The holidays can be a mixed bag for law school applicants. Those who already have acceptances in their pockets are able to kick back and enjoy the seasonal respite. But if you are still waiting to hear back, you are probably sitting around dinner tables fending off questions from everyone and his brother about your law school results. It's hard for people — even people one or two degrees removed from the admissions process — to accept that you may be in for a longer period of waiting. It's perfectly normal to be in admissions limbo this time of year, and that doesn't mean there was anything wrong with your application, or that you're doing anything wrong now.

For that reason, too, resist the urge to drum up phony updates to send to schools. Presumably you submitted your best shot when you sent in your original applications, and your world is not likely to change that much in a matter of months. Some updates are required, though. If anything they asked about on their application changes, like a job change, then you probably have a duty to update them (the individual school should have guidelines about how and when to provide updates). And if you have new grades in January from the previous semester, you are required to submit updated transcripts to LSAC. But many updates are discretionary, and as with any optional or non-required materials, less is often more. For example:

I've seen people give blow-by-blow accounts of every little thing they do all day long in their new role as Junior Intern to the Assistant Deputy Chief of Communications for Senator So-And-So, or as Underling Case Assistant at Fancypants Law Firm, P.C. Guess what? In most cases, the blow-by-blow account is just not that interesting to the rest of the world. More importantly, if the application did not invite (or give you space for) that level of detail the first go-round, you shouldn't get much more granular in your update. Treat admissions officers' time as valuable.

Read more about updates here.

Do you have strategies or stories to tell about getting through the holidays as an applicant? Please share!

Former Dean of Admissions at the University of Chicago Law School and a recovering lawyer, Anna Ivey founded Ivey Consulting to help college, law school, and MBA applicants navigate the admissions process. You can find more admissions tips in The Ivey Guide to Law School Admissions. Join the conversation here in the blog comments and on Twitter and Facebook, or email us a new question for the blog.

As candidates tackle interviews and preparation for Round 2 applications, we would like to revisit an important aspect of the application: the resume. Given the many roles that the resume plays in the business school application process, drafting a resume (or CV) is an excellent starting point for someone embarking on the next round of MBA applications. Here are several reasons why now is the time to focus on polishing your resume:

1) Crafting a resume can serve as the creative starting point for candidates trying to develop their positioning strategy and career goals for the MBA admissions process. Distilling all relevant educational, professional and extracurricular experiences into a coherent one-page document can be an eye-opening exercise. This step is helpful to many applicants because it can reveal overarching themes in their work and activities or bring to light key selling points in their profile.

2) Nearly every top school requires a resume. This is usually requested as part of the written application. Even if the school does not request a stand-alone resume, they will usually solicit similar information within their application forms (employment history, educational background, etc). In addition, candidates are often required to bring a resume to their admissions interviews as a starting point for conversation.

3) Since MBA admissions officers often ask themselves whether a candidate seems likely to gain employment upon completion of the MBA program, the resume is a barometer of an applicant’s potential to market his or her skills and experiences. The adcom is curious to see how a candidate presents his or her experiences prior to earning the MBA degree. Providing the committee with a polished, coherent resume is a great way to demonstrate one’s potential appeal to campus recruiters.

4) The often daunting process of MBA admissions has to start somewhere! Many applicants spend far too much time thinking about essay questions or worrying about recommendations before they’ve actually defined their overall admissions strategy. This is a classic case of putting the cart before the horse.

In contrast, the resume is a defined step that can help a candidate make true progress in the MBA application process. Also, remember: Once you’ve drafted your resume, it serves as a handy summary of your experiences for when you and your recommenders are drafting and writing those essays or recommendation letters.

For valuable guidance in crafting your resume, check out the Clear Admit Resume Guide.  This guide will teach you to organize information strategically to play to your strengths, eliminate jargon to write for the admissions committee, and situate your responsibilities in the big picture for maximum impact.  This 17-page document, which includes illustrative examples, step by step instructions, an active verb list and two full resume templates, is available for purchase, preview and download from the Clear Admit shop.

About Clear Admit:

Ivey Consulting has partnered with Clear Admit to provide comprehensive admissions information and consulting services to business school applicants.  We’re excited to feature their regular guest postings here on the Ivey Files. Learn more about Clear Admit here.

