Preparing for a career in law

What are law schools seeking in an applicant?

In general, law schools want a diverse student body representing a wide variety of experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives. For every issue that might arise in class discussion, their ideal situation would be to have one or two students who could comment on it from actual life experiences. Specific legal training or experience is not necessary to success in gaining admission to law school. Instead, law schools are looking for interesting and varied "raw material" to work with: well-rounded, thoughtful, involved, reflective, ethical, hard-working, passionate, intellectually curious, experienced, mature, focused, and motivated people who have done interesting things with their lives. While having a particular major is not important, admissions personnel do want to see academic evidence that a student can write well, think analytically, and can handle pressures comparable to those experienced during the intense first year of law school.