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How to get into georgetown law | acceptance rate + tips.

Reviewed by:

David Merson

Former Head of Pre-Law Office, Northeastern University, & Admissions Officer, Brown University

Reviewed: 3/7/24

Interested in learning how to get into Georgetown Law? This ultimate guide will teach you everything you need to know!

Georgetown Law is ranked No. 15 by U.S. News World and Report’s list of Best Law Schools. If Georgetown Law is circled on your school list, read on to learn about its programs, Georgetown Law requirements, admissions stats, and more!

Georgetown Law School Requirements

If you’re planning to apply as a first-year to the J.D. program, these are the Georgetown Law requirements you must fulfill:

A bachelor’s degree from an accredited college
Transcripts from all post-secondary institutions attended
LSAT or GRE scores
A personal statement
A 1-2 page resume
At least one letter of recommendation, preferably from a professor
A conduct statement, if you answer “yes” to any of the conduct questions
Optional essays, limited to 250 words
Optional diversity statement
An application fee of $85 or a fee waiver

Georgetown Law School Letters of Recommendation

Georgetown Law only requires one letter of recommendation but will accept more. Ideally, at least one of the recommendation letters should be written by a professor who can provide valuable insights into your academic accomplishments.

Georgetown Law School Personal Statement

You can write your personal statement on any subject of your choosing, but it’s essential it shares important aspects of you and your life that are otherwise missing from your application. This statement allows you to add depth to your application and leave a lasting impression on the admissions committee!

Some typical personal statement prompts include:

Explain how your background, experiences, and perspectives have shaped who you are today and who you hope to be in the future.
Why Georgetown?
What challenges have you faced and overcome? What have you learned from this experience?

While there is no maximum or minimum for this statement, it’s recommended that you keep it around 2 pages.

Personal Statement Example

“ The sweltering heat of that fateful summer overwhelmed the streets. The chants for justice reverberated through the air “I can’t breathe”. As I stood shoulder to shoulder with activists, I realized that I had lived a life insulated from the harsh realities of racial injustice in America. The Black Lives Matter movement jolted me awake, propelling me into a world where the fight for equality was as critical as the air we breathe. This awakening, the journey from ignorance to awareness, has defined my path to Georgetown Law.

Admittedly, I grew up in a community where the echoes of systemic racism remained distant. I was largely oblivious to the harsh disparities that marred our society. It wasn't until I immersed myself in the Black Lives Matter movement that I started to see the profound injustices that had long persisted, hidden beneath layers of privilege. The tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless others served as stark reminders that the fight for racial equality was far from over.

Through the movement, I witnessed the power of collective action, the strength of voices united against the unrelenting forces of racial discrimination. I took part in protests, community outreach, and engaging conversations that exposed me to the depth of racial disparities in areas such as criminal justice, education, and healthcare. I found myself driven by the need to contribute to lasting change.

The decision to pursue a legal education at Georgetown Law is a direct result of this transformation. I have come to realize that the law is a potent tool for social justice, a means to challenge systemic racism and effect profound change. I am inspired to be part of a community where I can learn from distinguished faculty and fellow students who share my commitment to eradicating racial injustice. I am excited to delve into courses and opportunities that will allow me to explore the intersections of law, race, and equity.

My journey from ignorance to awareness has taught me that it’s not enough to merely acknowledge the depth of the problem; I must be a real part of the solution as well. As I step into this next chapter of my life, I do so with humility and determination, knowing that the journey toward true equality is long and challenging. I am ready to embrace the rigorous academic environment at Georgetown Law, seize the opportunities presented to me, and join a community of like-minded individuals who share my commitment to making a lasting impac t.”

Why This Works

This personal statement is effective because it authentically reflects the applicant's personal growth and transformation.

By openly acknowledging their prior lack of understanding, the applicant not only shows self-awareness but also underscores the powerful impact that participation in the Black Lives Matter movement had on their perspective. This demonstrates a rare humility that many applicants shy away from.

This transparency, combined with their clear dedication to addressing racial injustice through legal education, sets them apart and provides a compelling narrative!

Optional Essays

Students may also answer one of the following prompts in up to 250 words:

1. What’s the best (or worst) piece of advice you ever received?

2. If you could “uninvent” one thing, what would it be?

3. Tell us about a moment in your life that you regret.

4. Describe your perfect day.

5. Share a top ten list with us.

6. Prepare a one-minute video that says something about you. Upload it to an easily accessible website and provide us the URL. (If you are using YouTube, we strongly suggest that you make your video unlisted so it will not appear in any of YouTube’s public spaces.) What you do or say is entirely up to you. Please note that we are unable to watch videos that come in any form other than a URL link.

Law School Interview Questions and Format

Georgetown Law allows students to request interviews with alumni members, but they are optional.

Interview Format

Applicants who are interested in meeting with an alumni member can request an interview. The alumni interview is conducted over Zoom, FaceTime, or a similar portal. Each interview lasts 30 to 60 minutes and allows the interviewer to learn more about you and you to learn more about Georgetown.

Question Examples

While there isn’t a set list of questions you can expect to be asked, you will likely be asked to provide an updated resume to your interviewer before your meeting. Some questions will be based on this resume, and others will be general:

Tell me about yourself.
Why did you pursue X experience?
What is an accomplishment you are most proud of? Why?
Why Georgetown Law School?
Describe your experience with community involvement or volunteering.
Is there anything else you would like us to know about you that is not reflected in your application materials?

Georgetown Law School Acceptance Rate: 19.56%

The acceptance rate at Georgetown University Law Center for the academic year 2023-2024 is 19.56%. Out of 10,827 students who applied, 2119 were accepted.

According to recent admissions cycles, this acceptance rate is within the normal range:

How Hard Is It To Get Into Georgetown Law?

With an acceptance rate of 19.57%, it is challenging to get into Georgetown Law School. Less than 2 out of every 10 applicants are offered admission to this prestigious school.

Source : Georgetown Law

Programs Offered

Georgetown offers several law programs:

Georgetown Law ranks as the 15th-best law school in the nation. Although this ranking technically takes it out of the running as one of the T14 law schools , it is still widely recognized as one!

Georgetown Law School Admissions Statistics

Georgetown school of law average gpa: 3.91 .

Admitted candidates from the 2023-2024 Georgetown Law application cycle had an average GPA of 3.91.

Georgetown School of Law Average LSAT Score: 171

The average LSAT score of successful 2023-2024 Georgetown Law School applicants was 171. This score falls within the 95th percentile, meaning it requires diligent and rigorous preparation to achieve.

Considering this score is difficult to achieve, you should consider LSAT support from 99th percentile tutors who know the strategies and tips to get you to your score with as little stress and hassle as possible!

Georgetown School of Law Average GRE Score: 330

Georgetown Law’s average GRE score for the recent admissions cycle was 330. Here’s the score breakdown: 165 in Verbal Reasoning, 160 in Quantitative Reasoning, and 5 in Analytical Writing. Georgetown is one of the growing number of schools that accepts the GRE in place of the LSAT.

Class Profile

The class profile of the s tudents from a recent admissions cycle demonstrates the school’s commitment to diversity:

14 countries
215 colleges & universities
35% students of color
10% first-generation

Georgetown Law School Tuition and Scholarships

Tuition to attend Georgetown Law School is $75,950. With additional first-year and personal costs, the total cost of attendance increases to almost $110,000.

Here’s the breakdown of these costs:

Scholarship Opportunities

Georgetown offers its students merit and need-based grants, scholarships , and work-study programs to help them afford these high tuition costs.

