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1. At Lewis and Clark, what is the process
for reviewing the application files?
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We have
a committee made up of five to six law professors and two
students elected from the student body. Every application
file is read by someone. The person who reads each file depends
on the statistical profile of the student. For example, a
scholarship committee that is a subset of the admissions committee
will read some applications. Some applications will be read
by a special committee that looks beyond statistical indicators
for indications of law school potential. Essentially, a law
professor, or a student, or a law school administrator will
read each person's file and give a summary of the file to
the whatever committee is making the decision about the candidate.
The reporter will describe where the student went to school,
their major, GPA, LSAT score, what they thought about the
writing, and other significant items in the file. Then, the
person who is given the file to read makes a recommendation
to the committee to accept, deny, or hold for later review.
The committee will discuss the recommendation and make the
final decision.
2.
What advantage, if any, accrues from applying early? How early?
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Significant
advantage occurs in a year where there is a lot of competition
for spaces. That certainly has been the case over the last
few years, especially this year with the LSAT test-taker numbers
being so high. How early? Having a file complete no later
than the end of February, preferably in January is optimal.
Some schools have early admissions programs for people who
want to be reviewed in late Fall before regular admissions
committees begin to meet, but we don't. The reason there is
an advantage is because schools try to make their offers as
early as possible. We, like most schools, have what is called
"rolling admissions." That means that if we get
a file that looks really good in March or early April, but
we've already made enough offers to fill our class, that person
may not get an offer--even though the applicant may be highly
qualified and be someone we would really like to have.
3.
How does the "quality" of the undergraduate institution
the candidate attended affect the applicant?
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It has
a very positive impact, as does the major. It's more important
for someone coming straight out of college into law school.
Since many students are spending time outside of school before
they apply to law school, the undergraduate school becomes
a little less important the longer you have been out of school
and the more other types of experience you have.
4.
What advantage does a candidate receive from applying outside
the "humanities" arena, i.e. science, medicine,
or math?
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. We have
a very strong environmental law program and attract a number
of people with a science background. We also have an intellectual
property program and if you want to be a patent lawyer and
take the patent bar, you must have a science undergraduate
degree in order to do so. So, depending on what kinds of specialties
a law school has, a science degree may be a significant plus.
At some law schools, having a science degree may not be a
detriment, but it might not give you an advantage either.
5.
Is there an advantage to having a double major?
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I wouldn't
say it has a huge advantage, but if someone has had a double
major, it indicates they are able to take on a high volume
of academic work and do well at it. I would say it's better
to do extremely well in one major than to do so-so in a double
major because grade point average is very important.
6.
Is there any advantage to having an international degree?
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No. It's
not an advantage or disadvantage.
7.
How does a graduate degree factor into your considerations?
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It's another
factor to look at when determining if someone is ready for
the academic rigors of law school. Graduate school can be
an indicator that someone is ready for a more arduous academic
experience, depending on what the graduate work is in.
8.
What effect, if any, is there from attending multiple undergraduate
institutions?
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It depends
on how many, how long ago it was, and the reason. For instance,
I might see a transcript where someone had attended 3-4 community
colleges and then perhaps done part of their undergraduate
work at an evening school…if the reason for that was
because someone was working, raising a family, or had to move
for one reason or another, then I would say it was a positive.
Here's someone who has been absolutely determined to get that
education no matter where they were, no matter how they had
to get it. If someone, on the other hand, has transferred
to 2 or 3 schools, and didn't seem to know what their major
was going to be, it can be a negative. You can read it either
way depending on other things that are in the file. This is
a hard question to answer. It's not automatically a detriment,
but it is something that a committee would want to take a
look at.
9.
Does the geographic location of the applicant factor into
your decision?
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Slightly.
We like to draw nationally, but that seems to happen somewhat
naturally. I can't say that it would get you in or out. We
notice when people are from other parts of the country, but
it's not critical. We do try to recruit nationally but we
don't see it as a major factor in making admissions decisions.
10.
Are most of your applicants from the Northwest?
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About
35 to 50 percent of entering classes in the last few years
have been from this region. That means that about half to
70% have been from outside the region. I think it has to do
with our environmental law program.
11.
What effect does age have on your considerations?
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There
is a very positive impression made, at least initially, by
someone who is coming back to school after they have been
out, and perhaps had a career doing something else. It's not
a negative, especially at this law school, because we were
an evening law school for many, many years. All of our students
were working while they were trying to go to school at night.
So, we had an older law school population from the start.
12.
What effect does diversity have on your admissions considerations?
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We are
actively looking to have a diverse student body, so we are
very interested in having students from varying backgrounds
and experiences. This means we look for diversity in age,
ethnicity, geography and gender.
13.
Do you use a multiplier or index, how is it used?
