Georgetown Law Admissions Talk

This Week at Georgetown Law

What’s new at Georgetown Law Center today is that we have just finished hosting over 300 admitted students the past two days. The students got a chance to see the school, attend a mock Supreme Court argument by members of our Faculty, and spend an hour or so over at the Capitol listening to three senior staffers, all Georgetown alums. Our guests were hosted by our Student Ambassadors, whose willingness to give their time made all the difference. Although we were visited with some cold temperatures and snow flurries (we thought of it as a Winter wonderland), I think everyone had a good time and got to get a feel for Georgetown Law School.

There will be more events in the Spring, but for now it’s back to the files of all the people still waiting for a decision. More later.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year from an abnormally warm Washington DC. The law school is beginning to come alive with first year students returning for a special week of classes we call Week 1, which is an intensive week of study where students become advocates and gain an understanding of how legal problems transcend international boundaries. Meanwhile, here in the Admissions Office things have never been busier. We have sent out about half of our acceptances and I look forward to figuring out who the other half will be. For those of you who have not yet applied but are planning to, I encourage you to get your application in as soon as possible. It is most certainly not too late, but the sooner the better! For those of you waiting for your decision, we are working hard to get back to you as soon as we can.

 
Meanwhile, the city is buzzing with the House and Senate changing hands and important debates have begun bigtime. It’s an exciting time to be here in DC and at Georgetown, and I encourage you to come  visit. While it is great to look at places electronically, nothing replaces an in person visit.

 
On that note, it is back to the files. And I will try to post here more regularly. Again, Happy New Year.

Holiday Greetings

 

Good morning from an unseasonably warm Washington, DC. At our last Law Forum of the semester, I had the pleasure and honor of introducing Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) who spoke about his agenda as the new Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. You can see his speech at https://www.law.georgetown.edu/webcast/eventDetail.cfm?eventID=246. It was a particular treat for me, since he is a Georgetown Law Center Center alum.

 Alas, break time is over and it's back to the remaining early action/decision files yet to be decided. According to the report we just received, it looks like applications will be down nationally, probably around 10%. We are currently down about 6%, but the quality remains terrifically high.

So, back to my reading. In case I don't check in in the next couple of weeks, I hope you all have a great holiday and a very healthy and happy new year.

Back in the Office

Fall recruiting is now officially over and it is time to turn my attention totally to the 4,000 or so early files we have received so far in our office. A word about the travelling: Although flying has become a real hassle, I have never enjoyed my college visits more than I have this year. I have been to 15 campuses (the last was West Point where I had a terrific visit) and met over 500 applicants and have found this group to be more informed, more lively and more engaged than I have in the past. It was a pleasure.

As I get ready to dive back in to the early folks, I do want to remind people who have not yet applied that while there will be plenty of room later in the year, I would strongly recommend that you get your applications in as soon as possible. Georgetown Law School has rolling admissions which means as soon as your application is complete, it is considered and decided. If you think of acceptances as chairs in a room, the more the room fills up the more selective we will be.

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving. If you're looking for me, I'll be the one on Friday reading files.

And So It Begins

I'm finally off the road for a few days and thought I would take the chance to let you know that the file reading - the real admissions process we talk so much about - has begun. As someone who has been at this for more than a few years, it's amazing how much earlier it all starts and how, thanks to technology, much easier it is for you to apply and for us to complete your file. As of today, we've received about 3,500 applications and are making decisions every day.

I did want to take a second to talk a little bit about the non-numerical parts of the application. I know most of you think this process is all about GPA and LSAT, but I was reminded this weekend, while I was going through the files, how important the other things really are. Never forget that what I have in my office are files - lots and lots of files. No actual people - just files. And that's where you all come in. Through your letters of recommendation, your resume, and most importantly your personal statement, you suddenly become three dimensional to us. As you think about your personal statement, remember to be focussed and let us get to know you. I almost never call this an essay - it's a personal statement and it is designed to let the Committee get a sense of who you are. We are ready to be persuaded. Go to it.

Truth is, I actually do love this time of year. I've had the chance to get to know our first year student ambassadors better - which I love - and, as I begin to make decisions, I feel as though the process of forming the 2007 entering class has begun. Not to mention the college basketball season begins on saturday... Great stuff.

A Day in the Life: Student Perspective

When Dean Cornblatt asked me to write about my experiences thus far at Georgetown Law, he stipulated that I write just a few paragraphs. You can all consider yourselves lucky: if it weren’t for this request for brevity, I would have subjected you to an expansive account of the all the reasons for my adoration of this school.