Georgetown Law School Application Deadlines

Georgetown Law applications for the 2024 admissions cycle open September 5th, 2023, and have a priority deadline of March 1, 2024. All Georgetown Law applicants must submit their applications through LSAC.

Here are the deadlines to keep in mind as you prepare your application.

Georgetown Law has rolling admissions, making decisions as the school receives applications.

Georgetown School of Law Bar Passage Rate: 91.63%

The bar passage rate for Georgetown University Law Center is 91.63%, with 624 students passing the bar exam. On average, the bar pass rate for law schools is 75.49%.

How to Get Into Georgetown Law School: 3 Tips To Improve Your Admission Chances

Consider implementing these strategies to increase your chances of getting into Georgetown Law School:

Keep the Focus of Your Personal Statement on You And Make it Very Personal

Don’t spend too much time describing your hero, grandmother, the field of law you want to study, or the school. Focus on yourself as much as possible.

Additionally, you can touch on topics many can relate to, such as growing up with a single parent or changing your mind about a person or process. However, you should add unique details to make it stand out; ask yourself, could anyone else have written this same essay?

Use Language You’re Comfortable With

Another one of the writing tips to get into Georgetown Law School you should consider is keeping it simple and brief. According to Georgetown’s Career Education Center , “big words do not denote big minds, just big egos!” Use clear language that you’re comfortable with so your message gets across as intended.

Do the Interview

Despite the interview being optional, you’re highly encouraged to complete it. It is another opportunity to show your interest in Georgetown and expand on your application! Plus, it’s easier to make an impression through a real interaction than on paper.

What Does Georgetown Law School Look For?

While academic excellence is important to Georgetown, you’ll have to go beyond high scores to impress the admissions committee. They value intellectual curiosity, a strong commitment to diversity and inclusivity, and a demonstrated passion for public service and social justice.

Additionally, professional experience, leadership roles in extracurricular activities, effective communication skills, and a clear sense of purpose in their legal career aspirations are all factors that Georgetown Law looks for in prospective students.

For any remaining questions about getting into Georgetown Law School, read on to find your answers.

1. How Expensive is Georgetown Law School?

Georgetown Law School costs $75,950 in tuition alone. With additional expenses, students can expect to pay over $100,000 to attend this school.

2. When Does Georgetown Law Release Early Decisions?

Georgetown Law releases decisions on a rolling basis, so students can expect notifications at any time after applying. However, most decisions for early admission are sent out around December.

3. How Long My Personal Statement Should Be?

Aim for your personal statement to be around 2 pages long.

4. Are There Specific Undergraduate Majors or Prerequisites for Georgetown Law Admission?

No, students are encouraged to choose a major they’re interested in that challenges them. You should develop excellent writing and critical thinking skills in your undergrad to best prepare for law school.

5. How Important Are Recommendation Letters for Getting into Georgetown Law?

While your GPA and LSAT scores are arguably the most important application materials, your letters of recommendation can break your application if they are generic, don’t reflect the excellence your scores do, or fail to share insight into your accomplishments.

Getting Into Georgetown Law: It’s Easy With Juris

Georgetown Law is an excellent addition to your law school list. Gaining admission requires a perfected application, an understanding of Georgetown Law’s requirements, and stellar essays.

Juris Education can help ensure that all your application documents are edited to perfection and ready for submission on time. Working with us can help you understand how to get into Georgetown Law while we provide concrete guidance on taking your law school apps to the next level.

Schedule A Free Consultation

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Law School Optional Essays: What to Know

Write optional essays only if they contribute to your case for admission.

Lawyer doing research on the internet using her laptop. Young woman working on a case. Female alone inside a library working on a project

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A classic mistake applicants make is to write as much as allowed, hoping that something will stick. Applicants can best show their professionalism, communication skills and respect for the reader by writing efficiently and purposefully.

Every law school requires applicants to submit a personal statement, typically limited to two or three double-spaced pages, along with a resume typically limited to two pages. These two documents provide applicants with their chief opportunities to detail their interests, goals and path to law school.

Beyond those core documents, many law schools allow other essays, usually optional but sometimes required. Most prominent is a type of essay that used to be called a diversity statement.

Diversity, Perspective or Background Statements

Until recently, almost every law school offered an optional diversity statement. Prompts for diversity statements varied among law schools, but typically concerned an applicant’s identity and background, past hardships or potential to contribute to a diverse and inclusive campus environment.

After the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed race-conscious admissions policies in June 2023, law schools adapted diversity statements in different ways, which will likely continue to evolve over future admissions cycles.

Currently, most law schools offer one or more optional essay prompts that give applicants an opportunity to discuss their perspective, identity, personal adversity, experience interacting with diverse viewpoints or other topics related to diversity.

While it’s hard to generalize about all these essay prompts, they still differ from personal statements in many ways. They are more reflective, looking backward rather than forward. They often have tighter page or word limits.

The purpose of these optional statements is not solely for applicants to detail their unique background. Everyone is atypical in some ways . Rather, these optional essays are intended to free applicants from having to weave together their background and interests within the same two-page statement.

For example, imagine an Armenian American inspired by the trauma of the Armenian genocide to become an international human rights lawyer. This would make a great topic for a personal statement.

But what if that applicant actually feels most passionate about securities law? It would be counterproductive to force such a candidate to awkwardly cram genocide and securities law into the same essay. This is why schools allow applicants space to tell more complicated stories.

Other Optional Law School Admission Essays

Beyond personal and diversity statements, some law schools also allow or require extra short essays. Most commonly, a school might ask about why an applicant would be a good fit for the school, often called a “Why this law school?” essay . These are almost always worthwhile to write.

Some schools have short-answer questions on topics like an applicant’s career goals or how an applicant aligns with the school’s values. A few schools, like Stanford University Law School in California and Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., have offbeat essay prompts that tend to vary from year to year.

Finally, some law schools provide dedicated space for applicants wishing to explain issues often covered by an addendum , like underperformance on standardized tests or in their transcripts.

Are Optional Essays Worth Writing?

A classic mistake applicants make is to write as much as allowed , hoping that something will stick. Many law school applicants fear that if they fail to maximize every possible opportunity to write about themselves, they will appear lazy or disinterested. Therefore, they sabotage themselves by padding their application with redundant and repetitive text.

Applicants can best show their professionalism, communication skills and respect for the reader by writing efficiently and purposefully. Admissions officers have a limited amount of time, perhaps a matter of minutes, to review your application. Anything you write that does not contribute to a coherent argument for your admission risks wasting that time.

Thus, an optional essay is unnecessary if its key points are already adequately communicated through the personal statement or other materials. Optional essays should be used strategically to build your argument for admission. Don’t simply talk about yourself to fill space.

For example, if an optional essay prompt asks for your favorite book, there is no need to lie and claim that it is "The Common Law" by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

On the other hand, before you write about your love of "Harry Potter," consider whether and how that would bolster your application. Unless you can trace your interest in justice to Hermione’s efforts to emancipate house elves, you might be better off choosing another book or skipping the essay altogether.

In sum, optional essays should convey or emphasize something about you that your personal statement and other materials fail to address. If you cannot think of anything else that would strengthen your case, then forgo the essay. Like a lawyer, show meticulousness and fine judgment with restraint, not verbosity.

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About Law Admissions Lowdown

Law Admissions Lowdown provides advice to prospective students about the law school application process, LSAT prep and potential career paths. Previously authored by contributors from Stratus Admissions Counseling, the blog is currently authored by Gabriel Kuris, founder of Top Law Coach , an admissions consultancy. Kuris is a graduate of Harvard Law School and has helped hundreds of applicants navigate the law school application process since 2003. Got a question? Email [email protected] .

