Do you need help with your law school interview prep? You are not the only one. Law school acceptance rates are very competitive. Not every law school candidate has to interview for admission, but for those who do, a good performance can mean the difference between an acceptance vs. a rejection. So, it is important that you be prepared to bring your A-game if you are invited for an interview. This blog will discuss the importance of law school interviews, how common they are, and why you need to prepare for them. We also talk about how professional law school interview prep can help you and, by extension, increase your chances of getting into law school.
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What is a law school interview, and how common are they?
Law school interviews are exactly what they sound like. Essentially, it is a conversation between you, the applicant, and a representative of the law school you’ve applied to. Usually, that is a member or members of the admissions committee, but some schools conduct alumni interviews, which means that instead of speaking with a member of the admissions board, you are interviewed by an alumnus of the law school.
Not every student who applies to law school will be interviewed. Who interviews you, the format of your interview, and whether you are invited for an interview at all will depend on the law school that you've applied to. There are law schools like Columbia law school that do not interview candidates at all. While others like Harvard law school for example, only interview a select number of candidates that they want to learn more about. There are also law schools that offer optional law school interviews. For example, Cornell law school extends interview invitations to certain applicants but they are not a mandatory step of the admissions process. This means that students can choose not to accept the invitation, and they will be penalized for it.
Tip: If you’ve applied to a law school that gives you the option to interview, we strongly encourage that you do so. While you will not be penalized for not requesting one, you will also not benefit from it. In contrast, s good interview can significantly increase your chances of admission.
Most law schools that interview candidates offer traditional in-person interviews, but video interviews are becoming increasingly popular. It is always best to verify the school's admission website well ahead of time so that you can prepare for your interview adequately.
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How important are law school interviews?
Some students believe that law school interviews are just a formality, but this is not the case. Your law school interview is an important step in the admissions process. It gives the admissions committee a chance to learn more about you as a candidate so that they can determine if you are a good fit for their program.
They will typically ask you about your academic background, skills and abilities, personality, current events and the experiences on your law school resume. You may also be asked to elaborate on experiences or details that you may have mentioned in other application components, such as your law school personal statement. In addition to the information you'll be providing with your answers, the interviewer will also be assessing your critical thinking skills, professionalism, and ability to communicate effectively. These are all skills that you will not only need to be successful in law school but also as a lawyer.
Furthermore, the law school interview also gives you a chance to show the admissions board why you are the ideal candidate. It is important to remember that law school acceptance rates are very competitive. Some of the top programs in the US and Canada, like UPenn law school, for example, have acceptance rates as low as 3.6%. So, you need to do everything you can to stand out and beat the competition. This is especially true if you are hoping to get into law school with a low GPA because you will need to show the board that you have grown since your undergraduate and that you have other qualities that will help you succeed in their program.
Why you should prepare for law school interviews well in advance
Preparing for law school interviews is not easy. There are several common law school interview questions that are deceptively simple and that often catch students off guard. Questions like “tell me about yourself” which is very common, but students often misinterpret it. It is, therefore, essential to give yourself enough time o review these common law school interview questions and prepare your answers in advance so that you are not caught off guard and do not forget any relevant information.
Additionally, while most law schools conduct interviews face to face, video interviews are becoming more prevalent, so it is a good idea to prepare yourself for both interview formats. Most students apply to more than one law school, and sometimes, they find themselves in a situation where they have to interview in person for one school and on video for another. It is important that you prepare for the interview format of your chosen school. For example, if your interview will be on video, you need to ensure ahead of time that all your equipment is running smoothly, and that you have a quiet place with no distractions to conduct the interview.
Last, but certainly not least, if you want to ace your law school interview and get into law school, you need to be comfortable and sound confident on the day of your interview. This means that you need to know how to deliver your answers confidently, you need to know what strengths to highlight and how to discuss your weaknesses in a way that shows maturity and growth. All of this takes time and preparation.
What is law school interview prep and how can it help applicants?