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Yes. It's
an initial way to sort files to determine what committee is
going to read the file. It seems to be a little better way
to get a preliminary indication of someone's ability than
to look at one of those two statistics alone.
14.
Does the multiplier have any impact on just the initial review,
or does it impact the decision?
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It has
an impact on the initial review.
15.
Would you admit someone solely based on the multiplier?
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No.
16.
Which is more important-the LSAT or the GPA?
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We weigh
the LSAT slightly more than the GPA.
17.
Do you average LSAT scores or take the high LSAT score?
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That depends
on the point difference b/w the 2 scores. If there is a 2
or 3 point difference between the 2 scores, the average is
probably telling us the true story. If there is a 10-point
difference, we want to know what caused that 10-point difference
and why the change was so dramatic. If they give a plausible
explanation, we're probably going to look at the high score
rather than the low score in evaluating the person. Again,
it depends on the difference between the scores. By the way,
we use the average of the scores when we report the median,
75th percentile, and 25th percentile numbers.
18.
Is there any disadvantage to canceling or missing the LSAT?
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Not if
you only do it once. Two or three cancellations or missed
LSAT's actually make the committee wonder. It's not a bad
idea to explain why even if it's only been done one time.
19.
Do you consider scores from other tests such as the GRE or
GMAT?
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No.
20.
Does the LSAT Writing Sample affect your decision in any appreciable
way?
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Yes, it
does. I read it particularly in comparison to your personal
essay, which is an edited writing sample of things that you
want to talk about. The LSAT Writing Sample gives me a sense
of how you write under pressure, how much editing it takes
to get your writing to the point it is in that edited writing
sample. It's a comparison between the two. It's also a different
kind of writing-it tells me how well you do when you're thrown
a large set of facts and you're asked to do some analysis
very quickly, as you would be in a law school exam. We definitely
factor the writing sample in, and I'd like to get that word
out to applicants. It's very frustrating to get a file where
a student has written 4 sentences on the LSAT writing sample.
They're not doing themselves a favor. There may be schools
where it doesn't make any difference-but that is not universally
true. You'd better find out from the school whether they read
it before you walk in and say, "Oh, I don't have to worry
about this".
21.
Would extensive work experience outweigh a lower LSAT score/GPA?
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Yes, to
some extent, but it would depend on how low the scores are,
how long it's been, and the reasons for the score or grade
point average. It has more of an effect in terms of how I
would weigh the GPA rather than the LSAT score. There can
be a lot of reasons for a lower GPA-it may mean that the student
wasn't concentrating or focusing. If someone has extensive
work experience and recommendations from lawyers or scientists
who say this person takes on a good workload, is motivated,
articulate, a good problem solver, that sort of thing, it
can help counter the GPA, particularly.
22.
If a candidate is involved in extracurricular activities (social,
religious, and service organizations), does that have an impact
on your decision?
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Yes.
23.
How important is the Personal Statement?
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The personal
statement is very important. I would say that after the LSAT
and GPA, the Personal Statement is the next key item because
it is an edited writing sample. It's important because writing
is so critical to being a good attorney.
24.
How important are the letters of recommendation?
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The letters
of recommendation are more important at the margins. In a
file where the statistics are not as strong (or one statistic
is strong and the other is not so strong), the letters of
recommendation can be helpful to fill in the gap.
25.
Which do you prefer more, a letter of recommendation from
a nobody who knows the candidate, or a letter of recommendation
from an important individual who isn't especially conversant
with the candidates' history?
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The letters
of recommendation really need to be from people who actually
know the person and can talk to who that person is. The famous
person that knows you and thinks you're wonderful doesn't
really help us much.
26.
How do you consider applicants who applied in the previous
year who were rejected?
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It depends
on the reason they were rejected. In years like we've had
the past couple of years where we've had a huge volume of
applicants and we've turned a lot of people down because of
timing and the fact that we simply didn't have room for everybody,
a rejection may not be a negative for next year. If someone
was turned down because there was difficulty with the writing,
or difficulty with the LSAT, it probably is not particularly
helpful to reapply.
27.
How do you feel about someone who completed a year of law
school and who is re-
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It depends
on the reason they want to do it. If it were someone who wants
to start all over, I would really want to know what the reasons
were. I would assume it would be someone who had been out
for a while and could not finish within the allotted time.
Usually what they will do is transfer to another school.
28.
How difficult is it to transfer to Lewis and Clark from another
law school, particularly if they weren't accepted to Lewis
and Clark when they first applied?
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If they
have done extremely well, we can say they outperformed their
predictors and we would be interested in having them. The
bottom line is still the same-do we think this person is going
to be able to be successful here? If we have questions about
that, if they've gone to a school that we don't feel is strong,
and they have performed decently but not extremely well, then
the answer may be the same as it was when they originally
applied. It also depends on why they were turned down here.