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Applying to Law School

Create an lsac account.

This account is your gateway to the law school admissions process.

Register for the Law School Admission Test (LSAT)

You must take the LSAT by December (or, for some schools, January) of your application year, but you should take it in the summer or early fall.

Prepare for the LSAT

If possible, allot at least three months to study for the test, especially if you will be working or studying full-time in addition to preparing for the LSAT. The LSAT is a skills-based test. This means it does not test your memorization skills, nor does it require pre-existing legal knowledge. It also means you CANNOT cram. Taking the LSAT is like running a marathon or learning to play the violin: it requires dedicated practice over an extended period of time.

You should not study for the LSAT entirely on your own. If you decide that you cannot afford or do not need a commercial course, check out the free course LSAC created in conjunction with Khan Academy, as well as these free LSAT preparation materials .

Register for the Credential Assembly Service (CAS)

CAS streamlines your application process by allowing you to submit your transcript and letters of recommendation only once.

Request All Required Transcripts

The law schools to which you are applying will receive your transcripts about two weeks after LSAC does, so request transcripts early in the admission cycle. You should request transcripts from every college that you have attended, including a community college at which you took for-credit courses during high school or a college from which you transferred.

Transcripts reflect an applicant’s GPA and undergraduate course selection. Your GPA and your LSAT score are the two most important elements of your law school application, since schools believe, rightly or wrongly, that they predict future academic success. If you’re reading this as a student, the takeaway is simple: get good grades. If you’re nearing graduation or you have already graduated from college, and your grades are below average for the law schools you would like to attend, then know that you will need to compensate with a good LSAT score and/or experience. Perhaps you should apply to law school once you’ve had ample time to study for the LSAT, and demonstrated your competence in a full-time job.

Law schools do not require (and the American Bar Association does not recommend) a specific undergraduate course of study, which explains why students are admitted to law school from virtually every academic major. That being said, skills like problem solving, critical reading, writing and editing, oral communication and listening, research, organization, and time management all provide a sound foundation for a legal education.

Request Letters of Recommendation

Your references only need to submit their letters once to LSAC. LSAC will make copies of your letters of recommendation and distribute them to individual law schools. You may assign specific letters to specific schools.

Request letters as early as possible, since gathering them will take much longer than you anticipate. One key to a glowing recommendation is not requesting it at the last minute. The most effective letters of recommendation are from professors or work supervisors who know you well enough to support their praise of your academic or professional achievements with specific examples.

Create a Resume

Your resume shows law schools what you have accomplished with your time outside of the classroom. Your resume may be two pages in length unless a particular school limits you to one. Your resume should include education, work experience (which includes unpaid internships), and extracurricular activities, and may also include a “skills and interests” section.

A resume description of a job or activity is not a litany of every task for which you were responsible. Instead, the description should state what you personally accomplished and how, preferably in this format: Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y] by doing [Z] .

Write Your Personal Statement and Optional Essays

Your personal statement is not a recitation of your resume in complete sentences. Rather, your personal statement should tell a story that demonstrates why you will succeed in law school. This could be a story about grappling with personal identity, overcoming an obstacle, or succeeding under pressure. The story could describe a single experience, or a series of related experiences transpiring over the course of many years. What’s crucial is that your personal statement provides insight into who you are and why you belong in law school.

Regardless of what you write about in your personal statement, you must write well. Law schools are looking for strong writers, and admissions committees view your personal statement as a writing sample. Show them that you can be articulate, persuasive, and engaging. For most people, this means multiple drafts over time, so don’t wait until the last minute to write your personal statement.

The two most common optional essays are “Why X Law School?” and a “Diversity Statement.” Read more about these in our Optional Essays and Addenda page .

Complete Each Law School’s Application

Sometime in September, law schools make their applications available on the LSAC website . You will need to complete a digital application for each school to which you apply.

Georgetown Law

J.D./ LL.M. Application Requirements

The Office of Graduate Admissions is here to help at every step of the application process.

Application Form & Deadline

If you are a Georgetown Law J.D. student and interested in the J.D./LL.M. joint degree program, complete the form and submit it with your other application materials. J.D. students from other ABA-accredited law schools interested in applying to the J.D./LL.M. in Taxation must apply as a visitor. Visitors may not apply for the other J.D./LL.M. programs.

Priority Application deadline : May 10, 2024, for students who want to participate in 2024 EAP's and OCI; decision will be issued before May 30.

Regular Application Deadline: August 1, 2024; decision will be issued prior to the start of the Fall semester.

Please note: Please send your spring transcript to [email protected] after your spring grades have appeared.

Application Form

Please complete the application form to accompany your materials.

Submit an up-to-date resume that includes information such as education and work experience (including dates of degrees received and employment, employer names and locations, position titles, and description of work responsibilities for each position held).

There is no specific formatting requirement.

Personal Statement

All applicants must submit a detailed "personal statement" (a.k.a. motivation letter) describing your background, goals, and reasons for applying to the joint degree program. You should include any information that you feel will assist the Graduate Admissions Committee in its decision.

While there are no specific formatting requirements the personal statement should only be 1-2 pages (single spaced) or 2-3 pages (double spaced).

J.D. Transcript

Applicants must submit a copy of their Georgetown J.D. transcript. Unofficial transcripts are acceptable.

Optional Letters of Recommendation

Applicants may submit up to 2 optional letters of recommendation.

Please email all application materials to [email protected] or mail to the following address:

Graduate Admissions

Room 589, McDonough Hall

600 New Jersey Ave. NW

Washington, DC 20001

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Accepted Admissions Blog

Everything you need to know to get Accepted

September 28, 2022

How to Get Into Georgetown Law [Episode 489]

How to Get Into Georgetown Law 489 Andrew Cornblatt Sept 22

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Dreaming of a spot at Georgetown Law? Here’s all you need to know [Show Summary]

It’s hard to get a law education any closer to the heartbeat of policy and legal action than at Washington D.C.’s Georgetown Law School, labeled by the Washington Post as “the country’s most popular law school.” Andrew Cornblatt, the Dean of Admissions explains exactly what it takes to get accepted to this top-ranked and highly competitive program .

Interview with Andrew Cornblatt, Dean of Admissions at Georgetown Law [Show Notes]

Thanks for joining me for the 489th episode of Admissions Straight Talk . Are you applying to law school this cycle? Are you planning ahead to apply to law school next year or perhaps later? Are you competitive at your target programs? Accepted’s Law School Admissions Quiz can give you a quick reality check. Just go to accepted.com/law-quiz , complete the quiz, and you’ll not only get an assessment but also tips on how to improve your chances of acceptance. Plus it’s all free.

For today’s interview, I’m delighted to have Andrew Cornblatt, Metta and Keith Krach Dean of Admissions and Associate Vice President of Graduate Admissions and Enrollment at Georgetown Law . A graduate of Harvard University and Boston College School of Law, Dean Cornblatt has been a member of the Georgetown community since 1980. He became Dean of Admissions at Georgetown Law in 1991 and served as Dean of Admissions at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, now the McCourt School of Public Policy from 2002 to 2016. It’s hard to find someone with more experience in admissions.

Can you give an overview of the more distinctive elements of the Georgetown Law School JD program? [2:36]

I think the two things that are most unique about Georgetown are its size and its location. Georgetown Law is a large law school. I think it’s among the largest in the United States, with 575 entering students. Even though it’s a big law school, we work very hard to make it a big law school with a small law school feel. These are small classes and the campus is beautiful. It’s like a small college with lots of different buildings. We pay particular attention to individual students and their needs. We have big programs, but we have individual people who deserve individual attention and that’s what we focus on.

