How To Navigate Law School Admissions Reddit

If you’re taking the LSAT or applying to law school (or baking a loaf of bread, or trying to fix your car, etc.), you have almost certainly come across Reddit. Reddit is a social media platform filled with community forums (called subreddits) dedicated to various topics, law school admissions included. Wherever such communities exist, there are online users who make posts, share stories, and give advice. This means, yes, there is a law school admissions Reddit subreddit.

You may have also heard (or perhaps experienced) that Reddit can be a toxic place. It can contain misinformation and embellishment. (Lies you say? On the internet?!)

The question is whether any of this Reddit stuff is worth it, and if so, how to separate the good from the bad. Here is some guidance on that subject for anyone applying to law school.

You Already Have All The Law School Admissions Information You Need

Any one of us can do an internet search of our school of interest right now and find out the median LSAT and grade point average for the incoming class of students. They’re called 509 ABA Disclosures and every school makes one annually.

The information in the 509 ABA Disclosures provide us about 90% of the data we need to know where we stand on admissions odds. If our grades and LSAT score are above a school’s medians, we’re likely to be admitted. If these numbers are below, we’re a long shot. If they’re a split or right at the median, coin flip. Yes, a good personal statement and letters of recommendation can push us over the edge into waitlist or “admitted” territory. But for the most part, the numbers tell the story.

You can also peruse the pages and pages of articles in this blog and download free resources created by law school admissions experts. Here are a few:

The Downside of Reddit

I try not to get in the habit of telling people how to spend their valuable time. But consider whether any of this Reddit business is worthy of that time. Reddit is a social media platform. Social media is engineered for one reason only: to keep us using it. Studies repeatedly show that it makes us deeply unhappy, deadens our ability to focus, and foments anger, cynicism, and incivility.

In short, it can make you a bit negative.

Of course, clicking a Reddit link because you Googled “chances of getting into Columbia Law” is not going to rot your brain. You’re just seeking information. However, consider how likely you are to then navigate to the front page and spend the next 20 minutes doomscrolling. If this is you (I know it’s me), stay far, far away.

Then, if you decide to post questions on Reddit about your law school admissions odds, you might get helpful answers. It’s true—we won’t disparage the fact that there are some genuinely kind and helpful people on there! Then again, you just might get utterly toxic, pessimistic, jealous, disinformed, widely-celebrated antipathy.

Be Wary of Stories Posted in Law School Admissions Reddit

People like anecdotes and Reddit is filled with them. “I had a 3.9 and a 149 and still got into Fordham.” “I had a 3.8 and a 180 and still got rejected by Harvard.” The Law School Admissions subreddit is filled with anecdotes like these.

There’s nothing wrong with an anecdote, in theory. As long as you keep in mind that it’s a sample of one and may not be indicative of a larger trend. After all, this is just a single person’s story of what actually happened to them.

However, remember, anyone can lie on the internet. Reddit is anonymous. You don’t know who is on the other side of the keyboard. People have all kinds of weird reasons to lie, but it usually comes down to attention and emotional validation.

People will lie about where they applied, where they were rejected, where they got in, who they interviewed with, and what an admissions officer said or did, just to score fake internet points, which Reddit calls “karma.” (People on the internet will also lie about other stuff, like “what’s going on in the world,” but that’s another blog post.)

The Pros of Law School Admissions Reddit

Needless to say, I don’t go on Reddit! I don’t think it’s good for you or me or society’s mental health. But even in a cesspool of negativity, there can be positive currents: actually useful information, the occasional jab of peer encouragement, and friendly strangers who just want to help. It’s helpful to see that you’re not going through this process alone and that there are a lot of people who share your anxieties.

Do I really think you should banish Reddit and all other similar social media from your life entirely? (Actually, yes!) But no, you shouldn’t have to. Sometimes you’re just searching for answers and you end up on a Reddit page. That’s just where the information is, and that’s perfectly fine. And if you chance upon an encouraging comment or a helpful anecdote, all the better.

Just keep in mind: Reddit is a fine resource to get advice and answers. However, it’s not a place to hang out all day. If you needed help with your car, you might go to a mechanic, but that doesn’t mean you would spend all your free time in the lobby of an auto body shop.

So next time when you’re online, anxious, and just looking for law school admissions answers, make sure to use Reddit the right way: as a tool, not a home.

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