Books on How to Get into Law School

Hiring a law school admissions consultant is the new-fashioned way to get into the law school of your choice, but like all new-fashioned ways they never fully supplant the old-fashioned ways. In this case: reading books on the topic. Yes, that’s the way it used to be done, and as you will see, that’s the way it still can be done. There are quite a few good books on the subject of how to get into law school. Set forth below are the titles to several of the best, in no particular order…

1. except for this one: Richard Montauk’s How to Get Into the Top Law Schools. This is the Encyclopedia Britannica, eh, I mean the Wikipedia, of law school admissions advice. Get it, and don’t just borrow your older sister’s second edition; the newly released fifth edition has enough new information that it alone is worth the 20 bucks.

Also, now in no particular order:

2. Joyce Putnam Curll’s The Best Law Schools’ Admissions Secrets. Curll is a former Dean of Admissions at Harvard Law School.

3. Susan Estrich’s How to Get Into Law School. Estrich is an estimable law professor at University of Southern California, the former campaign manager for Michael Dukakis’ 1988 presidential campaign, and the former president (i.e., editor-in-chief) of the Harvard Law Review. Why she wrote a book on this topic I do not know, but she sure did a nice job.

4. Anne Ivey’s The Ivey Guide to Law School Admissions. Ivey is a former dean of admissions at the University of Chicago Law School (NOT the one disgraced for having admitted me), and a leading law school admissions consultant.

5. Ann K. Levine’s The Law School Admission Game. Levine is a leading law school admissions consultant.

6. Anonymous’ Law School Undercover. Allegedly written by a current law professor who wished to remain anonymous, this book covers admissions as well as law school itself, but is worth buying both because you will find this latter information useful someday, and because the admissions advice is quite helpful, especially his or her advice on softs, which I intend to elaborate upon in a later blog post.

You will need to hire a law school admissions consultant to get the assistance that no book alone can provide, but if you want at least to make the most efficient and cost-effective use of the new-fashioned way, start with some time with the old-fashioned way. The summer before you apply, pick up Montauk’s book and one or two others and at least read in them. (Montauk’s book, for example, has a guide at pages xiv-xv of the fifth edition to how best to use the book without having to traverse its 600 pages.) When you approach a law school admissions consultant you will find it much easier if you are already up the learning curve. Good luck.

Dan Sullivan

Sullivan Law School Admissions Consulting LLC

dan@lawschooladmissionsconsulting

781-862-0701