As far as location goes, we’re right at the heart of Washington D.C. in the center of law in the USA. This is where everything gets made, interpreted, enforced, and implemented. That all happens within a 10-block radius of where I’m sitting right now in my office. When you have that as a resource, and that’s available to you, it enhances the electricity of what you’re studying. It’s hands-on stuff, but it allows Georgetown to be at the crossroads of theory and practice.

When I went to law school all those years ago, and when people go to law school now, so much of it is about the theory of law and what happened way back then and cases from the 1800s. All of that’s important. I’m not saying it isn’t. But this generation of law students is hands-on. They watch it happen on video. They stay attuned to every development every 10th of a second through social media and all of the alerts they get. This is a place that’s right at the center of all of that. That’s part of our course structure too. The plus side of being at a big law school is you have that many more courses from which to choose. But if you want to know where the heart is beating, it’s right outside my window. I think that’s what excites students when they come here.

What are some of the programs that are unique to Georgetown Law because of its location? [5:39]

Let me give you two, even though there are probably 200.

So first, all law schools have clinical programs. It’s a sort of supervised practice where you represent clients. All the clinics are different. Georgetown has the most in the country. This is an expensive education, but we are committed to doing this. You will take your first-year classes, then during the second or third year, mostly in the third year, you’ll be a member of a clinic, which will be for course credit. You could be representing juveniles, tenants, immigrants, or anyone else. You could be prosecuting cases. There are a million different things. Anybody listening here can find all of those on the web. But being in Washington allows you to have that type of commitment as well as the resources, judges, and access to courts that are nearby.

Second, which is completely unique to Georgetown, is our Supreme Court Institute. The Supreme Court Institute is a program that was started maybe 20 years ago where all the Supreme Court cases going before the court are practiced here at Georgetown. When I started, we were at 85%, but now I think we’re at 99%.

I’ll give you a current example. As many of your listeners know, there’s a very important Supreme Court case, mixing the University of North Carolina and Harvard about the use of affirmative action. That case is about to be argued in front of the Supreme Court at the end of October or early November. In the middle of October, I have a rare ticket to this. I will be going down in our replica of the Supreme Court, right here on campus, and there will be a limited number of us that we will sit in as the attorneys for one side. You can only do one side. They sort of try their case. Then we’ll have judges, we’ll play the role of justices. It’s very informative. You get to hear this stuff and how they get questioned. A Supreme Court Institute isn’t going to happen somewhere else. It’s going to happen in D.C. That’s sort of a DC-ish kind of thing. Add to that job and internship opportunities and that’s where D.C. really kicks in as part of the law student’s experience.

Can you touch on what Curriculum A and Curriculum B are, which are offered to first-year students? [8:41]

In almost every law school, during the first year, you take what the school tells you to take. It’s not that different from what I took when I was a first-year student. At Georgetown, you have a choice of whether you want to be in Curriculum A or Curriculum B. We have five sections of roughly 90 to 100 students per section. Four of the sections are Curriculum A and one of the sections is Curriculum B. This is shorthand for all of this, but the main difference is Curriculum B gets at more of the why and not only the what. If you are in Curriculum A, you’re going to be studying cases and learning through the case method. You do that with Curriculum B as well, but you’ll also be learning what was going on in the country at that time. It’s a more “liberal artsy,” if you will, approach to this. It’s geared toward students who learn best this way and really want to know the context.

You’ll get some of that in Curriculum A. You’ll get some of that at every law school. But it’s where the emphasis is. Curriculum B is designed for more students. In curriculum B, we combine classes. It’s more sort of horizontal learning rather than just vertical, encompassing other disciplines. It’s interdisciplinary. It’s not dramatically different. No, one’s getting out of the first year of law school at Georgetown without learning the basics. But if you do Curriculum B, you’ll get more context that way.

Are the Bar passage rates the same for Curriculum A and B? [10:53]

Yes. And the employment rate is the same as well as success in the second and third year. It wouldn’t last as long as it’s lasted if that weren’t the case.

What was Georgetown’s experience this past cycle following the stratospheric surge of the 2020-2021 cycle, which brought a 41% increase in applications? What do you anticipate for the upcoming cycle? [11:47]

The 2020-2021 cycle was exhausting. It was like this rocket ship we all got on, and all of a sudden we’re going way up and we’re not coming down and then all of a sudden we landed and realized we were up 41%. This past year, we were down 19%. So over the two years, that put us up about 13%.

There’s some gravity here. If you think back on the entering class of 2021, we had a presidential race, and we had all sorts of legal matters. The attention on law was so dramatic and vivid and all-encompassing. I have to say, for the most part in a positive way, that lawyers and judges were supplying the guardrails to all of this. Add that to COVID, and people wanted to look toward the future. I think that’s what caused this. The quality of our applicants went way up and stayed up, which is terrific.

Looking at the upcoming cycle, the short answer is I don’t know. Before the surge, we were 10,000 applicants at Georgetown. During the surge, we were at 14,100. Last year, we were 11,300. If I had to bet this year, we’ll be about 10,500. I think it’ll drop a little. I don’t know that for sure, but I think it will. I’m excited to see what happens next. I think it’s still going to be very difficult to get into places. I can only speak for Georgetown, but it won’t be at the 14,000 level. I’m almost sure. I don’t think anyone will ever see that again.

Georgetown accepts the LSAT, the GRE or the GMAT. Approximately what percentage of applicants are applying with the different tests? [14:53]

Roughly 92% are applying with the LSAT. I would say roughly 7% are applying with the GRE. And 1% are applying with the GMAT. It’s still very much tilted towards the LSAT, which is fine. I tell applicants all the time to decide which one shows them off the best , take some sample tests, and see how it feels. If they do well, that’s the one they should take. We were one of the first schools that were allowed to use the GRE, and at the moment, it felt like an earthquake, but now it’s just a little tremor. Everyone sort of settled down and realized we can live with this.

Are most of the students who are taking the GRE or the GMAT applying to dual degree programs? [15:57]

I wouldn’t say most, I would say a lot. Certainly more than the LSAT. With introducing the GMAT and GRE, we were anxious to get more non-traditional applicants or older applicants. Those applicants for whom the LSAT was sort of Mount Everest to climb , but they really would like to do law. It’s worked out well for us.

Check out the median LSAT scores for the top 50 laws schools >>

Are you finding that these tools are equally predictive of success in law school? [16:38]

Yes, for sure.

If the ABA were to decide not to require a test, which they’re obviously considering at this point, would you like to see Georgetown retain a test requirement, issue waivers, or perhaps go entirely test-optional? [16:44]

I think the ABA will allow us to do it. I think it’ll go school by school. I don’t know for sure because I need to talk to the Dean and alums and all the other stakeholders in this. If I had to bet today, I would bet we would be test-optional. I think we will be working on finding the right language to say, “Look, if you are somebody for whom the LSAT can show us what it is that you’re able to do, by all means, supply your LSAT. If you are someone who feels as though this does not show you as well, or you don’t have the tools or resources to be able to prepare as well as you’d like, but you have other things to show, then it will be optional.”

We’re working through this right now. This is a tough one. People have very different views on this. This is the first time there’s been any crack in the foundation of the ABA, ever. I think this comes on the heels of undergrads being test-optional in some schools.

In the end, I think the ABA is going to say each school can decide what they want to do. I’m not saying Georgetown is automatically going to be test-optional. I don’t know that. But right now, if I had to lean one way, that’s the way I’d lean.

