAS and then you will be able to send those letters to individual law schools when you apply. Instructions for using CAS. You’ll be able to see in CAS when your recommenders upload their letter. 

Following Up

Ask your recommender what materials they need from you. Most would like a copy of your resume and personal statement. They may also wish to see papers or projects you completed for their class.

Follow up politely with your recommenders to ensure timely completion of letters prior to the deadlines. Sometimes requests get forgotten and it is your responsibility to follow up.

Send your recommenders a thank you note after they submit your letter. After you learn the outcome of your application, be sure to update them. Even if you don’t have the news you hope to share, it’s a good idea to let them know what happened — they care about you and want to know your plans and you may also request another letter of recommendation from them in the future.

Should You Waive Your Right to View Your Letters of Recommendation?

Due to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), you are entitled to access your academic record, including letters of recommendation. This means you must actively waive your right to read your letters in order for them to be considered confidential. We advise you to waive this right, as schools do not give equal weight and consideration to a letter of recommendation if the applicant has retained their right to read it.

You will need to write a personal statement as part of your law school application. Most applicants start with one personal statement that they can adapt for each school. Most law school personal statements are two pages double spaced, but length limits can vary. Some schools may have specific prompts for their personal statement, in which case you may need to write a different essay or more heavily adapt your standard one. Law school admissions officials pay careful attention to whether you have addressed their specific questions and followed their length and submission guidelines, so be sure to follow each school’s instructions. 

What to Write About

Your personal statement is a chance to tell law school admissions a story about yourself: who you are, what you care about, why law is the right path for you. There is no one story they are looking for and no one right thing to write about. It can help to recognize that a two-page essay is by definition just a partial story – you’ll never capture your full three-dimensional human self and your lived experiences in such a short document. This can free you up to ask yourself: What is the story that I want to tell about myself to help law schools know me better? Usually the key is choosing one story that you can expand on and write about with depth and nuance, rather than trying to cover too much ground in one essay.

Remember too that your personal statement will work in conjunction with the other supplemental essays that you submit as part of your application. All of the essays will work in concert to share a fuller picture of you and you should take advantage of the opportunity to share different aspects of yourself in your different essays. 

Applicants often ask: What are law school admissions looking for? They want to know who you are and what your perspective is. How, out of all the things you could do and all the ways you could have an impact, did you choose this path? 

Sometimes an experience of hardship or adversity is a significant part of what motivates someone to pursue a career in the legal field. If this is true for you, you may choose to write about a difficult, painful, or even traumatic experience. If you do, keep in mind that sometimes traumatic experiences tell a reader more about what has happened to you rather than who you are. If you are writing about a traumatic experience, make sure to include not just what happened to you, but how this shaped you, and how it connects to your motivation to become an attorney. Know too that you are under no obligation to share traumatic experiences, nor is that something that law school admissions are necessarily looking for in statements. 

Getting Started

• Try free writing. Set a timer for 20 minutes and write without stopping or editing and see what you come up with.
• Make a list of pivotal experiences in your life. Choose one and free write about it.
• Why is a career in law the right path for you? Though this may feel like an abstract prompt, try to articulate your motivation for this choice. (More than one applicant, upon answering this question, has realized that they don’t actually want to go into law – and you ideally want to figure this out before you apply!)
• Think of a challenge you’ve experienced and what you learned from it
• Think of an accomplishment you’re really proud of
• Think of a way that you’ve changed from who you used to be
• Write about one of your most important values and why

Often applicants will try five or more different versions of their personal statement as they figure out what story they want to tell. You can’t plan it all ahead of time and you can’t truly know the effect of your essay until you write it. Sometimes the process of writing one draft will trigger you to realize the story that you really want to tell. The extra versions you write may come in handy for content for some of your supplemental essays as well. Start early in the application process so you have time to try different versions, reflect, seek feedback, and revise.

Writing Style

In addition to content, admissions committees are reading your personal statement as an example of your writing. Opt for a clear, direct style. Remember that admissions committees are reading hundreds of personal statements. You want to make sure that your writing is clear and easy to follow. You don’t need to write in a high academic style. Law schools are looking for you to connect the dots between your experiences and your motivation for law school. Don’t leave anything important implied or up to the reader to make the connection. It’s your job to explain the significance of any experience you are highlighting.

