Students aspiring to go to law school ought to advocate themselves as early as freshman year of college and not depend on “connections” to get them in, a speaker said Wednesday.
Lynda Cevallos, a pre-law coordinator for the Council on Legal Education Opportunity, delivered a presentation titled “Nuts and Bolts of Law School Admissions,” to 20 members of the Boston University Diversity in Law Association at the School of Management.
Cevallos said students seeking to attend law school should not rely on ins with figures such as government officials, as these often fail to provide personalized appeals for students. Instead, they should look to their professors for letters of recommendation that honestly reflect their characters.
“Deans of admissions get a lot of letters from congressmen,” she said. “They don’t care. In fact, it infuriates them because it looks like you’re showing off. This is one scenario where connections really don’t matter.”
She highlighted the importance of both quantitative and qualitative elements for admission, the former comprising a student’s grade point average and Law School Admission Test score, and the latter comprising letters of recommendation and personal statements.
CLEO, a nonprofit organization that is part of the American Bar Association, specifically seeks to help students prepare for the LSAT, according to its website.
“Students always ask me how many times they should take the LSAT, and the answer is once. You really don’t want to do it again,” Cevallos said. “You don’t ever take an official LSAT just to see how you’ll do. That’s why we have the program, so that you can do that beforehand and then prepare yourself for the real thing.”
Cevallos said many students are discouraged by preparation courses’ often exorbitant costs, which is why CLEO offers one-day seminars free of charge.
The Sophomore Summer Institute is one such program which students may attend for three weeks in June to “develop their skills for law school through a rigorous curriculum of legal courses, legal writing, critical thinking and intensive LSAT preparation,” according to the presentation’s power-point.
“There is no reason sophomores shouldn’t apply to this,” Cevallos said. “It’s free, you get a $900 stipend and you get tuition assistance from CLEO in college.”
College of Arts and Sciences junior Timur Navruzov, who attended the Sophomore Summer Institute this past summer, said he found the program quite helpful.
“We took the LSAT twice, once at the beginning of the program and once at the end,” he said. “I improved by five points.”
CAS sophomore and Diversity in Law Association secretary Shana Richards said she hoped attendees profited from the presentation.
“I hope that members of the association understand the opportunities that CLEO offers and that they take advantage of them,” she said.
SMG senior and President Cherelle Glimp explained the association focuses on finding opportunities for underrepresented groups such as women and minorities in law school and the legal field.
“We include community service, LSAT preparation, mentorship and legal spotlights, which is what we did tonight, as part of what we do for students who want to go to law school,” she said.
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