Excel on your US Law School Application

US Law School Application of a candidate should be spot-on in order to ensure admission. Being one of the top studying abroad destinations, one would not like to miss an admission spot due to poor application. Candidates with at least a 3.0 GPA and an LSAT score of over 165 are considered eligible to apply.

Applicants also require documents including a Statement of Purpose, Updated Resume, Letters of Recommendation, Portfolio, Proof of English Proficiency, etc. According to QS World Rankings, the top 10 law schools in US rank under the world’s top 30 law schools making the U.S. the most preferred destination for law schools.

Table of Contents

Top 10 US Law Schools:
Excel on your US Law School Application:
2.1 Academic Requirements:
2.2 Documents Required:
2.3 Personal Statement:
2.4 Letter of Recommendation:
2.5 Resume:-

Top 10 US Law Schools:

The following table shows the top 10 universities for Law and Legal Studies in USA as per the QS Rankings 2023:-

Name of the institution	Rank
Harvard University	1
Yale University	4
Stanford University	5
New York University	6
Columbia University	8
University of California, Berkeley	9
University of Chicago	10
Georgetown University	21
University of California, Los Angeles	22
University of Pennsylvania	27

Excel on your US Law School Application:

In order to be considered eligible to apply to the top US Law Schools, candidates must first understand the admission criteria and make an application, accordingly. The following steps should be followed in order to complete a US Law School application:

Academic Requirements:

The top US Law Schools require the applicants to show academic excellence in several ways, such as:-

LSAT: The following table shows the top 10 US Law Schools and their respective LSAT score percentiles:-

Name of the institution	25th percentile	50th percentile	75th percentile
Harvard University	170	174	176
Yale University	171	175	178
Stanford University	170	173	176
New York University	169	172	174
Columbia University	171	173	175
University of California, Berkeley	167	170	172
University of Chicago	169	173	175
Georgetown University	167	171	173
University of California, Los Angeles	165	168	169
University of Pennsylvania	167	172	173

GPA: As per the eligibility criteria, candidates with at least 3.0 out of 4.0 GPA are eligible for application. The following table represents the GPA criteria for the top US Law Institutions:-

Name of the institution	25th percentile	50th percentile	75th percentile
Harvard University	3.82	3.92	3.99
Yale University	3.87	3.94	3.99
Stanford University	3.84	3.92	3.99
New York University	3.72	3.88	3.94
Columbia University	3.78	3.87	3.95
University of California, Berkeley	3.74	3.83	3.90
University of Chicago	3.81	3.91	3.97
Georgetown University	3.66	3.86	3.94
University of California, Los Angeles	3.52	3.72	3.85
University of Pennsylvania	3.6	3.9	3.96

GRE: The top three universities that require a GRE score are:-

Name of the institution	Median Quantitative Score	Median Verbal Score
Harvard University	167	168
Stanford University	165	167
Georgetown University	160	165

Documents Required

A general US Law School Application consists of a number of document submissions such as proof of financial stability, proof of English proficiency, Personal Statement, LOR, etc. The following subsections highlight the steps to making a successful US Law School Application:-

Personal Statement

In order to get admission into a US Law School, candidates are required to submit a 500 to 1,000-word Personal Statement containing all their qualifications, qualities, accomplishments, and future plans. You may keep the following steps in mind while making the personal statement:-

Skills: Make a list of all the skills in such a way that the most relevant skills to the program can be found at the top and less-program-specific skills remain at the bottom.
Achievements: Mention all of your achievements with the correct timeline in your statement. It will help the examiner to track your progress.
Inspiration: Write about what inspires you the most. Your view towards the field of study and what changes you may make in the field in the future.
Future planning: Mention if you have a plan of pursuing further studies in the future or if you wish to practice Law in a specific country, along with a justified reason.

Make sure that the personal statement is presentable and it is made in a neat and clean way. You can always take the help of your teacher, guide, or mentor for making the personal statement as it is one of the most important parts of your application.

The following are some of US Law universities that offer admission without any Personal Statement:

California State University
University of Iowa
Eastern Michigan university
Kansas State university
University of South Florida

Letter of Recommendation

A majority of US Universities require the applicants to submit 2 academic and 1 professional Letter of Recommendation (LOR). The academic LORs are provided by the professors of your previous institution while the professional LOR comes from the institution where you have previously worked. Make sure both the LORs point out your academic and professional achievements as well as your concentration in a given field of work or study.

Meanwhile, there exist a few universities in the USA offering Law programs without any LOR, such as:-

Florida State University
Grand Canyon University
Indiana University
Pennsylvania State University
Rutgers University

Resume

A Resume is a document containing all the academic and professional information of a candidate. A presentable and updated resume ensures that the reader understands the potential of the candidate and, hence, it makes the evaluation of the candidate easy. Make sure you Resume contains the following things:-

Academic qualifications: It should contain the name of your school and college dating back to primary school and going up until graduation or the last qualification.
Scores: Do not forget to mention your aggregate at every level of your schooling and college.
Awards: Add the names of all the awards that you have achieved in extra-curricular activities and other events.
Experience: If you have worked for an association or a firm, then you should mention your experience and also elaborate on your position and role in the company.
Interest: Make your CV interesting by adding your hobbies and interests to it. Playing mental games such as Chess, Sudoku, Othello, etc. shows your thinking ability.

The Curriculum Vitae should be updated and presentable as it makes the first impression of the candidate in the examiner’s mind. Therefore, select a reactive and interactive layout for your resume.