Applying to Law School with the February LSAT
All your apps are intact and they’re ready to go. You’re standing there with pride in your score. You hate to wake me up to say goodbye*.

Wait, what? You aren’t ready to submit your applications as soon as scores are released? I should have guessed. While I was busy writing tenuous (at best) LSAT-related song parodies, you procrasturbated your way to the February LSAT. Never fear, however.  Even if you haven’t begun your applications, you’ve got time to maximize applying with the February LSAT.  Here’s a step-by-step list of what you should be doing until the expected release date of the February LSAT (March 4, if history is any indicator).

STEP 1
Go ask several professors for Letters of Recommendation a week ago. If you’ve got a professor named Doc Brown, start with him. You need to get those in ASAP, and Letters of Rec are always slow, especially this late in the year when many professors have already written several. Stay on top of the recommenders without being annoying. However, make sure you use every weapon in your polite pressure arsenal to get them submitted in a timely manner. LSAC says it will take a few days to a week for your letters to post; figure on it being a little longer than that, and get on it now.

(I’m not even mentioning your transcripts here, because you’ve already sent them in, right?)

STEP 2
Essays. Finish them. This includes checking the law school applications to see if they require any additional essays. Don’t get caught with your pants down because you didn’t realize that you’d have to let Pepperdine know how their mission statement reflects your Christian values (let me tell you a little secret from my CCD classes: the answer is always ‘pray and go to Church’. Or Jesus.). The submission process for these is pretty much instantaneous, but the process of writing them will take much longer. Don’t wait until the last minute to throw something together; at this stage in the admissions game, you have to make sure that these soft factors are top notch to get into your top choice.

STEP 3
This is the mind-numbing step: fill out your applications. While taking much less time than the other steps, writing your job history and extracurriculars ten to twenty times will feel like an eternity. The common information form helps a bit, but each school hasn’t quite figured out how to code everything to mesh perfectly. More likely than not, you’re going to find yourself copy-and-pasting your resume into slots that don’t quite fit all the information. Again, this step is probably the shortest, so why not have it done before scores are released? (That’s a rhetorical question; don’t answer it and just fill out the damn apps.)

STEP 4
Don’t say fuck anymore, cause fuck is the worst word that you can say. Just use the word ‘Mmmkay.’

Finally, a few notes for those of you who have already submitted your applications (inclusive) or are on waitlists/hold. Log on to your LSAC account, and make sure that every school to which you want your score reported is marked as such. When your score is released, LSAC will automatically send it to each of these schools, giving you a precious few-second jump on the competition. This late in the application season, every little bit helps.

Now I’m out. Why?

‘Cause I’m leaving on a jet plane
Don’t know when I’ll be back again
Oh, baby, I hate to goOOOoooOOOoooOOOooo

*John Denver was born Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr., which means his father loved the name so much that he felt the need to pass it on. Thankfully, the same man who gave us Annie’s Song broke the cycle.

Article by Matt Shinners, Harvard graduate, Blueprint law school application consultant, and Blueprint Philadelphia LSAT instructor.