Not to ruin the relief you felt when you submitted your last application at two minutes until midnight on December 31, but I do have to bring your attention to a critical reality.  SUBMISSION IS NOT THE FINAL STEP in the application process.  Your application will not be considered until your application is COMPLETE.  That’s right, if your application is not complete, it won’t get evaluated.  No evaluation, no admission. 

What is the definition of complete? 

An application is considered COMPLETE when the college has received ALL of the required components – your application, your school reports/transcripts, your test scores, your recommendations and your payment are the typical components of a college application.  (Special note to home school and international applicants:  you often are required to submit additional forms, so be sure you’ve done that too!) But each college can set its own policies, so double check what each college where you’ve applied requires.  Take time to read the fine print and make sure you’ve actually submitted (or requested that someone else submit) everything required for each college! If you missed submitting something, contact the college and beg for permission to submit after the deadline.

What do you have to do to make sure your application is complete? 

At the risk of stating the obvious, CHECK WITH THE COLLEGE.  That's right -- the college.  The only confirmation that counts is confirmation from the college.  No other confirmation will do.  Just because the Common App says “downloaded by the college” or your counselor has confirmed everything was sent doesn’t mean that the college has it, has put it in the right file, or marked your application complete.  So until you have confirmation from the college, you don’t have confirmation!  Here are the four best ways to check with the college:

• Check your mail.  Very few colleges still use snail mail, but some do.  So check yours. 
• Check your email.  You are looking for either an email that notifies you your application is complete (not just verification that they’ve received some particular component) or an email that notifies you what is missing from your application
• Check in with the college directly through their online application status system.  Many colleges have web-enabled systems that allow you to follow the progress of your application through the system.  Generally, you receive a login ID and password from the college after you apply and you can check online 24/7.
• Check in with the college directly by calling the admissions office.  That’s right, call.  Don’t email.  The receptionist can check while you wait and you’ll get your answer then and there.  Once “reading season” starts in admissions offices, email responses are slow in coming and you don’t have time to wait. 

 Once you’ve checked, you are in one of two positions:

• Your application is complete.  Sweet! Go back to whatever you were doing before I scared you with this blog posting.
• Your application is not complete.  Get to work! Don’t ignore it and assume it will work itself out.  It won’t.  In order to resolve the situation, you’ll have to do some version of the following – communicate with the college that you are working on it (and include any documentation you have that shows the missing item was submitted), track down what is missing, get it resent or sent, confirm that the college has received it and that your application is now complete.  Stay on it like a pit bull because letting it lag is to your detriment.  Colleges have a short window of time to evaluate and decide on the applications.  If you hang out in “incomplete land” too long, your application won’t be evaluated within the college’s time constraint.  Know what happens then? If the college is generous, you’ll get wait listed; if the college is less generous, you’ll be summarily denied.  You don’t want that to happen.  One important note here:  YOU, not your parents or others, are responsible for doing this follow-up activity.  Sure you can get help, so long as help is on the order of having your Mom fax the information because she has a fax she can access at work or having your school counselor resolve the hiccup with Naviance because you don’t have an ability to contact Naviance directly.  But, it is YOUR application and admissions offices are paying attention to both privacy laws and what you reveal about yourself in this phase of things.  What does it say to admissions if Dad handles it for you?  Nothing good.  After all, at the end of the day, Dad won’t be attending college for you and that’s what this whole ordeal is about – an evaluation of YOUR ability to perform at a selective college.  So buck up, grow up, and take care of your business.  You can do it.

Comments or Questions?

 Having problems with your application that you can’t figure out how to solve?  Post them and we’ll help you.  Want to whine about how hard all this is? Do it here because we won’t hold it against you and we might even offer some comfort.

