I will be graduating in May, taking my LSAT in June, and applying for law schools in the fall [of the same year].

Law school admissions shouldn't just be about getting in the door. It's also about setting yourself up for success once you get to law school, and then getting successfully OUT the door to launch the kind of career that inspired you to go to law school in the first place.

I've observed a couple of points along that trajectory where people sometimes trip up.

A burning question for anyone who applied to law school during senior year of college: It's OK to slack off now, right? Because it's February and:

1.

Summer is coming.  In fact, many families are already making or have made some plans for their summers.  If you are a 9^th or 10^th grader who has ambitions to attend a selective college or if you are a parent of such a 9^th or 10^th grader, I encourage you to use the summers to your advantage.

This week, I've been fielding questions from applicants about the right way to turn down offers from law schools.

For 11^th graders (and some precocious 10^th graders), the testing season is here.  Whether you're taking the SAT or the ACT, it is time for Alison’s Top 3 Tips about standardized tests and college admissions.

Tip #1:  Be strategic about which tests you take.

Your strategy should be shaped by two things: what tests are required by the colleges to which you will be applying and which test suits you best.

I am an avid reader of your blog and had a quick question--is it better to apply now, in January, or to wait for next cycle to do my applications?  Also, if I have a poor cycle this time, how does it look if I reapply to the same schools with a new LSAT score next fall?

If you are in 11^th grade, you’ve probably just started getting serious about the college admissions process.  (And if you haven’t, that opening line is a clue to you that you should!)  One of the most important things to do over the course of the next 6 months is figure out which colleges are going to be “on your list.”  By that I mean, where are you going to apply to college?

In last week's post about letters of continued interest, I referred to a "duty to update," and this week I'll say a little more about that.

As Ivey Files readers know, I strongly recommend that people submit their applications early in the admissions season, ideally before the end of November.

Recently I applied Early Decision to my top choice school and was placed on the waitlist.

Some of you who applied binding early decision this season are already starting to get fat envelopes from law schools. Woohoo! Congratulations. Your hard work has paid off.

What does that mean going forward?

My current GPA, if I've calculated it correctly, is 3.

I've run into a small potential problem with my law school applications.

Good news! Our friends at the LSAT Blog are launching LSAT study guides that tell you exactly what your plan should be day by day. Whew! Makes me glad I don't have to take the LSAT ever again. But... for you lucky people who are in LSAT study mode, or will be soon, check out the study guides here. They are available for 1-month, 2-month, 3-month, and 4-month study schedules.

They are available at a discount until 5 pm Eastern TODAY.

At a recent law school admissions panel, the deans who spoke seemed to agree unanimously that the most significant factor in evaluating a given candidate's GPA against that of another, was the relative "grade inflation" of a given applicant's undergraduate institution.

My post last week talked about when it makes sense to apply to law school binding early decision. I had assumed it was obvious that you can commit yourself to only one school as part of a binding early decision program, until this past week when I received the following email from an admissions officer at a top-10 law school:

[My office colleague] just got a call from a guy who wanted to check with us that it's okay to apply to two schools early decision.

Updated: I'm excited to announce that The Ivey Guide to Law School Admissions has gone digital! The ebook is totally revised and updated, and through October 11, 2010, we have a limited number of free copies for you to download here. On the checkout page, make sure to enter the discount code LAUNCH (not case-sensitive), and you'll then be shown a link for immediate download of the PDF.