It is law school application reason again…somehow.
The eager 0Ls are back and I have that same conversation over, and over again.
The eager 0Ls are back and I have that same conversation over, and over again.
Update 12/30/2016 – A lot has changed since this post was originally published in 2010 – The ABA has since required law schools to publish standardized disclosures, rendering a lot of the information below outdated. Check out newer law student blogs for more up-to-date information.
Since my last advice post I received a lot of messages from 0Ls trying to choose between schools. Here are three common themes:
Unless you are considering a top 5 or top 10 school, focus on what city or region you want to practice law in.
For example, if you want to live in Seattle, then going to Less Prestigious School of Law in downtown Seattle is probably a better idea than going to a “top 40” school in Georgia.
The top 10-40 schools will tout the few alumni who made it in swank, distant cities to oversell their national reputation. Go to the “okay” school in the city you want to practice in, volunteer, build a network of local attorneys and land a job.
I found an old copy of the National Jurist around the law school.
The lead story is “Disappearing Act: minority enrollment at a 15-year low, despite more applicants with better LSAT scores.”
“In 2002-2003, 63 percent of all black applicants were not admitted to law schools.”
The article attributes the decline in minority enrollment mostly to a backlash against affirmative action and a new ABA minimum bar pass requirement. The ABA will require schools to meet a minimum bar pass rate in order to maintain accreditation. This new rule threatens a handful of HBCUs – including Southern University, Florida A&M, Howard, and Texas Southern –which have a bar pass rate under the required 75 percent.
The National Jurist article also suggests this rule would discourage schools from accepting minority applicants because “Hispanic and black students traditionally struggle on standardized exams, especially the bar exam.”
So what are law schools doing to recruit minorities? According to National Jurist, law schools are now taking “a personal approach” to admissions.
I saw this “personal approach” at work this past year. I was more aggressively recruited by law schools than when I applied to undergrad, even though I was a better applicant coming out of high school.
After I signed up for LSDAS the paper flood began.
Every day I received letters and packets from different schools. “Come here. We are different.”
Within each packet was a letter that mentioned diversity in some way, “Come here. We have minorities.”
And when the school really DIDN’T have minorities the letter was, “Come here. We welcome minorities. We have about six of you now.”
A fee waiver was usually included among the glossy photos of smiling black and Hispanic students. I received fee waivers from over 50 schools.
I applied to about 40 schools. Why not? It was free.
I only applied to one school that didn’t send me a fee waiver: my first choice, UMN.
Then the calls began.
Deans and presidents of Black/Minority/Gay Law Student associations began calling every day.
The most ridiculous instance was a series of late (9pm-ish) calls made by black girls from a certain school’s Black Law Student Association.
Girl: Hey.
Me: Hi?
Girl (giggling): Do you know who this is?
Me: Uh, no?
Girl: It’s Keisha.
Me: Keisha?
Girl: Yes. I’m calling from SoandSo University’s School of Law.
Me (checking the clock. It’s 9:15pm.): Okay.
Girl: Well, I was wondering if you had any questions about the school.
Me: No. I don’t. I’m going to the University of Minnesota in the fall.
Girl: Well SoandSo University’s School of Law is a wonderful place. Do you mind if I tell you about it?
Me: I’m really not interested. Thank you for the call. I’d like to withdraw my application. Thanks.
Girl: Oh,…okay, thanks.
Click.
9:30pm the next night I receive a call from another black girl from the same school.
Girl: Hello, is this Dennis?
Me: Yes?
Girl: Hi, this is Sharon from SoandSo University’s School of Law.
Me: Hi, yes, I received a call yesterday. I’d like to withdraw my application. Thank you.
And yes.
I received a third call.
On the third day.
Around 8pm.
And I was annoyed.
After the first week of calls the personal approach was officially irritating. The calls adopted an aggressive, menacing tone. Deans of law schools kept demanding that I justify my decision to go to UMN.
I found myself becoming a virtual marketer for U Minnesota’s law school. “Well UMN has a large number of clinical programs, and requires legal writing all three years and…”
When I told one dean that I had paid my deposit at UMN he said, “Well we’re not giving up that easily!” What followed was an almost hour long debate of statistics. Yes. I had the UMN booklet in hand.
I finally said, “Sorry. I want to live and practice in Minneapolis and it makes no sense to go to a school anywhere else, unless it was a top 5 school that offered a substantial scholarship.”
The law school application experience became even more awkward when some (white) friends who had a higher LSATs and GPAs were rejected from law schools that gave me scholarships.
They didn’t need to say anything. The race factor was implicit. They had better scores than I did, but they were not receiving the same acceptances or calls.
Minority enrollment is at a 15 year low, and I can’t help but think that I was accepted to some schools simply because I checked the African American/Black box.
Things at my undergrad were a bit awkward when people realized I am not interchangeable with Tyrone from down the block.
I did not have a the stereotypical black-American experience. I grew up in a German-speaking household in Kansas.
When these law schools accepted me, were they expecting Tyrone?
The law school that had the girls call me at 9pm certainly did.
I actually considered this before applying for law schools. I checked both boxes (black and white), or the multiracial box, when available.
I also included a second personal statement with my applications that clarified my race and ethnicity and why they are relevant to my study of law. I wrote that my racial and ethnic otherness is a great asset.
Many people find me so different that they don’t associate any stereotypes with me.
I have been able to change misperceptions (and prejudices) about groups more effectively because most people don’t clearly associate me with any given group.
People usually identify with the part of me that is most similar to themselves, (whether black, German, Asian or native American (yes I have those too), or the fact that I look Hispanic.) And then begin to break their stereotypes associated with my other ethnicities/races.
The byzantine approach to race worked for my law school applications, but the question is will it work when I apply to firms, or will they prefer Tyrone?
New York and New Jersey accents, shy, stuttering Californians, and the cautious English of South Americans.
Girls with long, flat ironed hair and push up bras. They shake their heads and sigh in horror as a mother asks another embarrassing question.
Timid boys with glazed over eyes staring at the ground as their fathers bark about how the school (and frats) “used to be” back in 1976.
Yesterday, hordes of people flooded into the admissions office. I sat at the front desk as over 200 parents and students came in for two tours and information sessions. I fielded questions.
High school students were eager to speak to a college freshman. They asked about everything from pets to drinking policies.
Parents dwelled on costs, classes, and asked about safety and promiscuity on campus. I’m not sure if they are more afraid of consensual sex or rape.
I spoke at length about campus activities, and the financial aid procedures for in-state students “There’s the access grant and this is how you apply for it, oh and then bright futures, and our scholarships and Stafford loans and…” and about dorm life, “Well, you aren’t officially allowed to …”
I will start wading through Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre” sometime tonight. I hope to finish at least four of the seven novels that are required for next semester’s English class. I still can’t find my copy of Dicken’s “Great Expectations.” I know I own it because I distinctly remember reading the first chapter and becoming incredibly bored with it….
I’m sitting in the admission’s office again.
The crowd for the first tour slowly grows. More New York and New Jersey accents, cautious South Americans, and what looks like half of a junior high school’s female soccer team from St. Louis. The soccer players ask themselves what county they live in. I don’t think any of them quite know. “Do we live in St. Louis county?”
The resemblance between students, their siblings, and their parents – the same long lose, or big eyes, or nice smile is really interesting…