For now, I will control myself and just describe two highlights. Please keep in mind that both happened within the span of one week…

First, I quickly discovered how unique Georgetown is for its location. When Supreme Court Justices Breyer and O’Connor had a conference with their prominent friends from the judicial and business worlds, where did they host it? Georgetown Law, of course. We are but a stone’s throw away from the Capitol and the Supreme Court. I was able to help escort Justice Breyer during the event, and at one point I was even given my own personal preview of a speech he later delivered. It was just the Justice and me, a lowly Georgetown 1L, and he asked me to help whittle away at the speech’s content so that he might be as clear and convincing as possible. I did the best that one could under such unimaginable circumstances and tried to give as helpful a critique as possible. The next day, he thanked me for my “help” with a little note in a signed copy of his book, Active Liberty. The lesson, friends, is that Georgetown didn’t just give me the opportunity to meet a Supreme Court Justice. It did so much more by facilitating an experience that gave me a newfound insight into our judicial system. Something must be terribly right with an entity that has such a humble, deeply thoughtful, and selflessly committed man as one of its leaders, and I will always be grateful to Georgetown for allowing me to witness this firsthand.

Next, along with my fellow student ambassadors and Dean Cornblatt, I helped organize a panel discussion. This time I was able to help escort Dr. Philip Zelikow, the Counselor of the State Department. And, like every other student attending, I was able to watch a dramatic debate on U.S. practices in Guantanamo that ensued between the president of Human Rights First, a military attorney, the lawyer (and GU law professor!) who won the Hamdan case for a Guantanamo inmate, and Dr. Zelikow. Every single week there is a forum like this on a hot topic with prominent panelists or speakers from the relevant fields, and they are always in a setting intimate enough that anybody can make their way to the front after the event and personally question one of the panelists.

Well, I fear I have failed in keeping this brief, but I must leave you with one last important idea: the philosophy at Georgetown is that becoming a good lawyer doesn’t simply mean becoming a legal machine. There is a world of wisdom and experience beyond the casebook and classroom that this school is waiting to share with you.

Best of luck with the application process, and I hope that wherever you may end up, that it be as incredible for you as Georgetown has proven for me.

-Mia Havel, 1L

What's up this week

We are getting ready for a very busy and exciting week here at Georgetown. On Monday afternoon, five of our Faculty will be discussing the upcoming cases at the Supreme Court. That night, the Student Ambassadors are sponsoring a Georgetown Law Forum discussion on Miltary Tribunals and the Geneva Convention, a topic that I know many of you have read about. Any of you who are in Washington that night are invited to join us. http://www.law.georgetown.edu/news/releases/september.21.2006.html

And Thursday and Friday of next week, we will be hosting a Conference on Judicial Independence, led by Supreme Court Justices O'Connor and Breyer. www.conferenceonthejudiciary.org.  Really cool stuff.

Meanwhile in Admissions, our travel season begins in a big way next week. I've had the pleasure of spending sometime with our 1L Student Ambassadors, one of whom you will hear from next time in this space, telling you about the first few weeks at Georgetown.

Finally, a reminder that our online application is live and you will be able to submit your application beginning Monday.

That's it for now. To those of you for whom it applies, a healthy, happy new year.

Hello from Georgetown

Welcome to the first installment of our admissions blog at Georgetown Law Center. I'm Andy Cornblatt, the Dean of Admissions.  My goal in doing this is to open the window a little bit on the admissions process and to try to keep you posted on developments here at Georgetown. For the most part, I will be checking in but we will also ask our students to contribute to let you know what law school is like through their eyes.

Classes started here on Tuesday and you can really feel the place come alive. Next week, I will be meeting with our Student Ambassadors, a group of first year volunteers who help me with admissions stuff and student life events. It's a great way for them to get involved and one of the favorite parts of my job.

This is the time of year when all of us are busy organizing our Fall travel schedule. Our plan is to be at the Law Forums and to visit many campuses throughout the country. Our schedule is posted at http://www.law.georgetown.edu/admissions/visits.html and I hope you will be able to come to these events so we can get the chance to meet you personally.

Which leads me to this final point: I suspect many of you think- or are sure- that law school admissions is all about GPA and LSAT and the rest doesn't matter. A couple of centuries ago when I applied to law school, I thought the same thing. Though that is our starting point, I can tell you, as someone who reads every file, the process is much more complicated, thorough and interesting than you think.

So, that's it for now. The weather has gotten beautiful here in Washington and we are looking forward to a new Supreme Court session, the start of the football season and the upcoming elections, in no particular order. For those of you taking the LSAT on September 30, very best of luck and we do hope to get the chance to say hello to you either here at Georgetown or on the road.

Andy Cornblatt
Dean of Admissions