Law school interview prep is a service that is offered by law school advisors or consultants. It is a form of interview coaching, where you conduct mock interviews, after which the advisor provides you with personalized feedback with the aim of improving your interview skills. While you can certainly prepare for a law school interview on your own, working with a law school interview prep service can significantly increase your chances of impressing the interviewer, and consequently getting into the law school of your choice.
A law school interview prep service can help you with the following:
Strengths and weaknesses:
If you invest in professional law school interview prep, the advisors can teach you how to highlight your skills, abilities, and accomplishments in a way that does not sound overconfident. They can also teach you how to address your weaknesses in a way that tells the admissions committee that you are still the right candidate for their program.
Law school interviews give you a chance to sell yourself, so it is important that you be able to identify the experiences and skills that make you the right candidate for a specific school. This is not an easy thing to do, and it is especially not an easy thing to explain in a short answer. That is why students often struggle with tackling the strengths and weaknesses interview question.
A law school interview prep service can teach you how to answer tricky questions like those, and by helping you figure out which strengths to highlight, it will help teach you what to focus on when answering other questions that have to do with your abilities.
Relevant information:
Another way that law school interview prep helps students is by helping them identify the information that is actually relevant to their application and law school candidacy and what is not. Much like with other application components, such as your law school personal statement or law school diversity statement, what you leave out is just as important as what you choose to include.
A good advisor has not only been trained to know what admission committees want, but they have also been through the process of preparing for law school interviews more than once with other students. This means that they can use their expert knowledge to identify the key points in your background that you should be discussing and the ones that are simply not pertinent to your candidacy and do not need to be addressed. By helping you focus on the relevant information only, they ensure that your answers will be concise and impactful.
Furthermore, their expertise takes a lot of the guesswork out of the mix. While no one can predict exactly which questions you will be asked during your interview, they do have enough data to guide you in the right direction and ensure that you have the tools and information required to answer different types of interview questions.
Structuring answers:
Some students are skeptical of preparing their answers in advance, but we highly recommend that you do, and a law school interview prep service can help ensure that you do it the right way. A good law school advisor can guide you and give you the strategies you need to create compelling answers. They can teach you how to include concrete examples and incorporate storytelling in your answers so that you are showing instead of just telling the interviewer about your skills and abilities.
Often, when students decide to wing it, they provide incoherent answers, include irrelevant information in their responses, or don't get a chance to mention some of the key points that would make them a more attractive candidate. By preparing your answers well in advance, you are more likely to stay on track because you will know exactly what you want to cover in each response and the order that you want to do it in.
It is impossible to know precisely which questions you will be asked during your interview, but because they've been through this process before, law school advisors know which questions are popular and what concepts you will likely be asked about. For example, the why do you want to study law interview question is a very common question. Although it may be phrased differently by different interviewers, your response to different versions of this question will be pretty similar. A law school advisor will give you the tools to understand this for different law school interview questions and make sure you are prepared for them.
Practice:
A good law school interview prep service will include mock interviews, which are essential for preparing for your interviews. Law school mock interviews give you a chance to familiarize yourself with the types of questions typically asked in a law school interview, and not only practice your answers to those questions, but also your delivery.
During mock interviews, your law school advisor's trained eye may notice things you or a friend may not. For example, maybe you are one of the students that speak more quietly when you are not confident in an answer, or you start fidgeting when you get anxious. A law school advisor would be able to notice this and give you strategies to help you feel, sound, and look more confident during your interviews.
Do you have a law school video interview coming up? Check out our tips:
Interview etiquette:
Depending on your academic and professional background, you may not have a lot of experience with admission interviews. While they share many similarities with interviews in a workplace setting, they can also be quite different. Professional law school interview prep can teach you about the appropriate etiquette, especially if your interview is going to be in a format that you are unfamiliar with.
Students often have a lot of questions about other things surrounding the interview – such as what to wear during the interview or whether they should send a thank-you note after the interview. Typically, students turn to the internet to answer these questions, but having access to a professional who can use their expertise to help you answer these questions takes a lot of the guesswork away, saving you time and stress. Since they have done this before and it is their job to keep up with admission trends, you can rest assured that they are providing you with appropriate information.