Getting Feedback

Make a pre-law advising appointment to get feedback on a draft of your personal statement. Please email it a few days in advance of your appointment. It’s fine to share a rough draft or a couple versions you’re considering.

In addition to a personal statement, most schools will offer the opportunity for you to write additional essays. Follow the prompts carefully for each essay and make sure that you address the questions that they ask. The various essays in your application should be complementary, each adding a different dimension to your full application. Each essay should have original content; you should not retell the same story or repeat the same information in multiple essays. Most students end up using a similar personal statement for all of their school applications, but depending on the supplemental essays that a school gives you the opportunity to write, you may end up having different versions of your personal statement or moving content around to a different essay. 

“Optional” Essays

Sometimes these essays may be labeled optional. We recommend you take advantage of the opportunity to share an additional aspect of your experience, motivation, or background. Admissions will likely conclude that you are not that interested in their school if you don’t take the time to write these additional essays. The exceptions are the character and fitness essays and application addenda that are truly optional and you only need to write if necessary.

“Why Our School” Essays

Often a law school will offer you the opportunity to write a short essay on why you are interested in their school in particular. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to demonstrate your sincere interest in that school. This is your chance to demonstrate that you have done your research, that the school is a good fit for you and you for them, and if accepted, you are likely to attend. Research their clinics, law journals, externships, faculty, student organizations, etc. A good rule of thumb: If the reasons you’re listing are general enough that you could substitute the name of the school with a different school, you haven’t been specific enough. Schools are not looking for empty flattery in these essays – they want to know why you, given your particular interests, are interested in their school. In that vein, you shouldn’t tell multiple schools that they are your first choice.

As part of your application to law school, you will need to complete a character and fitness statement for each school. Pay careful attention to each school’s prompts: they may ask for different information from you.

If you’re not sure whether something merits being shared, err on the side of caution: When in doubt, disclose. 

This statement is where you need to disclose criminal infractions, integrity board infractions, or any misconduct on your part. What you don’t want to have happen is for something to surface during the bar exam that you didn’t disclose at the time of your application.

If you have a past infraction, give a short summary of the important relevant facts, take ownership, and share your approach moving forward (how you’ve made amends, learned from the situation, etc.). The statement should be brief and to the point. Anything that sounds like an excuse can land the wrong way with admissions, so aim for a straightforward tone where you take responsibility and show how you’ve grown. 

Feel free to make an appointment to discuss any concerns about your character and fitness statement and for feedback on a draft. 

Most law school applications will give you the opportunity to share any additional information you want them to be aware of that you didn’t have a chance to share elsewhere in the application. Be judicious about what you include in this section. You should be concise.

Things to Include

• If you took a leave of absence during college, provide some context on this decision
• If you had a significant personal, familial, health, or other challenge that impacted your grades or otherwise had an effect on your studies that you want them to be aware of
• If you had an LSAT score increase of more than five points

Be Wary of Including

• Something that sounds like you are blaming someone else for a low grade. Even if it’s true, this approach may end up negatively impacting your application.
• Another personal statement. This addendum should not be more than a short paragraph or two. 

There are a few key differences between the resume you will use for applying to law school and the one you may have written for job or internship applications. 

Length

For recent college graduates applying for jobs and internships, you should have a one-page resume. For law school you can have two pages if you feel that you have sufficient content to fill them. It’s also fine to only use a single page.

Weekly Commitment

Include the hours per week for your commitments. Law schools want to know how you allocated your time during college. They take seriously the demands placed on students who had to work throughout college. Include work study or other jobs, even if you feel like they’re not relevant to law school. 

The Law School Admission Council’s Credential Assembly Service (CAS) is similar to the Common App for applying to college. You’ll use CAS to organize your application materials for applying to law school. When you’re ready to apply, pay for a CAS subscription and follow the instructions for uploading the necessary materials.

Smith has instructions for requesting a transcript to be sent to the Credential Assembly Service (CAS).

If you’re applying during your senior year, send your transcript to CAS the summer before senior year begins so it can be processed on time. You’ll send an updated transcript after your fall semester grades post.

Carefully read the Law School Admission Council’s instructions for additional institutions you may need to send transcripts from, including information on study abroad.