It's Tough Love Season* here Chez Ivey, and right around the holidays, it's time for my annual public service announcement to applicants, wherein I say some version of "STOP ACTING LIKE A CRAZY PERSON." (All-caps this year!)

Last year I wrote a whole blog post about how waiting is the hardest part, with a Tom Petty/Eddie Vedder video and everything! But last year is already ancient history in the admissions world, so I'll tell you a different story this time.

I was talking to a law school admissions officer this past week, among other things about applicants who feel compelled to check their online status every six minutes. That's not hyperbole. This person said to me, "You know, I wonder if they realize that we can see when they've checked their status ten times in the last hour."

Yes, that's right. They can see. Not that they routinely have time to check on you as you're checking on them every minute of the day, but if they bother to look, do you want to be that guy or gal who makes them say, "There's that nutty applicant again"?

There's nothing wrong with checking your status online, unless you are committing online trespass. A bunch of MBA applicants caused a scandal a few years back when they hacked into a site to find out if they had been accepted, and both HBS and MIT gave them the boot — a cautionary tale. It goes without saying that you should not be hacking into any systems to learn your admissions status. That would be both unethical and stupid, and your digital fingerprints would be there for schools to see.

But even if you're not a common hacker, go easy on your mental health and on the school servers in checking your status. And do NOT bother admissions offices by calling them up to ask, "I just tried logging into your admitted students site to to see if I could get access, and I got through. Does that mean I'm accepted?" Even if they don't consider that unethical, at a minimum they're going to be very annoyed that you're wasting their time, and their response is likely to be, "Knock it off, if you weren't pestering us with silly phone calls, we might get around to making a decision on your file that much more quickly, because we have an actual job to do."

So... don't act like a crazy person, and don't be a pest. Waiting is hard, but to use a phrase my pal Steve Schwartz has used so effectively on his LSAT blog: "That's just the way it is, folks. Sorry."

Related tip: "Do not let discussion boards turn you into a crazy person."

* Kidding. We dispense tough love year-round.

Former Dean of Admissions at the University of Chicago Law School and a recovering lawyer, Anna Ivey founded Ivey Consulting to help college, law school, and MBA applicants navigate the admissions process. You can find more admissions tips in The Ivey Guide to Law School Admissions. Join the conversation here in the blog comments and on Twitter and Facebook, or email us a new question for the blog.

What's the fastest way to tank your legal career before it even starts? Being found guilty by LSAC of "misconduct or irregularity" in the application process.

LSAC has a helpful page on its website explaining what that means. In part:

What constitutes misconduct or an irregularity?

The submission, even by mistake, as part of the law school admission process of any information that is false, inconsistent, or misleading, or the omission of information that may result in a false or misleading conclusion, or the violation of any regulation governing the law school admission process, including any violation of LSAT test center regulations.

The kicker? Your intent (or lack thereof) is irrelevant to both the investigation and the findings. LSAC treats "misconduct" and "irregularities" as interchangeable, meaning your misconduct or mistake doesn't have to be willful or intentional to trigger a misconduct finding. LSAC simply isn't going to get bogged down in the fact-finding (or in weighing the evidence) that would be required to determine whether you meant to break the rules or not.

As a practical matter, that approach shifts the burden on you to know what the rules are, and to abide by them. You can't rely on plausible deniability.

How will you know if you're the subject of a misconduct investigation? LSAC won't leave any doubt. They'll send you a notice telling you you're being investigated for misconduct, it will tell you the charges, and it will give you an opportunity to respond and tell your side of things.

According to LSAC, the most frequent allegations of misconduct or irregularities against applicants are:

• misrepresentation of academic record
• misrepresentation of information on law school applications
• altered, non-authentic, or unauthorized letters of recommendation
• misrepresentation of disciplinary record
• violation of LSAT testing regulations
• failure to report prior law school matriculation

As someone who had to initiate misconduct proceedings as an admissions officer, I can tell you that the process is not pretty, and it's not one in which admissions officers take any joy. More importantly for you, the damage isn't restricted just to the school that initiates the misconduct investigation. If you're found guilty of misconduct or an irregularity, "all law schools to which you have applied, will subsequently apply, or have matriculated, and other affected persons or institutions as appropriate, are notified."