Alison Cooper Chisolm heads the college admissions consulting practice at Ivey Consulting. She came to private consulting after working in admissions for more than 10 years at three selective universities (most recently at Dartmouth College). She works with students and families throughout the U.S. and abroad.  Follow Alison on Twitter (@IveyCollege)

In the past, workers with average skills, doing an average job, could earn an average lifestyle. But, today, average is officially over. Being average just won’t earn you what it used to. It can’t when so many more employers have so much more access to so much more above average cheap foreign labor, cheap robotics, cheap software, cheap automation and cheap genius. Therefore, everyone needs to find their extra — their unique value contribution that makes them stand out in whatever is their field of employment. Average is over.

- Thomas Friedman, "Average Is Over," New York Times (Jan 24, 2012)

My former classmate Dan Currell and I returned to the University of Chicago Law School this week to talk to current students about how best to prepare for professional success and progress after law school. Some of our messages to them coincided nicely with Friedman's piece in the New York Times: average is indeed over, and that applies to the legal profession as well. 

What does this mean in the law school context? Take a look at this bimodal salary distribution curve for the class of 2010. Average is certainly over in that graph. But things are even trickier than that salary curve suggests. It's not enough just to get into a top law school, or graduate from a top law school, or start your career at a top law firm or public interest organization. To progress, you'll need something extra, some kind of plus, because book smarts and a fancy credential aren't enough to get ahead and stay ahead. What's your plus? Or, as law professor Larry Ribstein put it before his untimely death recently, do you want to be a legal architect or a legal mechanic? How do you stand out when your profession is being commoditized, and average is no longer an option?

There are lots of opinions about what kinds of skills you need to have when you're already out in the working world, but in this post I'll suggest some actionable things you can do right now while you're still in law school:

1. Learn how to sound like an adult. That means leaning how to write a decent cover letter, how to write a professional email, how to conduct a professional phone call, and how to adopt grown-up speech patterns. Many law school students don't and won't. (Reforming speech patterns is hard. I'm a product of my generation, too — Generation X – and I find myself slipping from time to time.) Whoever it is you're trying to impress — a client, a boss, a hiring partner, a judge, a conference room full of people you need to persuade — those people aren't going to be inclined to listen to you if your communication style makes you sound like the high school babysitter. More on not sounding like the babysitter here and here and here.

2. Learn how to read a financial statement. Whether you plan on being a transactional lawyer or a litigator or something else entirely, you need basic financial and accounting literacy. You shouldn't even be running a PTA meeting or a pug rescue league without knowing how to read a balance sheet. Take baby accounting in law school if you need to ease into it, then go cross-register at the business school for real accounting that the MBAs take.

3. Network with non-lawyers. While you're taking accounting with the MBAs, get to know them, and how they talk, and how they think. They'll be managing businesses down the road, and they will eventually be your client-overlords and referral sources. More generally, if you want to be in a position to make rain later (see #6), learn how to think about and understand the non-legal needs of your future clients, because their eventual legal needs are going to be just a small piece of their larger headaches and opportunities. What if you don't see yourself serving businesses down the road? Then go mingle and learn more about whoever you envision your future clients and referral sources to be. Don't hang out just with other law school students, even if for only your own sanity.

4. Network in person. Blasting out emails to people you've never met hoping they'll give you something (time, money, advice, a job, a favor) is a horribly inefficient way to get ahead. Email is fine if you already have a pre-existing connection of some kind with the recipient, but in many cases, establishing relationships and building up relationship capital means backing away from your laptop, heading out the front door, and talking to people in person.

And make sure to follow up. You never know where an opportunity or a life-altering tip will come from. Weak ties – people who aren't close friends or family, and whom you don't see everyday — matter as much as close ties do in an employment search, for example, and the many people who come to your school to talk to you are a great place to start developing your in-person network. Networking takes real-life practice, and you have to actually do it. Thinking about it doesn't count.