How can one write a diversity statement if one comes from a well-represented group in the applicant pool? [19:25]

Well, first of all, no one has to do it. It’s not required. We encourage people to share with us what they want to. It’s part of the overall mindset we have, and that is we want to know everything about you. I don’t want to just know your GPA and your LSAT. I want to know everything about you. Diversity comes in all different shapes and sizes. Of course, there’s ethnicity, and we want to know about that for sure if the applicant wants to write about that. But there are other aspects about applicants that make them different. People aren’t cookie-cutter anymore. That just doesn’t exist. What is it about you that’s a little different that you want to talk about? It may be that you covered that in your personal statement. It may be that a recommender is going to cover it and that you really don’t have much to say.

No one, and I can’t say this clearly enough, no one is penalized for not submitting a diversity statement. It never counts against anybody. You’re right, a lot of people have gone through life, and there’s just nothing of that variety to share with us in that respect. Great. That’s fine. We’ll look at all the other aspects of it. The idea of encouraging this is to encourage the uniqueness of the individual. What is there about you? That’s what we want to know.

Do you have a recommendation for how long the diversity statement should be or do you like to just leave it open? [22:42]

Both. I like to leave it open. And my recommendation would be no more than two pages, but generally, one page could do it. Most diversity statements are one page, but again, it’s so tied with the other parts of the application that you are submitting. It’s hard to give one standard answer to that. But I would say, in general, no more than two pages.

I just had one of these info sessions yesterday, and what I say to students is, “You can submit whatever you want. You’re paying a lot of money to apply. Do it any way you want. But my suggestion is to send us the gold. Send us the really important stuff.”

I’m sure there are lots of other aspects about you, but when somebody is reading 11,000, it can come across as just a little bit lazy when your application is basically everything about you and I have to sort out what I want out of it. Part of the sorting out is on the applicants. If it’s not so important, you run the risk of diluting what will be the most important piece. That’s the last thing you want to do.

Do you like to know why students want to go to Georgetown or why they want to go into law? [24:33]

Those are two different questions.

Let’s do the Georgetown thing first. Plenty of schools ask why their school specifically. We do not ask it because if we did, everybody would answer it because we asked it. I say this to applicants all the time, but if an applicant would like to share with us why they chose Georgetown and why it’s the place they want to go, that wouldn’t be the worst idea. It’s not required. But when I’m reading a file, if some applicant is making a convincing case and has thought about this and thought about the connection to Georgetown, will that have a little bit of a plus? You bet. But you don’t have to do it. It’s not required. But if you do, and it’s well thought out, it wouldn’t be the worst idea.

On why law, our essay is wide open. You can write about whatever you want. Generally, 80% of these essays get to that. The whole thing may not be about that, but they get to that. I think that’s a nice idea and something I’d want to know. But I’d rather not say it’s a must. If there’s something we need applicants to let us know, we ask. If we didn’t ask, we don’t need to know. It doesn’t mean we wouldn’t like to know, but it just means we don’t need to know.

For the personal statement, the thing’s got to be about you. The subject’s wide open. If you want to talk about your grandfather or your son or a trip or an internship or the marching band or the lead you had in the musical, it’s all great if that’s important to you. Bring it on. But I better be learning about you. Not learning about your grandfather, not learning about Mount Kilimanjaro and not learning about the tuba section. None of those things are applying to law school. You are. So what I say to people all the time is when you’re done with your first draft, give it to somebody who knows you well, have them read it, and ask them this question: “If you’d never met me before, do you know me a little better now?” If the answer to that is yes, you’re good. If the answer is no, then you’re not so good. Go back and do it again.

Read sample successful law school application essays >>

Is full-time work experience nice to have or really important to the admissions committee at Georgetown? [27:31]

Nice to have. It depends on what you’re doing. It happens, but what I really don’t want to happen is somebody taking a job or internship they really don’t want because they think it’ll help them get into law school. This may be the parent in me, but you need to do what you are happiest doing. Do I think that law students are more successful if they’ve been out in the world for one, two, or three years? Yeah, I do. But that doesn’t go for all law students. All things being equal, if you want to take some time off, do it. If you’re ready to go to law school, then don’t do it.

I would strongly urge, if you’re in between, to take some time off. A year is fine, but we want students who want to be here. We want students who are ready for law school. It’s not a requirement, for goodness sake, but we find that if you’ve taken a little bit of time off – you’ve paid rent, you’ve been out in the world, you’ve thought about this – that’s the better way to do it.

It’s not the only way to do it for everybody. We have plenty of successful, lovely, highly-qualified applicants who come straight out of college, but that’s been a big change. When I began all those years ago, I would say 25% of our entering class had taken a year or more off and 75% was coming right out of college. In 2022, those numbers are almost exactly reversed. Almost exactly 25% are right out of college and 75% are out in the work world.

Would you prefer applicants who had some exposure to law either by working in a law office or a legal clinic? [30:05]

Yes. For some people, sure. I know this is wordplay, but again, I would differentiate between preferring. Sure, all things being equal, it’s better to have exposure than not, but that’s a very different statement than saying it will cost you or hurt you if you don’t have it. I don’t feel that way at all. If you’re a student and you’re 21 or 22 and you’re going to get a chance to travel the world, that ain’t coming around every year. Is that a great experience to do? Sure. There are ways of talking about this. There are ways of making you more ready for school. It depends on the individual. But for that answer, go travel the world. For the person who maybe has two equally exciting opportunities come up and one is in law, then the tie goes to law. But I would not force that into my life if something else were more appealing at this stage. Go do that and when you’re ready, come apply, and we’ll be happy to take a look at you.

You could just ask for a test score and GPA, if that was the only thing you were considering, but clearly, Georgetown Law considers other factors. What are you hoping to see in other elements of the application? [31:37]

It’s not what I’m hoping to see, it’s who I’m hoping to see. I know I keep coming back to this, but I do because it’s so true, and it’s me getting to know you. Part of getting to know you is how you will fit into this community . Are you ready for this? Do you really want to do this? Have you thought about this? All of that plays into this. I’ve done this enough so that when I read all of these aspects to every applicant, I get a sense of things. Somebody asked me the other day if we use algorithms. I said, “The only algorithms I use are my fingertips.” I swear to goodness, that’s it. There are no formulas in this. As you said, if all I cared about was GPA and LSAT, I could take six months off. I’m not even sure you’d need a person to do that, you have machines that can do that.

It’s not so much what I’m looking to see as I’m trying to get an x-ray of you. Who you are, what makes you tick, and how are you going to fit in here. There’s one other element to our process that Georgetown does and that is the interview. Interviews matter to us. It’s all part of the same theme you’ve heard me talk about ad nauseam here. We have a traditional alumni interview program where we have alums in Providence, Buffalo, San Diego, and Santa Fe.

It used to be in person if you lived in that area, but with Zoom, now everybody lives in the same area. We’ve sifted through the alums and an alum gets to meet our applicants. A lot of law schools do that. Almost all undergraduate schools do that.

What we do is the person who wants to know most about you is me. The one you’re talking to right now, me. So at Georgetown, over the last eight years or so, we have grown and grown to where I’m meeting groups of students. I meet applicants in groups. We do group interviews and by we, I mean me. I’ll meet six or seven people at a time on Zoom and spend an hour with them. I’m not going to say any more than that, but we spend an hour with them.

We’ve built it up now so that last year I met almost 4,000 applicants, myself on screens like this. It is enormously helpful to me. It helps with the x-ray. I can really get to know you. It’s wonderful. Because of Zoom, I’ve been able to travel the world and not leave my office. It’s been grand. I’m talking to people in 50 states. Now, we should be clear on this. Not everybody I interview gets in. But I will tell you that last year I met 90% of the entering class myself in sessions like this.

Are Georgetown interviews by invitation only? [35:19]

Yes. We’ll find you.

