Application Tips

As the Admission Office gets ready to welcome the 2011 Entering Class, we have already begun working with candidates who will be applying to the 2012 Entering Class. Many of your future colleagues have called to make an appointment to tour Sullivan Hall, chat with an admission counselor, and meet with Financial Aid staff. Join them!

We encourage you to begin thinking about your application, if you have not already begun to do so. First-year candidates are urged to complete their application materials at the earliest possible date - and preferably well ahead of the March 1, 2012 priority deadline. The School of Law bulletin, along with the application, will be mailed to all prospective students in early September. We will accept applications for the 2012-2013 academic year beginning October 1, 2011. Please refer to our application timeline for more details.

Here are some tips on how you can begin to prepare yourself for law school well in advance of the first day of classes. Some recommendations are fanciful; others are serious. In either event, we trust you'll find them helpful.

Application Tips:

• Make a Checklist
• Get Your Finances in Order
• Script Your Personal Statement
• Introspect
• Become an Informed Consumer

Make a Checklist

Operate on the assumption you'll be admitted to most of the law schools to which you've applied. At some point in the near future, you'll need to begin making difficult choices among the law school options available to you. Our advice is to begin that process now by listing the chief characteristics you're looking for in a law school. You may want to include things like location, available financial aid, cost, faculty, composition of the student body, and reputation of the school among members of the bar and bench. Surely there will be other factors which occur to you. The point is to commit these considerations to paper now, and use them as a checklist to evaluate the various schools you finally consider.

Get Your Finances in Order

Sound debt management is an essential element in planning a financing strategy for law school. Some key pieces of advice in this regard:

• Pay off (or significantly reduce) credit card debt and other forms of consumer debt. Do it now.
• Save as much money as possible to apply toward your legal education and related costs.
• Keep lifestyle expectations consistent with your financial resources, and do not expect to live like a well-paid lawyer while in law school.
• Read up on the financial aid process through information posted on the Web sites of the individual law schools you are considering. Find out what forms are necessary besides the FAFSA. In fact, make yourself intimately familiar with the whole range of requirements for receiving financial aid.

Script Your Personal Statement and Talk with Your Recommenders

A thoughtful, well-organized, and proofread personal statement will accentuate your strengths, your purpose and passion. Do not underestimate yourself by submitting a "canned" statement; make it "personal." This is your chance to speak directly to the Admission Committee. Equally as important are the choices you make in selecting people to recommend you to the law school of your choice. Ask individuals who know your academic potential, who will convey a sense of who you are, who know your goals, and who can highlight your observable strengths.

Introspect

Write down all the reasons you want to be a lawyer. Put the list in a safe place and plan to refer to it often in the weeks and months ahead. If you're so inclined, share a copy of your list with the two or three people who know you best. When you're studying for 1L exams next fall, call these folks. Ask them to remind you why you're in law school.

Become an Informed Consumer

In deciding to go to law school, you are making a significant personal-and financial-investment in your future. Treat the investment seriously. Find out as much as you can about each law school you're considering.

• Visit the schools, if you can. Sit in on a class or two. Talk to students.
• Query lawyers in practice. Ask the tough questions.
• Reread law school literature. And get your hands on as much additional material as you can.

One final note - please refer to our Facts and Figures page to stay up to date on the enrollment statistics for the Entering Class of 2010.

The Admission Office welcomes the opportunity to assist you in the application process. Please call the Admission Office at 206.398.4200 or e-mail lawadmis@seattleu.edu with your questions and concerns. We hope to hear from you soon!