5. Seize opportunities to improve your writing. Students love to moan about Legal Writing classes, but those classes may be the most valuable ones you take in law school, so treat them seriously. Go work for a journal. (Yes, it's scut work, but you will also learn how to edit, and that will improve your own writing.) Take classes that require longer papers, and learn how to manage a longer writing project. Embrace moot court, not just for the oral argument opportunities, but also for the extra practice in brief writing. Take those contract drafting classes. Learn where to put that comma so you don't get sued for malpractice (I bet you didn't know that a comma could be worth a million dollars). Write, get feedback, and write some more. You will get better, but it requires lots of guidance and practice.

#5 is very important, because many law school students think they are good writers, but most of them are not. Many of you have been misled all throughout college into thinking that your writing is great, but people who grade various kinds of law school writing, even at top schools, find themselves struggling to teach remedial writing skills before they can get to the the more advanced, technical writing skills they actually need to be teaching.

6. Start thinking like a creative problem solver and businessperson. You may have defaulted into law school because you are not attracted to the "business" world (whatever that means to law students, which is often fuzzy), but unless you want to get stuck doing boring, low-level, poorly-paid, increasingly offshored grunt work, you need to start thinking like a businessperson. Many of you will in fact turn out to be businesspeople, if you succeed at moving up far enough: you'll either hang out your shingle and eat what you kill, or you'll be equity owners with other business partners who expect you to bring in business and manage the firm, or you'll have a senior management role in a public or private organization. Guess what? That makes you future business owners or at least managers, and when you're still in a junior role you'll need to start an internal mental shift to think about yourself as someone who has to learn how to run things and solve management problems eventually. Law school rewards relentless analytical reasoning; it's also quite good at selecting for it (thank you, LSAT). Can law school also teach creativity and problem solving for management challenges? I'm not sure that will happen any time soon, so you need to start paying attention to those skills on your own initiative, not least because creativity is hard to delegate to machines that will only get increasingly cheaper than you are.

You have a while to learn what creativity and management and problem solving mean in a legal context, so during your summers, start observing how more senior people (the successful ones) run their teams and resources out in the real world, and how they generate business or clients or funding. Watch how they don't just issue-spot and identify problems but also help solve them creatively. You know the saying that you should dress for the job you want, not the one you have? The same is true here: Start developing the mental habits for the more senior and more highly rewarded role you want, the legal architect vs. the legal mechanic. You don't have to acquire that mindset overnight, but start paying attention to it while you're still in school.

There's lots more to say on this subject, and I hope you contribute your own suggestions in the comments. What do you think? What pluses and extras do law school graduates need besides their stellar law degrees and their analytical horsepower? What kinds of transferable skills should they be mastering? What other steps can they start taking immediately?

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.

I'm no longer surprised by the number of law school applicants who report that their professors make them write their own recommendation letters. Apparently these professors are content to require something of their students that they themselves would consider totally unethical in a student's work product. Is there any doubt about what would happen if a student said, "Sure, I'll agree to 'write' you a 'paper,' but I'll outsource the whole thing to someone else, and that's OK because ultimately I'll still put my name on the top of it, so I vouch for the contents. That cool with you?" At a minimum, you'd see a fair amount of finger-wagging in response.

For that reason, it's interesting that with all the insistence that your law school application essays be in your own words (and rightly so), admissions officers and LSAC seem to turn a blind eye to a widespread problem with the integrity of recommendations. (I see this on the MBA side too, where professional recommenders routinely punt the job back to the applicant.)

Law schools and LSAC would do a great service to their applicants -- and to the integrity of the application process -- if they articulated a clear policy that recommendations must be written by the recommender, and that "authorized" drafts written by the applicant are not permissible. (The current language on LSAC's page about misconduct prohibits "submission of an altered, nonauthentic, or unauthorized letter of recommendation," and that doesn't quite cover it.) A clear prohibition would give well-meaning applicants who don't actually want to write their own letters, but who feel under a certain amount of recommender-created duress to do so, enough cover to point to that language and say, "I'm sorry, the law schools say that's verboten, so I'll find someone else since you're so terribly busy." If at that point the recommenders aren't so embarrassed that they man up and write their own letters, at a minimum they can't fault you for ditching them as recommenders. (This matters, because even if you decline to write your own letter and find someone else to recommend you, you may have other reasons you need to preserve recommender #1's good opinion of you. You want to avoid burning bridges with any potential recommenders.)