But you don’t have to interview to be admitted? [35:23]

That’s correct. People get in without being interviewed but there’s a certain process that goes through when I read a file that first time, and I say to myself, “I’d like to meet her. I’d like to meet him.” When we do, we invite them to interview. I’m doing this for three or four hours a day for five months straight. This stuff matters. Nobody in their right mind does this unless it has an impact on the admissions process.

Who are you? Let me get to know you. Will you collaborate? Can you work together? That’s why I love doing groups. Individuals are interesting, but the group stuff enables me to watch people work together. It’s something I just have a sense of now since I’ve done so many of these. It’s a fun part of the process. Our first one starts next week.

How do you view applications from students who have had an academic infraction or perhaps even a criminal record? [36:37]

It all depends on the individual situation. If it’s academic misconduct or an honor code violation, that’s a tough one. But for plenty of people, that happened 10 years ago. There are three legs to this stool: what was the violation, how do you talk about it, and how does your school talk about it? I’m not talking about you getting caught smoking dope on campus or parking where you shouldn’t have parked. Who cares?

But there are some more serious situations, and if that’s you, you’ve got to go talk to somebody at your undergraduate institution who will vouch for you and will give context and say that it’s not who you are anymore. Don’t think we won’t pick up on it. We pick up on everything. I want to hear what you have to say about it. I want to hear what somebody from your school has to say about it.

The same thing goes for criminal violations. Obviously, there are different degrees of this, and it’s not a good thing to have a record for goodness sake, but there are different aspects to this. It’s on the applicant to supply that context, obviously in the way that’s most favorable to the applicant, but that’s on her or him. That’s not on me.

I don’t want to hear excuses. Again, maybe that’s the parent in me. Where are you now? What steps have you taken? I want to hear from somebody besides you who can talk about this and can put it in context. It doesn’t wash it away. It’s part of who you are and what you’ve done, but there are a million parts of who you are and what you’ve done. This is one of them. It’s big, but if you can explain it away, it’s not an automatic, anything.

Does Georgetown Law consider update letters from applicants who have something significant to tell you after they submit their application before hearing back from you or from wait-listed applicants? [38:59]

Yes and yes, capital letters, exclamation points. You bet. Life changes. Stay in touch with us. I’ve got a terrific staff here and they’ll add it to your application. I’ll come back again and review it. Especially on the waitlist.

What is a common mistake you see applicants making during the application process? [39:37]

Not working hard enough at it. By that, I mean an essay that feels very cookie-cutter with no particular sense. I’ve taken this exam lots of times. I know the answers to this. If someone is not energetic in how they apply or they applied late or their essay is a little messy or it’s really long, I can tell in a heartbeat. That’s, I think, the biggest mistake.

Another common one, but not as fatal as the first one, is keeping arm’s length in the application process. No matter how many times I say it, I want to get to know you well. People are wired differently and you don’t have to tell me every aspect of your life if you’re not comfortable. But to keep me at arm’s length, just for this particular Admissions Dean, doesn’t work so well with me.

What I say to people all the time is the two key words that every applicant should try to be at Georgetown specifically are open and authentic. Be open and be authentic. If you’re those two things, that puts you and will put me in the right frame of mind. I’m trying to get to know you. If you won’t let me get to know you and you want to keep at arm’s length, I’m not saying you won’t get in, but I’m a little less likely to say this is someone we really want at Georgetown. Remember, every applicant about whom we say what I just said, “This is somebody we really want at Georgetown,” will get in. Full stop. That’s it. You get in.

I can’t take everybody I really want at Georgetown, but the ones who give it the extra effort, they were fabulous at the interview, their essay was wonderful, they come across as someone we would love having here, they’re going to get in. But you, the applicants, have to make that case. Have at it, I’m open. Numbers aren’t going to automatically qualify you or disqualify you.

I say to students all the time the way to think of this is that your GPA and LSAT, assuming you take the LSAT, set the height of the bar you have to jump over. I read all the other stuff about you, and depending on how high that bar is, that’s how good the other stuff has to be.

If you look at it that way, that’s exactly how we do it. Applicants should always remember that everybody gets to jump over the bar. There are no cutoffs. Everybody gets a shot. It’s harder if the bar’s higher up but everybody gets a shot and everybody has to jump. You don’t just get to walk around and not have to get up and over the bar. You need to persuade us too. We have too many great applicants at this law school for you just to rely on your numbers.

What would you have liked me to ask you? [43:13]

You did really well. You asked just about everything I would want you to ask me.

I think the last thing I would share is what hurts an applicant. I’d give you two words for that: laziness and arrogance. Don’t be either of those two things. You can study law somewhere else. I got too many applicants who are wonderful and fabulous and who are sitting on a waitlist or who couldn’t quite make it in five years ago they could have, but it’s different now. If you think you’re going to waltz right in, there’s no waltzing at this law school. Maybe you can waltz when you get in and celebrate with the waltz, but you’re not waltzing in. Don’t act like you are. So it’s that arrogance part. Laziness too. Those are the two things I’d stay away from. That’s what can hurt you.

Where can listeners learn more about Georgetown Law? [44:51]

[email protected]

The one thing we didn’t cover, just one quick thing, is when to apply. That’s an element of this, and it plays a role in everything. We have rolling admissions. Most law schools do. It’s different than undergrad. Here at Georgetown, it’s rolling. That means the sooner you apply, the better your chances. People apply, applications get completed, maybe I interview or whatever, and we admit people. I’ll start admitting people in the middle of October.

Think of it as a party. Cornblatt’s throwing a party and those Cornblatt parties are so great, you’d love to come. So if you ask for your invitation and the room is emptier, you are more likely to get a “yes” than as the room gets fuller and fuller and fuller. The first knock on the door to come to my party is October and November. The second knock on my door when it gets so hard is February.

While the recommended deadline may be March 1, I would recommend for all students, if they can, let it be Thanksgiving. Plenty of people apply in January, December, and February. If you’re listening to this and if you’re ready to go, don’t wait around. Seats get filled up.

The last thing I would say is there are two different ways to apply to Georgetown Law School, early decision and regular decision. Regular decision is the typical way to apply and is 85% of our pool.

But there are 10% to 15% for whom Georgetown is their first choice. If Dean Andy sends an email that begins with that delicious word, congratulations, they are in. I can hear them shrieking with joy from my house here in D.C. If that’s what you want, this is where you want to apply early decision. Does it help your chances? A little bit.

I’m sure you’ve had this question a million times, but let me just speak for Georgetown. Early decision admits and regular decision admits are treated exactly the same way for financial aid. My honesty is on the line. I promise you, it won’t matter in terms of the financial aid award you get, whether you’re early or regular. I just wanted to add those two things.

To those of you who are listening to this, I look forward to reading your applications and hopefully welcoming you to law school 12 months from now. Who knows? Thanks so much for having me, Linda.

Law school applications: “Optional” Essays and Addenda

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Many law schools offer students the opportunity to write so-called “optional” essays. Most often, the prompts ask why you’re applying to that particular law school, or how you might want to take advantage of some specific program at their school (e.g., Northeastern’s co-op program). Some are more creative and varied, like Georgetown’s “top ten list” or Michigan’s menu of nine (at last count!) possible essays. In Fall 2023, in response to the Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision, there are a range of new and/or revised optional essay prompts that invite candidates to share how their background and experiences have shaped the perspectives and insights they’ll bring into the law school community.

