my law school application process l gpa, lsat, etc.

hi y'all welcome back to my YouTube channel if you're new here my name is Shirley I also go by likomiha on tick tock the number of subscribers is in terms of the number of subscribers I am so blessed that each and every one of you follow me I grew on Tick Tock just documenting my journey as a first-year law student now in my third year so to continue to be growing and on this platform now it means a lot anyways we're gonna touch on the scary topic of law school application process also disclaimer I'm only talking about my experience as someone who applied to law school in 2020 so things might have changed so don't realize fully on this video just use this as a supplement okay please I saw my law school Journey video already you would know that it took me three years to take the outside meaning that I took a gap I took three years three years and a half really of Gap years between college and Law School I don't have any more water I did not applied to law school at all until I had the LSAT score that I wanted and I only took those at once so throughout those three years I waited for the opportunity once I reached like a 150 range of LSAT score to apply and that's what I did so in 2020 2020 the middle of the pandemic I was literally registered to take the outside so I could apply in 2020 and then enroll in 2021 if you don't know how the law school application process works you have to apply basically the year before you want to enroll and so the pandemic happened the Panini happened and I was the first class cohort or whatever application applicants who took the LSAT Flex you don't know about the Elsa Flex that's a whole other thing but basically the LSAT was remote for us it was only three sections and taking the LSAT was so nerve-wracking I was literally shaking taking that exam my computer crashed after you use another computer it was the worst experience ever anyways that was my LSAT process I took it I believe in April of that was that was April I believe so that was 2020. and I wanted to maximize my chances of getting into law school so I decided that I would do whatever it whatever whatever whatever to apply early so I got the LSAT score I got a 153 and that was actually the medium score for the school that I wanted to get into that was fine by me I was like yeah I think what else like yeah yeah because I know for most schools the application um the application window opens sometime in September or October so I told myself I'm gonna work through this I am going to make sure everything is done and ready for before literally the first day opens for more schools and I and I was also very strategic because I had taken three years and a half of Gap years I was very strategic to remain in contact with my professors because some law schools prefer professors over employers some law schools prefer employers over professors depending on how many years you're out so with letters of recommendation I stayed in contact with my professors from undergrad and when it was time to ask them I told them I needed a letter with much to I think I told them probably in July so that was already set and I told him I needed it by September I reached out to them and I reached out to one employer I believe so I had three letters of recommendation so letter recommendations done all set done unofficial official transcripts that you have to get from your college that was pretty quick I just had to order it and that's it I also in in high school I took one college class for credit so I had to get a transcript for that also that costs money everything is so expensive oh my gosh we'll get it we'll get into that later so that was so we got the outside we got the letters of recommendation we got the um unofficial transcripts the resume for me the resume and then the personal statement was the most daunting because first with the resume you have to list like every volunteer experience you have to lose every internship every job you had so that took a while for me to like really backtrack and think about the dates that what happened the days that happened for this internship the days that happened for this volunteer experience it was it was a lot and you had to like I also had to make sure that the spelling was was correct that you know this was bolded my resume was I think I don't know how long my resume was but it was pretty long and and they want they want you well at least in my experience they wanted you to really go end up with all the things that you have done before Law School post High School I believe oh now the personal statement so the personal statement I feel like apart from your stats your GPA and your LSAT score is probably one of the most important pieces that you could really submit for your law school application process because I really do feel like you could sell yourself through your personal statement I know that sounds so bad like selling yourself like you know other people have talked about like selling your trauma especially as people who you know we don't have lawyers in our families or you know we're the first to go to graduate school and other people who are the first to go to their to college this is where you basically plead guess where you essentially show your writing capabilities as well as the story that really highlights why you should go to law school you should go to their Law School why they need someone like you and also highlighting just your passions for the law so I think for me I was very strategic because I'm already a very critical writer and I think that's what makes me a great writer I've learned that through law school but um I needed people to help me with this so I reached out to my undergrad pre-law advisor and I didn't pay him anything like this is just part of their alumni services like I was able to reach out to him and he helped me through it we had multiple Zoom calls together I sent him drops this took like I'm not joking like two or three months of revision revision revision to the point where I was like okay I'm getting really tired of this like first it was Elsa and that was this like I'm burnt out but he essentially helped me and then after I felt comfortable having a finalized draft I send it to people around like I said to my sister I sent to my co-worker I needed people's feedback and I took their feedback and I edit this more and I and then also I gave my um advisor my resume just to make sure that the formatting was fine and stuff so that's what I did so even after the outside I was still working extremely hard to make sure everything was so by October I believe that's when I submitted all my applications and my personal statement and I only did a personal statement I know some people do a diversity statement but for me my personal statement was based on my drive to be an immigration attorney because of my experiences and I felt like I didn't need a diversity statement because I had already highlighted the like who I am and my diverse background through my personal statement so once I was done personal statement references my official transcripts LSAT score all of that was done and ready to go I submitted it and it was a waiting game the worst waiting period of My Life um so that ass because you know ever transparency I had a high GPA I had a 3.8 something H6 I believe and my Elsa was a 153 I felt like I was in the medium for the median people that were were being accepted to my school that the school that I'm currently in and I was like okay I should get accepted but I'm not sure when that's gonna happen and then and I applied early so like I was waiting October November December and on that Samantha I just felt like yo why is it taking so long like at least time you know and I'm gonna look right now when was the first decision I received um because it was really the worst I'm telling you it was the worst time waiting for a response let's see do I have yes I have even a folder still in my Gmail called law school applications I still remember my first My First Acceptance was December 10 2020 and I cried because I told myself this was like my first choice but I told myself I'm going to law school like period because I had received my first acceptance and then my second second acceptance was the 18th December 18 2020. my third acceptance was January 5th 2021 and my acceptance to my dream law school was January 8 2021 I believe in my Tick Tock still there's a video of me reacting to all my acceptances and I just couldn't remember crying to my mom and just being where I'm at now like I'm a they're my third and final year of law school like I've made it this far it's really it still gets me emotional because I'm like damn it really took so much took me over three years to take the house it took me three years to study for the lsap then it took me a couple months like hammering down my resume my you know my personal statement and then to now just be here I'm really blessed and if I share my stories because I want people to be inspired and to not give up because this process is a lot and it's expensive let me tell you I ca I don't know how how much money I spend but through LSAT prep through the feast to apply then there's fees to apply to every school just that depends as well um on the school and it was the reason why I didn't apply to actually one other school in the city because they had a sixty Dollar application fee and they they didn't want to waive it for me um I don't know I think maybe honestly total three grand three thousand dollars total but I'm not sure it's the estimate I can't verify how much money but yeah that's what I did I didn't pay no Consulting person I didn't pay anyone besides literally just to apply like the the required fees to apply that's all I paid for and my LSAT prep course but yeah I know there's people who try to sell you know consulting or you know someone to help you with the application process but first go to your College pre-law advising department and see if that's accessible to you so that's it I mean I don't know if there's any more questions and the way I was able to cover the fees and expenses of this long journey is because I worked as a full-time paralegal and my job was unionized the last job I had before law school was unionized so I had really good salary and benefits so I really took advantage of that so anyways I love y'all let me know any next video ideas

Channel: Legalmija

Views: 8,886

Keywords:

Id: bDm7EEhBALM

Length: 12min 43sec (763 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 25 2023