This blog post goes out to people who are thinking about applying to UVic Law in the future but didn’t apply this year. You know, the future future students at UVic Law. This time of year we get a ton of requests from people who are getting a jump on things, inquiring about how they can put their best foot forward TODAY in order to have the strongest application in the future. For someone who is going to apply in the next year or few years, what should (and shouldn’t) you do in order to strengthen your application to UVic Law?
- Understand the difference between what you can change and what you cannot. What do I mean by this? You cannot change grades you have already received. You cannot change the amount of involvement you had in your community in the past. You can only change things going forward. What you should be prepared to do on a future law school application (or really just in life), is to make sense of the past (explaining it if you need to) and move forward in a positive way that fuels your values and the things in life that you are passionate about. Become self-aware enough to unpack lessons learned and to use those lessons going forward to make positive change.
- Prepare for the LSAT. The most common questions we get from prospective students is how early you should take the LSAT. This is a balancing act, for sure. UVic Law considers your highest score within the last 5 years. You are allowed a limited number of tests in a year, a 5 year period, and a lifetime. That means that if you take the LSAT too early, and you don’t wind up feeling ready to apply to law school (or being eligible to apply), you might have a score dropped from consideration. When might that realistically happen? Let’s say you know your destiny, and you take your first LSAT in your first year of university. Let’s say you don’t get through undergrad as quickly as you thought you would. Or you want a year to work after undergrad. Or you have unexpected health issues, and it’s not the right time for law school. Or you don’t get accepted the first time. Or…or…or…let’s just say that if everything doesn’t go *just* as planned, it might unintentionally be 5 years between your first score and when that score is needed. This means you took the test too early.
Alternatively, let’s say you wait to take your first LSAT until after you have applied to law school. You have a couple of opportunities for this (such as November and January). What is interesting to me about this scenario is that someone who takes the LSAT for the first time after they complete their law school application would be someone who has applied to law school without knowing how they did on the exam used to assess their application. This means three things. Firstly, they may have spent money on the application that they wouldn’t have spent if they had known their score ahead of time. Secondly, they cannot speak to their LSAT score in their application. This one is incredibly important. If an LSAT score is off (i.e. lower than expected), we appreciate having at least an acknowledgement of that in the application. Thirdly, if you have signed up to take that January LSAT as your first attempt, and something goes wrong (technology is uncooperative, or perhaps your immune system is), you do not get another chance to take the LSAT for that admissions cycle, and your application is considered incomplete. All of these things mean you took the LSAT too late.
When should you take it? The short answer is when you’re ready. The long answer is that I recommend dealing with any obstacles you can prior to taking it. That is, get your test anxiety under control if you can. Make sure you have studied enough that you feel you can succeed. If all of those things are in place, taking the LSAT in the year (maybe two) before you complete your application is generally a good idea. This puts you in a position both to retake if needed and to take that term off to work if you find you’re academically burnt out after 4 years.
3. Succeed in the best way you can. There are some general markers for what a successful law school application looks like. Generally speaking, these are solid grades and a strong LSAT score. What we see time and time again is that people tend to get better grades when they are studying something that they love and are passionate about. This means that you don’t need to pursue a history degree to go to law school. In all honesty, there is no “proper path” to law school. Study what you like. A music degree gives you certain critical thinking skills, and a neuroscience degree gives you another perspective on things. Diverse backgrounds, including in education, really do lend themselves to a more well-rounded law school class and legal profession.
Success truly is defined differently for everyone. Some people place high value on community involvement and volunteer work. Others may look at career advancement as the marker for success. There is no requirement at UVic Law for a certain number of volunteer hours or a certain amount of work experience. However, we do believe that both volunteer work and work experience add valuable life experience. Focus on doing things that you think are important and add value.
What an applicant SHOULD NOT DO is volunteer or work so much that their grades or their LSAT suffer. A common thread that we see in many law school applications is applicants who took on too much while they were in school, leading to poor grades, burnout, or other issues. If you have done this and haven’t realized until it’s too late, please make sure you slow down and figure out how to focus on the things that are important (like school) so that you can show us in your application that you don’t intend to take on so many obligations in law school that you burn out here, as well.
4. Develop relationships with your professors and supervisors. You do not have to be best friends with them. However, with the knowledge that you may need references from either (for law school or other parts of life), become acquainted with a couple of profs. Stay in touch with them. Reach out and ask how they are. Update them on what you are up to. It will help cut down the awkwardness when you need a reference. I promise.
5. Prepare also for alternative paths in life. Sooooooooooooooo…what if you do all the right things but you don’t get in to law school? Or what if you decide not to go? Or what if you decide now is not the right time? Have a plan just in case. This is one of the reasons we encourage you to do what you want in school. Not only will you be more likely to do well, but you will be more likely to have a career (or volunteer work) that is fulfilling to you should you not end up in law school.
6. If you have questions, reach out (after reasonable research is done, of course). You can, of course, always reach out to us. We love to chat with prospective students. We do, of course, prefer that you find readily available information on our website first (social media doesn’t count for readily available information, due to the fact that people can – and do – say things that are only partly true, misleading, or not true at all). However, you can reach out to us at lclerk2@uvic.ca. Please be patient in waiting for a response from us. We are a very busy team.