What To Do After Applying To Law School
If you’ve already submitted your applications to law school, we would like to congratulate you! We know how hard you had to work to get it all in. Now, you just have to wait. And we know that the waiting part seems just as hard and stressful as the application process itself. So, while you’re waiting, there are a few things you can do:
Confirm your applications are received. You should have received an email confirmation from the school. If you haven’t, check your spam folder to be sure the email didn’t end up there. If you didn’t receive an email within two weeks of submitting the application, you might want to reach out to the school to confirm. You can call or send a polite email to the admissions office to check in.
Apply for financial aid. Once you have confirmation that your applications have been received, apply for financial aid. First, you have to fill out the FAFSA application, just like you did for undergraduate college. This allows you to receive any federal loans or grants that you may need to help you pay for your education. After you’ve done that, check with the individual schools to which you’ve applied to see what grants or scholarships you might qualify for. Many of these will be merit-based. In some programs, your eligibility to receive these grants and scholarships will be automatic. In others, you will need to provide additional essays or supplemental materials. Be sure to check with each school’s financial aid office to see what steps you have to take to receive funding.
Send updates to the school if applicable. If you’ve received a new job or promotion in a field directly related to law, you want to let the schools know. Or, if you’re still in your undergraduate program now and you’ve received new grades, have your current school send an updated transcript. However, if neither of these situations apply to you, we recommend that you hold off sending updates until you have something substantial to report. You don’t want to pester the admissions office with too many updates that might not be relevant to your application.
Prepare for interviews. Not all law schools offer an interview. Though more and more schools are starting to do it, especially in the digital age. If your school does offer an interview, they might send you a list of questions that you will be asked. If this applies to you, spend some time with those questions. Make sure you have an answer for each and that the answer is thorough and succinct. Have a friend or parent ask you the questions so you can rehearse your answers. That said, don’t over-rehearse. You don’t want to come off sounding robotic. But you do want it to be clear that you have given the questions a lot of thought and that you know why you’re applying to law school, to that school in particular.
These are just a few things you can do while you wait. But again, we want to emphasize that the hardest part of the application process is over. So, we wish you the best of luck!
If you haven’t applied to law school, but are seriously considering it, let us know. Ivy Link offers LSAT and GRE tutoring and test prep, as well as application assistance for applying to Law School. Contact us below to get started.