I doubt that such a clear policy will emerge anytime soon, though, so in the meantime, what should applicants do if they hit this wall with a recommender? If at all possible, go find someone else, and find a graceful way to bow out of having asked in the first place. An example: "Oh gosh, I know you're terribly busy, but I don't think I'm in a position to write my own recommendation." Or whatever. Just be vague and polite and make it about how busy they must be. If they were too lazy (or busy) to write you a letter in the first place, they'll probably be happy to have you out of their hair anyway.

"But Anna!" you're thinking. "Isn't it actually a great opportunity to be able to write my own letter?" Try it first and see if it comes easily to you. It's actually very hard for most people to write glowing but credible recommendations about themselves all while trying to guess the specific, detailed opinions of someone else, and trying to recreate the voice of someone else. Most self-written letters I've seen aren't all that good, and some are downright bad.

More importantly, if the recommendation isn't written by the person who purports to be recommending you, it's not really a recommendation at all. It's phony-baloney, and I think at best it skirts the line of ethics in the application process, even if law schools and LSAC haven't taken a clear position. Don't go there. Find someone who genuinely wants to advocate for you and will write a real recommendation.

More advice on recommendations here.

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.

Around this time of year, many applicants are hearing back from law schools. While a final decision is usually welcome (even a rejection eliminates the frustration of waiting...), there are some situations where a school's response does nothing but add to your uncertainty.

Typically, these "limbo" responses from schools fall into two categories: waitlists and holds. A waitlist letter means that a school will likely not revisit your application (or give you a final decision) at least until after the first deposit deadlines have come and gone, typically in April, and you will be admitted, if at all, only on a space-available basis. That means you'll receive an offer only if the school needs to fill a particular slot as they manage their deposits and their yield over the course of the summer. They don't want to be oversubscribed or undersubscribed when orientation rolls around, and they use waitlists to fill any gaps that emerge over the course of the summer.

In contrast, a hold this time of year doesn't mean anything one way or another. It's a non-event and a non-decision, not even a decision to put you on the waitlist. It's just the polite alternative to telling you nothing. It means they want more time to review your file, and to compare it to more of the applicant pool before they make a decision on you. For example, Harvard Law School just sent out a batch of hold letters. If you receive a hold letter from a school, you may hear from them next month or not until August. At this time of year, anything is still possible when you are on hold.

Once deposit deadlines have passed, however, it doesn't really matter what schools call your limbo status, whether they've put you on a waitlist, put you on hold, or told you nothing at all. If you haven't received a final decision by the first deposit deadline, you are at that point effectively on a waitlist.

Anna has written extensively about the frustration of being waitlisted (or put on hold). These letters usually include some or all of the following:

1. An explanation of that school's waitlist or hold process

2. An invitation to remain on the waitlist (by either doing nothing or specifically replying to the school)

3. An invitation to withdraw from the waitlist if you're no longer interested

4. Some indication (though it's often vague) of what applicants can expect from the school in terms of definitive response later in the application season

5. An explanation of what additional documents, if any, the school is interested in receiving from people on the waitlist or on hold

Whether you have been waitlisted or put on hold, here are some tips to guide you:

1. FOLLOW DIRECTIONS 

Each school handles the hold / waitlist process differently. Above all, you should follow the directions included in the school's hold / waitlist letter. If they specifically invite additional documents, feel free to submit them. Pay close attention to how the invitation to submit is phrased. Saying that you may submit one additional letter of recommendation OR an additional essay OR a letter explaining your interest in the school does not mean that you should submit all three. If a school wants more information, they know how to contact you.

