Question on Performance Based Admission Programs for Law Schools

[kasandrasikl]

Hey gang, I've applied to two schools (St. Louis Univ and Campbell Univ) that have Performance Based Admission Programs. What other schools have these programs and what do you think of these things?

I have 141 LSAT 3.4 GPA and my letters of recommendation are great and my work experience is stellar HOUSE OF COMMONS and LEGAL AID OFFICE in New York. What do you think board? THANKS keep those letter of acceptance coming!

[GylyraTevog]

Well, I wish I could give you a complete answer. However, I do know North Carolina Central has a conditional program as well. When I went on my interview for Campbell I was given the impression the PBAP was no cakewalk. It's two six hour classes for seven weeks, no credit, and you have to get at least an 84 overall. The stats they give say only 20-30% of students gain admission via this method. So usually out of 50 students we're talking about 15 people. It would seem to be competitive and extremely taxing at the least. However, isn't this similiar to the notorious 1L. I don't know, but I wouldn't place any huge chips on the summer gamble though. Good Luck

[luspikals]

I participated in one at Loyola New Orleans last summer-- I knew it was going to be hard, as they made very clear that the success rate was somehere around 8-10 % In my course, there were 100 students, and 12 made the cut. We took three weeks of instruction--two hours of class per day, six days a week, and had three exams. we had to get 3 Bs to pass without a curve, and I got 2 C+'s and a C.

There was a lot of fishiness to the prog. The intial letter said it was a three hour course, but they told us on the first day that there was no credit allowed, and that the professors would not return our exams nor discuss them. I knew they had us by the balls-pardon the coarse phrase--so I hung on, even though a couple classes were cancelled and some Loyola students made a little business by selling "Conditional Program Tutorials" for 65 bucks a hit. In the end, i recieved a thin rejection letter with three grades on it, no indication of what exams I earned the given grades on.

I warn agianst the real difficulty of such a course, but I IMPLORE ANYONE considering these programs to do their homework and read materials carefully. Also, If you come off a wiatlist, don't assume that your participation in the program or your unsuccessful completion of it remove you from the wiatlist or otherwise disqualify you for admission. I realized months too late that no language in any of Loyola's letters said I was rejected, and that the summer prog was my only hope of admission--I took it to mean such.

So do your homework before and during these kinds of things if you decide to do them.

[albandjanj]

Your internship/work experience is certainly impressive. However, keep in mind the admit officers are numbers driven.

I had someone at the Univ of SC law school explain that work experience, when in the form of internships and the like, is usually much less important than the applicant thinks.

I worked for the US Attorney for a year, was a part-time staffer in Strom Thourmond's DC office for a year, and currently work for a very senior, committee chariman, SC state senator. I worked as a short-order cook nights and weekends while carrying a full load.

All this experience, according to the officer, might help if I hit the borderline. That's it. Unless you do sometihng REALLY significant, i.e. have a few years of executive experience, or won an olympic medal, internships are secondary stuff. No matter what you do, the two things they look at are GPA and LSAT

My college work expereince means squat in the face of a <25th perc. LSAT and barely 25th GPA. As such, I'm gonna be sweating an admit to USC, despite a great deal of relatively prestigious exposure to South Carolina law and government. I applied in September and I was told I wont get a decision until the last week of april.

Again, consider a retake of the LSAT, and certainly express interest --letter or phone call--in the conditional progs at those schools.

I know how you feel about Cooley. It was my only invite last year, so I retook the LSAT and hopefully will get a better offer this year.

Good luck