July is a crucial inflection point for law school applicants.
For people who applied during this current season, you're likely still waiting to hear from some schools (typically the reaches, whatever those are for you), and you'll want to hang in there right up until orientation.
Unlike admissions for selective colleges and MBA programs, law schools do this goofy rolling admissions regime, and they make plenty of offers during the summer, causing all kinds of unnecessary angst and stress for applicants. When people say that lawyers are bad managers (which is largely true), it starts with the admissions process. I expect this summer to be an especially wild ride, because admissions officers have extra special worries about enrollment for this coming fall.
Speaking of which... I still stand by the advice I've been giving for months now: assume your instruction will be at least partially online and plan from there. If it ends up being safe to go back on campus this fall for a pre-pandemic IRL experience, so much the better. But I think that's optimistic bordering on delusional.
My two cents: I'd still go for it and start this fall. You won't be stuck online forever, and the world needs your talents — turbocharged with a law degree — now more than ever. There are also financial implications: you'd be pushing out your post-law school salary and 401(k) savings by a year, too. Lawyers say they're bad at math, but seriously. Compound returns.
If you do end up taking a gap year, make sure you have something productive planned in advance, otherwise it's a wasted year. It's not as if you can go backpacking in the Andes. (Here's advice that I gave to college applicants, but it applies to you too.)
If you don't end up taking a gap year and are exploring pre-1L prep programs, I recommend this one. You can also watch me chatting with one of their co-founders, Alison Monahan, here.
For people who are applying this coming cycle: some of you just got your June LSAT-Flex scores back. From what I'm hearing, what hasn't changed with the new test format is that test takers tend to be unhappy with their first scores. That's normal, as I wrote about here. Everyone should plan on taking it more than once, and incorporate that retake into your application timeline accordingly. If there's advice you want to pass along based on your June test and score, just hit reply and I'll collect and share your anonymized responses.
Another thing that happens a lot this time of year is that you approach prospective recommenders about writing you a letter, and they turn around and say, "I'd be happy to, just send me your Personal Statement and resume." And you might be in a pickle 🤨because you haven't started your Personal Statement yet, or you haven't gotten it in good enough shape.
It's fine to respond that you're very grateful, that you haven't started the essay yet, but you'll certainly send them a good working draft when you have one. And you can include a paragraph or two in the meantime about why you're applying to law school. Usually that's sufficient for them to work on their letters; they ask for the Personal Statement only because they don't want say something in their letters that inadvertently conflicts with what you're saying in the rest of the application. If you give them the nutshell, that's usually enough to give them that comfort, and then you can send them the polished essay when it's ready.
Very important: give them a deadline, ideally a fake one. In my experience, professors are worse than their students when it comes to procrastination, and plenty of them blow right past it. If you give your recommenders a deadline of October 1, that should give them plenty of time, and it gives you cushion in case you have to chase them down.
And if you have a recommender who tells you to draft the letter yourself (which happens all... the... time), don't do it. More recommendation advice is here.
Onward and upward...
July, July, July: It's Game Time