If a school is more vague about what it is looking for, think carefully about what communications or documents (if any) would benefit you the most. A letter saying you may "supplement your file" with any information you think "may be helpful to the admissions committee" is not an invitation to submit everything under the sun. One high quality letter explaining your particular interest in and fit with the school is going to be more effective than five additional recommendation letters, an "updated" resume showing one new volunteer activity, and a mini-thesis on the state of the legal profession.

2. NO MORE DOCUMENTS MEANS NO MORE DOCUMENTS

If a school's waitlist or hold letter specifically says that you should not submit additional information, that is the end of the story. At this time of year, admissions officers are buried in application materials. If they take the time to include a "no new material" section in their waitlist or hold letter, you should take them seriously. What about that one extra recommendation letter that you received after submitting your original application? Or a really short "essay" explaining all of the things you love about the school? Don't bother. Even if those materials speak glowingly about your candidacy, submitting them identifies a more obvious (and damaging) aspect of your candidacy: you do not know how to follow directions.

3. UPDATES AND LETTERS OF CONTINUED INTEREST (LOCI)

It's fine to update your application (provided the school allows it) only if there is a legitimate update to provide the school since you submitted your original application (a new set of grades, a new job, etc.). If your original application essays did not discuss your specific interest in the school, your "update" letter can also include a substantive discussion that explains why you're such a good fit for the school, but only if you're expressly invited to submit more materials. If there is no legitimate update during the hold period, however, or you have already discussed your fit with the school in your original application, do not force feed them a letter just because you think they want to hear from you.

If you're on hold, and it's before April, it's not appropriate just to express your continued interest (a LOCI, which is shorthand for "letter of continued interest") separate from a legitimate update. It's assumed you're interested simply by virtue of the fact that you applied, and admissions officers might conclude you're wasting their time if you expect them to drop everything so you can tell them, only months after applying, that you're still interested. Stand-alone LOCIs don't become appropriate until after April, when many other applicants have made other plans or have lost interest in that school for one reason or another, and you want to be explicit about saying, "Yes, I'm still here and I'm still interested!"

Questions? Concerns? Conundrums? Ask away below.

Gregory Henning is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Virginia Law School. After graduating from law school, he clerked for Judge R. Lanier Anderson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and then became an Assistant District Attorney in Boston and a charter school teacher. As part of the Ivey Consulting team, Greg works with law school applicants. Learn more about him here, and read more admissions tips in The Ivey Guide to Law School Admissions.

Applying to college is a massive project with lots of moving parts, an avalanche of information, and critical deadlines.  That means “optimal organization” is key to minimizing your stress in your college application process.  What do I mean by “optimal organization?”  Think Goldilocks – you are looking to find the organizational system that is “just right” for you.

Cornerstones of Your Organizational System

You need a SINGLE CALENDAR that has everything on it.  Don’t fall prey to having a separate calendar for school, personal, and college apps.  That is a sure recipe for disaster in the form of double/triple booking and missing deadlines.  You can use paper or electronic.  For most students, electronic is the way to go because you always have your cell phones with you and your cell phones have your calendars on them.  

You need a TO DO LIST that you keep for more than 5 minutes.  In other words, you want to be able to add things to your to do list that you will do in the future – maybe a year or more in the future.  So writing on your hand or scribbling on the back of a piece of paper is no longer adequate.  You can use paper or electronic.  Again for most students, electronic seems to work better because you always have it with you!

You need an INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM.  I mentioned the avalanche of information that is a part of the college application process above.  And truly it is an avalanche.  One of the problems with figuring out your information storage and retrieval system is that the information will come in all forms – snail mail, email, voice mail, notes, web research, hard copy brochures and folders.  Not only do you have to figure out how to store all this various information, you have to figure out how to retrieve it when you need it.  For most students, the easiest way to go is to have three storage locations that all have the same file structure – set up one storage location in email, set up one storage location electronically (on the hard drive of your computer or in the cloud), and set up one in an old-fashioned file cabinet.  To get you started, I’ve compiled a basic list of files you should set up in each storage location. 