There are also a handful of questions on every law school application that require elaboration in an attached statement, or addendum, if the applicant answers the question in the affirmative. The two most common addendum questions involve academic challenges and college conduct or criminal records (also known as Character and Fitness questions). As with the “optional” essays and the resume, these statements should be crafted in such a way as to supplement the remainder of the application, not duplicate it. (Addendum literally means “something added on.” The singular is addendum, the plural is addenda. Lawyers love Latin.)

It should be clear that the essays labeled “optional” are not entirely optional — if you don’t take advantage of one or more of the additional prompts, you may leave the committee members wondering why you declined to provide more information about yourself. That said, if you really don’t have anything to add in response to any of the prompts — especially the academic, character & fitness, and background questions — don’t try to shoehorn something only marginally relevant into the essay.

But let’s take each type of additional prompt separately:

First, the character and fitness questions . We have so much to say on these, that we have several additional pages of information and advice here .

Academic addendum

This question usually goes something like, “If there’s anything in your educational background that requires additional explanation, please do so here.” The addendum prompt may be even more open-ended—for example: “If there is anything about your application that you would like to address, you may submit an addendum.” Sometimes the question is clearly mandatory, for example, when you’ve answered yes to any questions about academic discipline. Regardless, this is where you can give the admissions committees additional context to help them understand your poor performance during a particular semester, your less-than-direct path to your undergraduate degree (for example, multiple transfers or significant gaps), or your history of standardized tests not predicting your academic performance. It is not the place to explain away a single bad grade—one failed class will not doom your law school admissions (most law school admissions committee members will understand that Organic Chem is not for everyone).

In drafting an academic addendum, you’ll want to avoid sounding defensive or making excuses. The question in the reader’s mind is not a judgmental, “How could you let this happen??” but rather, “Help me understand what happened during that time.” If a family or personal crisis was going on, don’t hesitate to simply state as much and describe how it affected your ability to get your school work done. You do NOT have to go into great detail about the nature of the crisis if you do not feel comfortable doing so. If the bad semester happened during your first year of college, and had something to do with your adjustment period, know that you’re not alone. A significant number of students stumble their first year (and an even greater percentage of transfer students do so—this is often why students transfer). State the facts simply, and don’t feel that you have to have learned some grand lesson from the process. It’s enough to learn that college is harder than you expected and required more focus, or that a mistaken choice of college can be fixed by transferring, or that it’s hard to balance a demanding family life with college. If your poor academic performance is related to anything that might also raise concerns among some admissions officials about your ability to succeed in law school (drug or alcohol abuse, serious mental health issues, diagnosis with a learning disability, etc.), you should speak with the pre-law advisor about your situation and how you might address those concerns.

If you are writing an essay to support your claim that your LSAT does not represent your potential to succeed in law school, you will need to present convincing evidence in the form of a history of mismatched standardized test scores and academic performance. In other words, you will need to show that your college GPA far exceeded what your SAT/ACT would have predicted. Remember in drafting this essay that law students are most often graded, especially during the first year, based on a single timed test at the end of the semester (albeit an essay exam, not a standardized test), and that to become a lawyer, you will need to take a two- to three-day standardized test known as the bar exam. Admission committee members will want to understand how you hope to overcome these prior challenges in law school, on the bar exam, and beyond. An LSAT-related addendum is really only appropriate (and convincing) in extraordinary circumstances. If you are thinking about an addendum to explain a single bad test-taking experience, the reader will want to know why you didn’t simply retake the test.

Optional essays about background, perspectives, commitment to diversity, etc.

The Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision ended the use of race as a standalone factor in admissions decisions. But the Court made clear that “nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.” Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, 600 U.S. ___ (2023). Accordingly, you should feel free to write about how your life experiences — race-related and not — have impacted your perspectives and your decision to become an attorney. The prompts inviting you to do so may take different forms than they have in the past, though, and you’ll want to pay careful attention to the wording of those questions to ensure that your answer is responsive.

If you believe that your background in any respect has given you a unique perspective, you should absolutely use this kind of prompt to describe it. You’ll want to demonstrate to the admissions committee how that aspect of your life has contributed to how you view the world. You should not however feel that you need to link your background to your future career. In other words, just because you’re a member of an oppressed minority, don’t feel you have to want to be a lawyer on behalf of that oppressed minority. You don’t even need to make the case that your background will shape how you perform as, for example a Black corporate lawyer or a queer criminal defense attorney. The law schools are most interested in knowing how your background will shape your contribution to the law school community — the insights and perspectives you’ll bring — not that there is some connection between your background and the legal career you aspire to.

You may find that there is some overlap between elements of your personal statement and this type of essay. Some overlap is fine. The key is to ensure that you’re using the additional space wisely, for example, to amplify a point you may have made in passing in your personal statement, and not to duplicate much or all of the statement.

Why our law school? Why this program?

For the most common prompt — some version of “Why our law school?” — do your research and identify specific features of the school that will further your educational goals and career aspirations. Are there specific faculty you want to work with, clinical experiences you want to take advantage of, programs you want to be a part of? General flattery of the school (e.g., “the best clinical programs in the country”) is not persuasive. Rather, you want to connect the dots between your biography and aspirations with the school’s offerings. Show why you’d be excited to attend not just any law school, but this particular one.

Similarly, if a school asks how you’ll take advantage of a particular program they offer, make sure there’s a coherent link between what you present here and what you’ve said elsewhere about your interests and aspirations. If you have no interest in public service, for example, don’t pretend otherwise based on the erroneous belief that it will make you look better. It will probably ring false, and that will not help your application.

Creative prompts

Some schools offer optional prompts that don’t look like any of the above, and are instead inviting you to share some more of your personality. Georgetown’s “Top Ten List” and Michigan’s “If you could have dinner with any prominent person…” are great examples. These are generally opportunities to provide the committees with a little more insight into who you are, and what kind of community member you’ll be at their law school. Often they’re a little less formal, but be cautious about how casual and/or humorous you pitch these — remember that tone doesn’t always carry over well in writing. Always make sure you have someone who doesn’t know you review essays of this nature to ensure you’ve hit the right notes.

In sum, think of optional essay(s) and addenda as additional opportunities to market yourself to the admissions committees. Choose prompts and topics that will allow you to expand about parts of you that would not otherwise be evident to the readers. Make sure they complement rather than duplicate your personal statement, resume, and other submissions. And then pay attention to any additional requirements or suggestions the school offers—page lengths, for example, or additional clarifications of what they’re looking for. If you have any questions whatsoever about the nature of the question and whether your topic “fits,” don’t hesitate to contact the admissions staff. They sincerely want to evaluate you based your best work, not the result of a misunderstanding.

And, of course, always feel free to run a draft by the pre-law advisor.

More about Statements, essays, resume, and addenda

See an overview of the entire application process

FightCenter #
Strikeforce Strikeforce
Puder vs. Dalton Puder vs. Dalton

Daniel Puder vs. Richard Dalton

Fighter Comparison

Bout information, event poster.

Fight Details

Event: Strikeforce: Playboy Mansion
Date: Saturday 09.29.2007
Referee: N/A
Venue: Playboy Mansion
Enclosure: Cage
Location: Los Angeles, California, United States
Bout Billing: Main Card (fight 5 of 12)
Pro/Am: Professional
Weight: 265 lbs (120.2 kg)
TV Commentary:
Broadcast: Aired Live on Main Card
Post-Fight Interviewer:
Puder Total Disclosed Pay: Puder Disclosed Pay: $20,000
Dalton Total Disclosed Pay: Dalton Disclosed Pay: $3,000

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Guest Essay

What Worries Me Most About a Trump Presidency

A 3D-modeled illustration of Donald Trump, with his head cut out of frame, speaking at a podium with a presidential seal on the front. Dollars bills and gold coins are spilling from his suit pockets, and he is surrounded by stacks of cash and sacks of money with dollar signs on the front.

