Ep 67: Biggest Law School Admissions Interview Mistakes
Today we're going to be talking about the biggest mistakes you can make in a law school admissions interview. Along with that, we'll also give some tips and advice on ways to give the best impression during your interview. So, what exactly should you avoid when you're invited (or you choose) to interview with your dream school?
Episode Highlights
First mistake is not doing your research.
Who are you interviewing with? Is it an alumni panel? Is it the admissions committee? Is it just some random administrator for the school? Is there a particular point or focus for the interview? Not a ton of law schools do interview programs, but they do run them a bit differently and often. Also research more into the people interviewing you if you know who they are.
Particularly if you're interviewing at more than one school, make sure you're saying the right things to the right people. Don't talk about a clinic that another school has. Make a spreadsheet, make notes.
Make sure you know your resume. If you don't remember the dates, the name of a job title, the name of a place you worked, etc. Problems.
If you have an in-person interview, make sure you know where you are going. You don’t want to be late because of parking!
Second mistake is not preparing for the interview.
There are some pretty typical questions that would come up in a law school admissions interview, such as, why do you want to go to law school? Is there a particular club or clinical experience at the school that you are very excited about? Where is it you'd like to work your first summer?
Interviews aren’t much longer than 30 minutes to an hour. Prepare to answer questions relatively quickly, and have an elevator pitch for why you’re interested in the school.
Prepare your tech. If the interview is over the internet, make sure your computers settings are set up and updates are out of the way.
Prepare at least three or four questions to ask them. Having no questions is a mistake.
Third mistake is to not tell the truth.
It’s not an out of the ordinary question to be asked where the school falls within your personal ranking. You can be vague, that's fine, but do not oversell how important the school is to you if it’s not true
If you had an emergency last minute, that's okay. They understand that emergencies come up and will likely attempt to accommodate. Don't lie, don't embellish it, just tell them what happened.
A bonus piece of advice is to send a follow up. Send thank you notes. Email is fine initially, but send something on paper. If you're not totally sure where to send it, just send it to the school’s admissions office, they'll figure out where it goes.
Tweetable Quotes
“You need to send a follow-up, get in the habit. It’s something that you should be doing always if you get out into the adult world...looking for your next job. [If] you made an alright impression in the hiring process up to that point, and it’s you and maybe two other candidates. If the other two turn right back around and send beautiful thank you notes…and you’re the only one that doesn’t. It’s not a good look.”
“If you had an emergency last minute, that’s okay. Tell your interviewers that’s what happened. They are humans. They understand that emergencies come up and will likely attempt to accommodate…Law school is not your only priority, but don’t lie, don’t embellish it…If we have invited you to interview or you have signed up to interview, chances are we are interested.”