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A Bachelor's degree (4 years) is required for entrance to most American law schools, and the degree may be earned in any major a student chooses. There are no prescribed courses required for admittance to law school, which is a three year program. In Wisconsin, there are law schools at the University of Wisconsin Madison and Marquette University.
A student planning to apply to law school should be aware to the following deadlines:
1. Most law schools require applicants to take the Law College Admissions Test (LSAT). The test is administered four times a year. A mock LSAT is available at our Testing Center.
2. Nearly all law schools require first year students to begin their studies in the fall semester.
3. Some law schools make admission decisions as early as October of the year prior to student entry.
4. A student who plans to graduate in May and enter law school that same year (September) should plan to take the LSAT in June after the junior year and complete the law school application forms during that summer after receiving the results of the June exam.
Advisor:
Gruberg (Clow Faculty 422 and 424)
Advice from a UW Oshkosh alumnus who is in law school now, titled "Been there done that – 1st year law school advice":
(1) When choosing a law school, keep in mind factors like: your current needs and a realistic impression of your abilities, and your future career goals. For example, if you are planning on joining a large law firm or the corporate world, a big school name may help you. It always looks better to be in the top 20% of your class and this may be more achievable at a smaller school. The school name will only get you so far, after that it is up to you and you will always get more hands on education at a smaller school where professors are able to test your abilities on a regular basis.
(2) Get a mentor. Preferably an attorney or judge that is established in the community and in the field in which you will be practicing. A mentor should be someone that is able to extend your contacts. Typically in law, as in many other fields, it is all about who you know and who remembers your name.
(3) First impressions count BIG! Your classmates, professors, and administrators are going to be your peers. They could be getting your jobs in the future and sending you clients.
(4) Your first year will be VERY demanding both time-wise and mentally. So it is very destructive to relationships. You probably won’t see your significant other for more than a few minutes a day on most days. One of my professors gave a top ten list on the first day of class and one of them was to never use your newly acquired arguing skills on your loved ones – they won’t be loved ones for long. There are proven statistics on how few relationships last through Thanksgiving.
(5) Try to have some outside activity or hobby that you can do in your limited free time. Something that is completely unrelated to law. Most of my entering class joined gyms for stress relief, plus we were all getting fat from studying so much.
(6) Get a Black’s Legal dictionary (pocket size is best) and a Black’s Legal thesaurus (the brand doesn’t matter, but Black’s seems to be the most complete). During your first year, you will carry the dictionary everywhere as you get used to the legalese. The thesaurus is great when writing papers and preparing for exams.
(7) Keep up with the reading. This is not like some college classes where you could catch up later. You will be expected to have read typically 50 pages of cases before each class and briefed them all. When you brief a case look for the main issue of the case the rule, the facts, analysis and the conclusion. If you do get behind, don’t go back and read just start with whatever is due in the next class. Plus don’t get too far ahead. Even though you may have a great brief sometimes the cases will be very similar and they should be fresh to you. Also, the canned briefs that you can buy in some bookstores are not always reliable. I have seen many students get caught trying to get by with a canned brief. Most schools don’t allow them on campus.
(8) Join a study group of no more than 3 to 5 people. It is preferable to have people that have varying abilities so that everyone can bring something to the group.
(9) Start your class outline/review for your final exams as soon as you can in the semester. Then when you get with your study group you will be able to cut and paste for a complete outline and get to cramming much quicker.
(10) Do as many practice exams as possible. Generally, each professor will post past exams for you to practice with. Turn them in and get the professor’s feedback. Law exams are timed and it is an enormous help to have your format already set before you start an exam.
(11) Some classes will have multiple-choice exams. Buy practice test books with questions and explanatory answers. These are great to go through in study groups. The professors at my school recommended "The Finz multistate method". I think these are similar to the questions used on the California Bar.
(12) Meet with your professors regularly. This has several benefits. First you will get your questions answered more thoroughly and second your professor will get to know you. Remember you may be asking your professor for a recommendation later.
(13) As always ask lots of questions.
(14) Try not to join any of the extracurricular groups your first year. Go to the meetings for the free food.
(15) If you can afford one buy a laptop. I took about 150 – 200 pages of typed notes for each of my classes. You won’t have time to redo notes outside of class. Plus it is incredibly helpful to have them neat and organized right from the start.
(16) Get an internship. But don’t plan on being paid for it until your second summer. There are paid ones available for 1st years but 2nd and 3rd years also apply for these. So unless you have connections it could be very difficult to get one.
*Please remember that this is not an exhaustive list and that these are not in any particular order, I just wrote them done as either I thought of them or when someone else suggested it.