We do have people here, actually, who get admitted here, and
then go someplace else, and then apply to transfer because
they have decided they would really rather have come here.
That's an easier question to answer, because you would have
admitted them to begin with, and they've done well at whatever
law school they've gone to. So again, it depends on where
they went to school, what the reasons were for their not coming
here in the first place.
29.
How do you feel about applicants who attended your undergraduate
school?
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We like
them a lot. We get a fair number of applicants from our undergraduate
school, and we have a fairly high rate of offering admission
to those students. I think it's also because it's a very good
school, the students do well in their classes, and they do
well on the LSAT.
30.
How important is work experience in your considerations?
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It's not
critical, but it's very nice.
31.
How long, on average, do you spend on each candidate's application?
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It depends
on the file. Some of them take longer than the others to read,
some are easy decisions, and some make take longer to discuss
among the committee members. Every file is read.
32.
Do you alter your evaluation of a candidate based on the timing
of the LSAT they have taken (June, October, December, or February)?
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No. The
only time the timing can come into play is for people who
take the February test, because their applications are likely
to be pretty late in getting completed. We have people that
I know in the last couple of years took the February test
and it's been too late for them to be considered by the time
we get the test results. But as to whether we think one test
is stronger than another, we haven't ever looked at that.
33.
Does your evaluation of a candidate change if they take the
Sabbath-day observer test?
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No. I
didn't even know there was such a thing. We've had seventh
day Adventists and Jewish students who have not been able
to take classes on Friday night, and we are happy to work
with them. So, if I did know, it wouldn't make any difference.
34.
Do you consider a candidate differently if they have taken
the LSAT with special accommodations?
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No.
35.
Does it help a candidate if they have a specific area of law
that they are interested in?
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It can
to the extent that the area they are interested in is tied
up in their background in some way. Let's say it's an engineer
who wants to do patent law, then yes, that's a positive. On
the other hand if it's an engineer who's tired of being an
engineer and really would like to go into doing wills and
trusts and estate planning, that's fine too, but it may not
be a positive. You don't have to have a specialty. It's fine
if you do, but it's not an absolute help.
I fear
that too many students headed for law school think that law
school is a graduate program where you major in something
like you do in undergraduate school-where you take a lot of
courses in some special field. That's really not the way law
school works. You can do that, and it doesn't hurt, but you
don't have to specialize.
36.
If someone has overcome adversity, is that good topic to write
about in the PS?
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Yes, it
is.
37.
Are there any Personal Statement topics that you feel are
in general less effective?
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No, because
so much of it depends on how it's written. You can get someone
writing a really interesting personal statement about what
they did last summer, and you could get the same topic and
it would be a total bore from somebody else. It really depends
on how it's written. We look at style and content equally.
38.
Are there any Personal Statement topics that are particularly
interesting or something you are looking for?
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Because
so many different people read these files, it depends on the
person reading the file. What I usually tell people is to
put themselves on that piece of paper. Whatever is genuinely
about you and who you are is what people will connect with.
39.
Is there a maximum acceptable length for the personal statement?
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We don't
have a page limit on ours. You might want to remember that
some poor weary committee member who is reading their 10th
file and comes across the 30 page personal statement may not
be as friendly to you as they would have been had you been
more brief. Three to five pages is a reasonable length, but
no one should feel terrible if they go over 5 pages.
40.
How long, on average, do you spend reading the personal statement?
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It's varies
because they are all different lengths. If it's well written
and it's a breeze to get through it doesn't take much time.
If it's not very well written and you're finding that you
have to think about how the grammar needs to be corrected,
it can take a lot longer.
41.
What sets Lewis and Clark apart from other Law Schools?
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I think
it the collegiality among students and faculty, the fact that
people treat one another well here. Students are competitive,
but they are competitive in the sense that they each want
to achieve at their highest level. Students and faculty are
very supportive of each other. If someone has a death in the
family, the other students pitch in and get notes and help
each other out. Different schools have different cultures,
and while I don't think we're unique, we are different from
a lot of other schools.
42.
I know that you are well known for your environmental program.
Are there other programs that you would like to mention?
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Intellectual
property, business and commercial law, tax law, we have a
criminal law certificate, and we do good work with people
who want to go into litigation. We have a very broad and very
well rounded curriculum.
Final
comment: I feel like I gave a lot of "it depends"
answers. I suppose that's a good thing, because it means we
really look at the files and take the person as a whole rather
than relying on one or two specific things.
Facts:
700 enrolled, 215 accepted from 2200 applications.
We had
close to 2300 applicants last year and we will admit somewhere
over 800 students to get a class of 215.
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