Important Questions to Ask Law School Staff, Alumni

For prospective law school students, this is a great time of year to gather information about schools as a preliminary step in the application process. One important way to gather information is by speaking with people connected to the school.

This week, I'll discuss the ways in which conversations with members of the admissions office as well as with current students and alumni can help students both decide where to apply and strengthen their applications to those schools if they do end up applying.

[Quiz: How ready are you to apply to law school?]

Members of the Admissions Office

A large part of the law school admissions office's job is to attract potential students. As part of that role, admissions offices welcome inquiries from potential applicants. Contact the admissions office to learn more about the school and to visit campus, sit in on a class or be put in touch with a current student or alumnus.

Admissions offices generally keep track of who reaches out to them and who attends events, goes on campus tours or sits in on classes and will use that information to gauge the level of interest the applicant has in the school. The more interested you appear in the school, the more it can affect your application.

-- What are the most common career paths for graduates of your law school? Ask this question to learn to provide you with this information, as it should be an important criterion for determining where you end up going to law school. After all, the purpose of law school is to create the legal career that you want.

Some schools will have a great track record in local private practices or nearby local , state and federal government offices. Others will place a large percentage of their graduates in corporate law. Make sure that the career prospects for recent graduates are generally very good, and that the common career paths are in line with your own career goals.

-- What programs do you have for this specific area of law? This is a great question to ask if you already have a sense of what type of law you would like to practice.

The best way to ask this type of question is to do some research before you reach out to the admissions office so that you can ask about a specific clinic, area of specialty or professor. This will show that you are interested in that school in particular, and your interest has led you to do further independent research and follow up on that research.

-- Is there a current student I can get in touch with to further discuss the experience of being a student here? Admissions offices will often have databases of alumni who are available to discuss the school with prospective students. Note, however, that these alumni were picked by the admissions offices because they had great school experiences and will say mostly, if not entirely, positive things about the school.

You will likely get the most candid information about a law school from alumni that you know through other channels, such as mutual friends and co-workers. In order to accurately understand the experience you will have as a student, it is best to speak to recent graduates, as their experience will most closely match yours if you attend that school.

[Learn three ways for law school applicants to brainstorm a long list.]

Current Students and Alumni

Speaking with current students and alumni is the best way to get a candid account of the actual student experience at a law school. You will likely be spending three years at the school, and the stresses of the academic side of law school make it important to be comfortable in the other aspects of your life so that you can focus on academics and career development.

They will be able to speak most directly to the experience of a law student at that school, including information about the personality of the student body, clinics and other extracurricular activities.

-- What is it actually like to be a student at this school? And similarly, what is the social life like? Is the student body a cohesive group, or do most people work and study on their own? How much competition is there for grades? These lifestyle questions are difficult to tactfully ask an admissions office.

[Ask four questions to determine if law school is the right move.]

Another benefit of speaking with alumni is that those conversations give you material to use in your personal statement, interview and other parts of the application process. The material can help indicate to the relevant school that you have independently researched the school and have a reason for applying other than that the school is a good fit from an LSAT or GPA perspective.

Are you planning to apply to law school? How are you gathering information on the programs that you are interested in? Let me know in an email or tweet me.