Establishing Habits of Organization

Once you’ve set up your system, there is only one thing that stands between you and success:  USING IT!  Your system will only work if you actually use it on a consistent and regular basis.  That means it needs to be an ingrained habit.  And that is why I suggest you get organized now because it gives you time to establish the habits that will make this organizational system go even when it is crazy busy time.  The best habits are those we do so routinely that we don’t even think about them.  How do you make using your organizational habit a habit like that?  Consistent repetition and rewards.  

Start by committing to doing these three things daily:

• Consult your calendar and to do list at the beginning of the day.

• Update your calendar and to do list at the end of the day, including showing whether you’ve done these three things.

• Process things into your information storage and retrieval system at the end of the day once you’ve updated your calendar and to do list.

Then – and here’s the best part – figure out a reward to give yourself at these important milestones: 

• When You Get It All Set Up

• When You Do Your Daily Organizing for Four Days in A Row

• When You Do Your Daily Organizing for 21 Days Out of 28

• When You Do Your Daily Organizing for 81 Days Out of 90

Ready, set, organize!

Comments or Questions?

 Post your best organizational tools, tips, tricks and rewards!!!!

Alison Cooper Chisolm heads the college admissions consulting practice at Ivey Consulting. She came to private consulting after working in admissions for more than 10 years at three selective universities (most recently at Dartmouth College). She works with students and families throughout the U.S. and abroad.  Follow Alison on Twitter (@IveyCollege)

While the past few weeks have seen a number of admits and rejections handed down to Round One MBA applicants, the fate of many remains uncertain. There is no reason for waitlisted candidates to lose hope, as the top programs admit a fair number of individuals from the waitlist in Round Two and thereafter, but we know that cautious optimism does not make the wait for an answer any easier.  To help those in this situation make sure that they’re doing all they can, we wanted to share a few waitlist tips:

1. Know – and follow – the rules. Schools vary in their stances when it comes to interaction with those on the waitlist; some shun communication from applicants and even go so far as to discourage on-the-record campus visits, whereas others welcome correspondence and assign waitlisted candidates to an admissions office liaison. We know that the natural impulse is to reach out to the adcom and update them on that recent promotion or the final grade from that accounting class you took to bolster your academic profile.  At first blush, it might seem that there’s no harm in sending a short letter or making a call, but no matter how exciting the information you wish to communicate, ignoring the adcom’s instructions is ultimately going to reflect badly on you.  Though such a policy may seem frustrating or unfair, it’s important to respect and abide by the preferences of each school.

2. Communicate if you can. For those programs that do permit or encourage contact from waitlisters, it’s absolutely a good idea to send an update.  In addition to the obvious news items mentioned above, it’s beneficial to read over your essays and reflect on whether there is some piece of your background or interests that you haven’t gotten across yet.  Taking the time to write about your relevant recent experiences, positive developments in your candidacy and ways that you’ve enhanced your understanding of the program is a nice sign of your interest in the program, and it’s a good strategy for telegraphing your commitment to attending.  It is, of course, also in your interest to make sure that the adcom has the most up to date information so that they can make an informed decision the next time your file comes up for evaluation.

3. Keep in touch. Don’t disappear after an initial note to the adcom or phone call to your waitlist manager (if applicable).  If you have plans to be on or near campus, for instance, send a quick email to alert your waitlist manager (or whomever you may have interacted with on the adcom) to this fact.  In many cases you’ll find that the adcom offers to have you stop by for a friendly chat about your candidacy – something that can go a long way towards helping your case.  Beyond a visit, sending a brief update every few weeks or so is another way to reaffirm your interest in the school and keep you fresh in the minds of the adcom – something that could work to your advantage in a discussion of which candidates to admit from the waitlist.  In all cases, it is important to remember that there is a fine line between persistence and pestering, so please use good judgment!

