We’re now T +4 days after the October 2010 LSAT, and the bloody carnage of the day has been only lightly washed away by the flood of booze that followed. By now, though, you should be feeling ever more ready to step into the light of the real world once more.
But you’re still a solid two and a half weeks away from learning the fate of October 9th, so you’re going to need to find some way to fill the time that doesn’t involve agonizing over whether or not the first or second section of reading comprehension counted.
The best thing to do in these intervening weeks is beef up your law school applications. You’ve taken care of the most important (and highly-pressured) part, and now it’s time to clear up all of the so-called “soft” factors. If you’re still a college student, you could actually study for some of your classes, or say hello to your professors for the first time this year. Might even be a good idea for some of you if you don’t have any letters of recommendation locked up.
Perhaps the most important thing to do during this time, however, is work on your personal statement. If you haven’t already started, now’s the time to decide on a topic and start writing. We’ve had a post already about how to tackle the personal statement. Read it, and do as it says. The personal statement is the most important of the soft factors in your law school application. Don’t skimp on it.
If you’re planning on applying when your LSAT score comes out (say that’s November 1st), then you should absolutely, positively, while-you’re-reading-this request that your transcripts be sent to LSAC. I’m not sure what kind of turtle transports the transcript from your school to LSAC, but I’ve heard horror stories that it can take six weeks from the request to it actually showing up in your LSAC file. The request should take you seconds. Do it right now.
As for letters of recommendations, you’re going to be in pretty desperate shape if you haven’t already requested those and you’re intending on applying in November. We have another post about those, but the general point is this: academic professors, by and large, are pretty unreliable as far as deadlines go. Scores of students ask them for recommendations, and there are only so many they can write. So request your letters now.
Basically, whatever you have left to do on your applications, you should take care of in the next two and a half weeks so you can actually hope to apply when your LSAT score arrive. If you get your applications in by early November, you will be ahead of the vast majority of law school applicants and in much better shape for rolling admissions. Get on it.
