5 Steps for Choosing the Right Law School
/Choosing a law school is hard. There are so many factors to consider and each school offers a different experience depending on its academics, its location, its size, and more! Here are the steps I used to figure out what law school to attend.
Remember, everyone has different priorities so that most important thing to do is to think about what factors are most important to YOU. Some future law students favor rank over cost and others pick schools just based on location — it really depends on what you are looking to get out of your law school experience.
Before I went to law school, I asked multiple attorneys what the most important thing to consider is and I got mostly the same answer every time. Most of these attorneys recommended that I think about location & cost as the most important factors (even over ranking!).
1. Think about where you want to be✨
Location is one of the most important factors of choosing a school — wherever you go to law school is where you will be networking and where your career office has the most connections. While you don’t have to wind up living in the place where you go to school, it’s helpful to think about where you are going to take the bar exam after school.
2. Evaluate the costs✨
Law school is extremely expensive so you it’s essential to know ALL of the costs before going in so you can be prepared and choose the best school for your finances. Although a lot of people push rank over cost, going to a school that gives you a scholarship will give you more flexibility down the road.
3. Know the rankings & metrics✨
Ranking isn’t everything but you still want to weigh ranking in your review of accepted schools. Some other metrics that might not think of all the school’s bar passage rate and salary data from students who graduated. If you search the law school and “salary data” online, you can likely find reports released by the school with the average salaries of recent graduates.
4. Talk to alumni & current students✨
If you want to get a feel for what the school is like, connect with current students and alumni to learn more information that you might not find during an admissions tour or information session.
5. Research the academic offerings & faculty✨
Different schools offer different programs such as clinics or concentrations that you might be interested in. Research what classes they offer, whether they have clinics, possible externship opportunities, what services their career office has, and who the professors are.
Choosing a law school is not one-size-fits-all but hopefully these 5 steps will help you gain clarity as to what you should be looking for in a law school!
While there is not much you can do to prepare for law school, a great thing to do during the summer before your 1L year of law school is to read a few books about the law school experience. Check out these 6 book recommendations for incoming law students!