LSAC doesn't tell law schools what to do with a misconduct finding, but it can be the kiss of death for some applicants depending on how severe the misconduct was, and you could find yourself effectively blacklisted. In LSAC's words:

If you fail to comply with LSAC's ethical standards, you may be barred from admission to law school. If you fail to disclose required information on your law school application, or if you engage in misconduct during the admission process that is discovered after you enroll in law school or start to practice law, you may face more serious sanctions. In appropriate cases, state and national bar authorities and other affected persons and institutions may also receive notification. Individual law schools and bar authorities determine what action, if any, they will take in response to a finding of misconduct or irregularity. Such action may include the closing of an admission file, revocation of an offer of admission, dismissal from law school through a school's internal disciplinary channels, or disbarment.

So you could face losing your acceptances, being kicked out of law school, or being disbarred if application misconduct comes to light, even years after the fact. That's serious stuff.

A big misconduct "hot spot" happens during and after any LSAT administration. Make sure you follow the test-taking rules and procedures very carefully. If a proctor catches you violating them, he or she can — and probably will — initiate a misconduct proceeding. Misconduct can mean outright cheating, but can also include breaking procedural rules that might seem silly to you (for example by bringing your own scratch paper, a cell phone, or an electronic watch). Here's a longer discussion of LSAT misconduct. If you've been accused of misconduct during the LSAT, it's hard to put that genie back in the bottle, so avoid those problems from the get-go.

Other problems you can still fix, though. Some applicants submit their applications but are then haunted by whatever thing they had "forgotten" to disclose on their applications. For whatever reason, non-disclosure strikes them as a good risk to take before they submit, and then as soon as they hit the "submit" button, they start feeling sick to their stomachs, losing sleep, and wondering if the schools will find out, and what the bar would do down the road if the misconduct comes to light. That's a nasty spiral to find yourself in.

If that describes you, you must update your applications, the sooner the better. If you update your file voluntarily, the original omission and subsequent correction will be far less damaging than if you find yourself caught up in misconduct proceedings or unable to join the bar.

Read more about LSAC's misconduct and irregularities process here and here and here.

Related posts:

• Time to Start Your Own Document Review
• Dealing With Your Past: Disclosing Criminal Issues on Law School Applications
• Disclosing Criminal Issues in Your Applications: Useful Terminology and FAQs
• Does Academic Probation Count as "Disciplinary Action"?
• Plagiarism and Your Grad School Apps

Former Dean of Admissions at the University of Chicago Law School and a recovering lawyer, Anna Ivey founded Ivey Consulting to help college, law school, and MBA applicants navigate the admissions process. You can find more admissions tips in The Ivey Guide to Law School Admissions. Join the conversation here in the blog comments and on Twitter and Facebook, or email us a new question for the blog.

A short post for today, but an important reminder this time of year for all the law school procrastinators out there:

Talking about doing something is much easier than actually doing it.

If you've been talking about your applications since September but are only now getting around to writing your first drafts, that's a sign that you're looking for excuses not to get them done. Some tough love:

• Stop spending all that time on discussion boards.
• Stop yakking to your friends and family about your essays ad nauseam.
• Put your head down and crank out the work.
• Commit to submitting your applications in the next three weeks.

Wouldn't it be nice to enjoy the holidays without your applications weighing on you?

Here's a reality check: Plenty of applicants have already received acceptances. They are out celebrating and high-fiving while you're still talk-talk-talking and futzing around. With every offer that gets sent out, that's one less offer a school can make to those who haven't yet submitted. At this point in the admissions cycle, you don't have the luxury of dilly-dallying. I know it's scary to send out your applications and put your future into someone else's hands, but too bad. If you want to go to law school, you'll have to own that fear and get past it.

Most importantly: You might be telling yourself that all this hand-wringing will only make your applications stronger. It won't.

And finally, as you work on your drafts, don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. There's a real danger that perfectionism and procrastination can join forces to hold you back. Don't let them.

I hope that this dose of tough love helps. Any other advice you'd give to procrastinators? If you're a recovering procrastinator, what approaches have worked for you?

Former Dean of Admissions at the University of Chicago Law School and a recovering lawyer, Anna Ivey founded Ivey Consulting to help college, law school, and MBA applicants navigate the admissions process. You can find more admissions tips in The Ivey Guide to Law School Admissions. Join the conversation here in the blog comments and on Twitter and Facebook, or email us a new question for the blog.