By Caroline Fredrickson

Ms. Fredrickson is an adviser at the Open Markets Institute, a senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice and a visiting professor of law at Georgetown University.

There are almost daily headlines now describing what Donald Trump would do if elected: the mass deportations, the pardons handed out to his friends and golf buddies, the Justice Department settling scores and waging personal vendettas. The former president has even promised violence if the election goes against him, warning that it could be a “ blood bath .”

But as worrying as these prospects are, they are far from the biggest threats he poses. What we should fear most is Mr. Trump transforming our government into a modern-day Tammany Hall, installing a kleptocratic leadership that will be difficult if not impossible to dislodge.

I do not discount the possibility of state-sponsored violence, and I worry deeply about the politicization of the civil service . But those are, for the most part, threats and theories, and while they need to be taken seriously, people should be paying more attention to a far more likely reality: that Mr. Trump would spend much of his time in office enriching himself. He failed spectacularly as an insurrectionist and as a disrupter of the civil service, and his clownish and chaotic style may well lead to failure again — but he has succeeded time and time again in the art of the steal. If his grift continues into a second term, it will not only contribute to the fraying trust Americans have in their institutions, but also impair our ability to lead the world through a series of escalating crises.

Recall how Mr. Trump operated in his first term. Not only did he keep his stake in more than a hundred businesses, he made it a practice to visit his properties around the country, forcing taxpayers to pay for rooms and amenities at Trump hotels for the Secret Service and other staff members who accompanied him — money that went straight into his bank accounts and those of his business partners. Those interested in currying favor with the president, from foreign governments to would-be government contractors, knew to spend money at his hotels and golf clubs. According to internal Trump hotel documents, T-Mobile executives spent over $195,000 at the Trump Washington Hotel after announcing a planned merger with Sprint in April 2018. Two years later, the merger was approved.

Government, like fish, rots from the head down. Mr. Trump’s example freed up cabinet members to award huge contracts to their friends, business associates and political allies, while others ran their departments like personal fiefs. After the State Department’s inspector general was fired , Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s use of official trips for clandestine meetings with conservative donors and allegations that his family misused staff members for tasks like walking his dog, picking up his wife from the airport and fetching his takeout came to light. And, in addition to being accused of improperly accepting gifts from those seeking influence, several other cabinet members were alleged to have used government funds for private travel . These may seem like banal infractions, but taken together, they are a reflection of who Mr. Trump is and how he governs.

Throughout his life, through Trump-branded wine, chocolate bars, sneakers, NFTs, ties, MAGA paraphernalia, a $59.99 Bible (of all things ) and, most recently, his Truth Social meme stock ploy, he has shown an unstoppable drive to enrich himself at all costs. He sees politics, like business, as a zero-sum game in which he wins only if someone else loses. These are the instincts that drive corruption, kleptocracy and grift. And, if past is prologue, we’re looking at a much more damaging sequel.

In a second term, Mr. Trump will have more freedom and power to undertake grift. He has already vowed to use pardons to protect supporters and possibly even himself from efforts to curb corruption (which may explain the nonchalance with which his son-in-law Jared Kushner has greeted criticism about the conflicts of interest raised by his recent real estate investments in Serbia and Albania, as well as the Saudi, Qatari and Emirati investments in his wealth fund). And he and his political advisers are building a deep bench of committed and loyal employees who could corrode and potentially destroy mechanisms of accountability in government, paving the way for kleptocratic leaders to entrench themselves in the bureaucracy where many would be able to remain past Mr. Trump’s term. And the mere presence of a phalanx of unquestioning lieutenants in the civil service will ensure that other civil servants fear retribution for objecting to the self-enrichment.

Naturally, I worry about other things, too, particularly the possibility of political violence. Mr. Trump could well claim he has won the election no matter the vote count and call on his supporters to rise up to ensure his takeover. Even before the votes are cast, his supporters are threatening election officials, judicial officials and state legislators, trying to intimidate them into either helping Mr. Trump or stepping aside to be replaced by Trumpists.

But legal, law enforcement and security obstacles are still in place to slow down or stop these efforts. We must remember that this time around, President Biden will still be president, able to control the military and federal law enforcement, and Congress has amended the outdated and vague Electoral Count Act to make it much harder for Mr. Trump’s congressional allies to contest a Trump loss in the electoral college or on Capitol Hill.

No such guardrails exist to curb Trumpian corruption. The Supreme Court, itself corrupt , has made it virtually impossible to prosecute even the most blatant corruption by government officials.

In a kleptocracy, corruption is a feature, not a bug, where politicians apply the law inconsistently , favoring friends and punishing enemies. By controlling government assets and handing them out to friends and family — and dangling possibilities in front of would-be supporters — as well as using politically motivated prosecutions, kleptocrats cement their control of government and disempower opponents. We need only recall Russia’s erstwhile effort to create a democracy: It quickly drained away into the pockets of Vladimir Putin and his oligarchs, leading to the hopelessness and acquiescence of Russian citizens once they realized they could no longer change their situation through democratic means.

Now we face that danger at home. If Mr. Trump wins, America will have a leader invested in his own personal power, both financial and punitive, and supported by a much more capable team. When lucrative contracts are handed out to Trumpist loyalists regardless of merit and dissident voices are targeted and silenced, America’s leadership on the global stage will dissolve when it’s needed most.

The consequences will echo for generations if we lack the ability and the will to attack problems like climate change, mass migration, a new space race and multiple wars. Nothing of substance will be done, Mr. Trump’s cronies will continue to act with impunity, and millions of Americans — already worried that elites are held to a different standard than regular people are — will lose even more confidence in their government, convinced that everyone in Washington is out for himself.

This combination of passivity on the one hand and impunity on the other could be fatal for our democracy. This is the true danger Mr. Trump poses.

Caroline Fredrickson is an adviser at the Open Markets Institute, a senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice and a visiting professor of law at Georgetown University.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

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COMMENTS

Application Requirements
Georgetown Law also grants fee waivers to active Teach for America corps members and alumni, Peace Corps volunteers, military veterans and service members, and Truman Scholars. We do not grant fee waivers for AmeriCorps service. ... An optional response is another way for the Admissions Committee to get to know you. If you wish, we encourage ...
Guide to Writing Georgetown Law Optional Essays
Georgetown Law's Optional Essay Prompts. Georgetown Law regularly changes up their optional essay prompts, so you need to check their website for current prompts when you apply. In 2021, they provided these prompts for applicants to write an optional essay: The optional response is another way for the Admissions Committee to get to know you.
Guide to Writing the Georgetown Law Optional Essays (2023)
Georgetown Law's Optional Essay Prompts. Georgetown Law regularly changes up its optional essay prompts, so you need to check the school's website for the current prompts before you start writing. In 2023, this is the prompt for applicants who would like to write an optional essay: The optional response is another way for the Admissions ...
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The two most common optional essays are "Why X Law School?" and a "Diversity Statement." Read more about these in our Optional Essays and Addenda page. Complete Each Law School's Application . Sometime in September, law schools make their applications available on the LSAC website. You will need to complete a digital application for ...
Application Requirements
The application form for current Georgetown 2L/3E students will be posted in March 2024. Priority Application deadline : April 30, 2024, for students who want to participate in 2024 OCI. Regular Application Deadline: May 24, 2024. Please note: Please send your spring transcript to [email protected] after your spring grades have appeared.
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Opinion
Ms. Fredrickson is an adviser at the Open Markets Institute, a senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice and a visiting professor of law at Georgetown University.