4. Have a contingency plan. While it’s important to do be consistent and enthusiastic when waitlisted and communicating with staff at your target program, it’s also wise to have a backup plan.  With the Round Two deadlines for several top programs about 1 week or less away, there’s still some time to put together a solid application to another school.  Even if you’re waitlisted at the school of your dreams and intend to reapply if not admitted, it’s also never too early to start thinking about the coming year and what steps you might take to enhance your candidacy before next fall.

For valuable guidance about being on the waitlist, check out the Clear Admit Waitlist Guide.  This guide will teach you to understand the ground rules of a program’s waitlist policy, formulate a plan to address weaknesses in your candidacy, craft effective communications to the admissions committee and explore every opportunity to boost your chances of acceptance.  This 22-page PDF file, which includes school-specific waitlist policies and sample communication materials, is available for immediate download.

Best of luck to those of you playing the waiting game, and feel free to contact us at assessment@clearadmit.com to learn about our application feedback and waitlist counseling services.  Hang in there!

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.

What's the ideal LSAT timeline? Your mileage may vary, and your LSAT instructor will be able to give you advice customized to your individual situation. But in a perfect world, here's how I like to work backwards from the end goal:

Plan to submit your applications in early November (or even sooner, but early November is plenty early). In order to maximize the time you have on your applications, and to let your brain focus on — and master — one thing at a time, that November submission date means I like to see people take the LSAT the February before that.

Why so early? A couple of reasons:

1. The LSAT is ridiculously important to admissions outcomes. Your combined LSAT + undergraduate record are very likely to have the biggest impact on your admissions results. Other factors matter too, but in the hierarchy of factors, LSAT + undergraduate record sit at the top and look down from their Olympian heights at all the other stuff. You might hear people suggest that you can write your way around poor numbers, or you might hear a recommender say he has so much pull with a school that he can get you in. I would advise extreme skepticism in both instances.

Of course there are outliers for every situation, including law school admissions, and there are people out there whose life stories are so improbable and impressive that their numbers become secondary. They are few and far between, though. (That's what makes them outliers.) In particular, many parents tell me how "unique" their children are and that therefore their sub-par numbers won't matter so much. Oof! There's a 99% chance their children will learn the hard way that their parents are simply wrong. From an admissions officer's perspective, there are a lot of unique snowflakes out there.

Because the LSAT is such an important factor in admissions outcomes, don't coast on your ostensible "uniqueness." Take the test very seriously, and give it enough time for you to reach your maximum performance. For some people, that means two months of intensive, consistent training. For others, it's six months. Train like an elite athlete.

2. The LSAT is hard. For most people, the LSAT is not just a cognitively challenging test, but also a test of endurance, time management, and anxiety management. Those are all mental muscles you need to build during your training period, and that's not a process that happens overnight. It can take time to work yourself into the necessary LSAT zen state.

3. Budget enough time and room to fail. Because the test is so hard, and a test of your mental toughness, build in enough timeline to mess up on your first test. It happens all the time, and you should plan for that contingency. Never walk into an LSAT unprepared. However, assuming you're giving it your best shot, be prepared for the possibility that you wig out during the test, or misbubble, or have a lousy day. If you end up needing to cancel your score, your timeline should allow you to take it again while still being able to devote your focus to your test and not having to work on other parts of your application at the same time. Multitasking your way through all the components of your applications will not serve you as well.

All that adds up to the following recommendation: Plan on taking the LSAT for the first time in February, with June as a backup if you have to cancel your February score or if you aren't happy with your February score. If you have to retake it in June, you'll get your score back in late June, and then you can spend July, August, and September (with October for cushion) working on the written parts of your application with the benefit of your score. That last part matters, because it's very hard to know what law schools you should be shooting for without an actual LSAT score, and your particular list of schools will affect your positioning in your applications. If I had a dollar for every time an applicant has told me, "I'm getting 175's on my practice tests, so I'm confident I'll score in the 170's," that would make for quite a nest egg. You're much better served working off of an actual LSAT score rather than the one you fantasize about.