Why BeMo is your ideal law school interview prep service
The fact that you are reading this article tells us that you are committed to improving your interview skills, doing well on your law school interview, and getting into the right law school. Professional law school interview prep can definitely help you achieve that. But if you decide that you want to get professional help in preparing for your interviews, you need to invest in a preparation service that will actually make a difference. Here are the top three reasons why that prep service is BeMo:
Expertise: Our law school advisors are experts who have either gone through the process of applying to law school themselves or professionals from top schools who have been on the other side of the admissions process. We only work with those who believe in our mission and who have the expertise to help us accomplish it. That is why fewer than 5% of applicants who want to work with us actually get employed here at BeMo! Furthermore, even after going through our very selective hiring process, these experts are rigorously trained and tested to make sure they understand the admissions process inside and out, including law school admissions interviews.
So when you choose to work with BeMo for your law school interview prep, you don't have to wonder if BeMo Academic Consulting is worth it. You can rest assured that you are getting guidance and feedback from advisors who actually know what they are doing.
Lifelong skills: If you want to maximize your chances of acing your law school interview, then you need to invest in a law school interview prep service that will not only help you do well on your law school interview, but that will give you the tools that you need to ace any interview.
Here at BeMo, we are a student-focused team with a mission to help students achieve their dreams and follow their own intrinsic motivations. One of the many ways we do that is by empowering our students with strategies and knowledge that they can use long after working with us.
One of the many ways our advisors achieve this is by providing unlimited prep. We understand that no two students are the same, so while some of our students can get the hang of the interview within a few tries, others require more practice, and we make sure that they can get that practice. Our advisors work one-on-one with each student, using specific strategies until they are ready to tackle the most challenging law school interview questions. Thus, ensuring that you are getting your money's worth.
Proven track record: Here at BeMo, we have a proven track record of helping students get into some of the best programs in the country, and one of the things that helped us reach our 93.5% success rate is the interview coaching that we provide. That said, you don't have to take our word for it. Our students actually say it a lot better than we do. Take a look at some of our success stories and the many independent reviews they have left to learn more about their experiences with BeMo.
FAQs
1. How competitive is law school?
Law school admission is quite competitive. The acceptance rates for some of the best law schools in Canada and the US are below 10%. So to get into law school, you need a compelling application, and if your chosen school interviews candidates, you need to ace the interview.
2. Do law school interviews matter?
Law school interviews are not a simple formality but an important step in the admissions process. It is your only chance to speak with the admissions committee directly and show them that you are a good candidate on paper and in person. Your law school interview can make the difference between getting an offer of admission and a rejection letter.
3. What exactly is a law school interview prep service?
Essentially, it is a service offered by admission consultants or law school advisors. They help you prepare for your law school interviews by conducting mock interviews and giving you personalized feedback.
4. Does interview coaching work?
Yes, it does! A professional can help you structure your answers in a way that highlights your strengths and addresses your weaknesses without making you a weaker candidate. They can also help you sound more confident and improve your overall delivery during interviews. Thus, improving your overall interview skills and increasing your chances of getting into law school.
5. Do all law schools conduct interviews?
Not all schools invite students for interviews. Typically, the most competitive schools, like Stanford law school,for example, call a select number of students for interviews or give students the option to request or schedule an interview. You should verify the admission process of the school you're applying to.
6. How does law school interview prep help candidates?
It helps candidates by giving them the tips, strategies, and guidance that they need to prepare better answers to law school interview questions, get more comfortable with the different interview formats, and teaching them about law school interview etiquette.
7. What makes a good law school interview prep service?
A good interview prep service will be provided by qualified advisors who have a proven track record of helping students and good reviews. They should offer mock interviews and one-on-one sessions during which they provide personalized feedback.
8. Why is BeMo my best bet for law school interview prep?
To put it simply: our methods work, and our students love us! Working with BeMo means working with admission experts who have helped thousands of students improve their interview skills and get into law school.
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