That's the perfect world timeline. We don't live in a perfect world, of course, so a lot of people take it for the first time in September, aren't happy with their score (or wig out and postpone, or wig out and cancel), retake it in December, and then have to wait until the following January for their score. January is awfully late in the game to be applying, and in the meantime, you're trying to pull your applications together without even knowing what schools you'll be competitive for. It's doable, and it's an option, but it's far from ideal.

So for those of you who will be submitting your applications early in the coming season (rather than applying late in the current one), now's the time to be up to your elbows in LSAT prep. Dedicate the next six months to slaying that dragon, and then turn your full attention to rocking the written components.

More advice on this subject here. Good luck with the February test!

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.

Juniors – it is time to shift gears!  You have just reached a critical inflection point in the college admissions process and you must shift from the “credential building phase” to the “application phase.”  The application phase begins now and ends when you have your application is complete to every college on your list – which generally means, it lasts for the next calendar year.  Shift now and you preserve your sanity – delay and it could be a straightjacket for you (or those who love you or both).

What do you need to do to shift gears? 

Make time. 

How much time is this going to take?  A lot.  I use this formula for a student who aspires to attend a selective college:

SAT or ACT Prep/Test:  48 hours (2 sittings and 40 hours prep)

SAT Subject Tests:  22 hours (2 tests and 10 hours prep for each)

College List:  50 hours (research, visits)

Applications:  120 hours (12 apps, 24 different essays)

TOTAL:  240 hours

Put another way, you should assume that you will need to set aside about 5 hours per week for “college stuff.”  Of course, you will have weeks when you do lots more than that and weeks when you do almost nothing, but the important thing is that you realize this process takes time and you have to make time for it.

Be the boss and assemble your team. 

Good news for those of you who have been waiting for the moment when you become the boss of your own life.  That moment has arrived.  You must be the boss in this phase.  But that doesn’t mean it is a solo enterprise – far from it.  You have to be the boss of a team and coordinate other people’s actions as well as your own.  It is a big responsibility, but you can do it if you step up and be the boss.  Start by putting together your team and assigning roles and responsibilities.

Who makes up a good team for a student who wants the “best possible” help and support through this process? 

• Parent/Guardian/Trustworthy Adult Who Knows You:  You need at least one adult who you trust to be your chief supporter, cheerleader, and advisor during the process.  This person’s expertise about the process is not particularly important; his/her ability to listen, advise and support is critical.
• High School Counselor:  You must have a point person “on the inside” who will write the counselor’s recommendation, provide information about your high school to colleges, and coordinate the submission of all school forms (transcripts, etc.) on your behalf.  Note for international students, homeschooled students, or anyone who attends a high school that doesn’t have a designated counselor:  you will have to identify the appropriate person “on the inside” to handle these matters – often it is a principal or school head – look on the Common Application site to get an idea of the forms this person must complete and then see who might be right in your circumstance.
• Independent Counselor:  You can navigate the process more easily if you have an expert who works with you one-on-one throughout the entire process.  This is what an independent counselor does.  At a minimum, an independent counselor should know, really know, colleges in the U.S. and have a deep understanding of the college admissions process for the kinds of colleges on your list.  You should look for an independent counselor who has the expertise you need (check credentials and professional affiliations) and who has the right personality for you. 

That’s your basic team and these three will be with you through it all. 

Comments or Questions?

Shifting gears and have tips to share?  Post them.  Not sure how to shift gears in your particular situation?  Post your question and we’ll answer it. 

Alison Cooper Chisolm heads the college admissions consulting practice at Ivey Consulting.  She came to private consulting after working in admissions for more than 10 years at three selective universities (most recently at Dartmouth College).  She works with students and families throughout the U.S. and abroad.  Follow Alison on Twitter (@IveyCollege)