Students from various majors across campus and representatives from more than 100 schools gathered at the Activities and Recreation Center, or ARC, on Wednesday for the Law School Fair.
The event, which was sponsored by the Midwest Association of Pre-Law Advisors and by the Pre-Law Advising Services, was open to all students, alumni and anyone else who was interested in attending. It was mostly targeted toward students looking into or currently in the process of applying to law schools.
The representatives from the many schools in attendance answered any questions students had about the LSAT, their application processes or general admissions questions.
“(The event) had all the information in one place, so you don’t have to just search on the internet,” said Tai Olanbiwonnu, sophomore in LAS. “The representatives are more beneficial; they help you in more ways than you can get on the Internet, where it’s just words and numbers.”
Representatives emphasized to students that location is important when making an informed decision about where to go to school.
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“I would say, just because you’re going to be learning quite a bit of local law, you should take into account where you want to live afterward,” said Michael Gilmer, temporary seasonal recruiter at Drake Law School. “You can definitely move around, but, frankly, it’s just easier if you go to a school where you want to practice just because you’ll have some of that knowledge under your belt coming out of it.”
Some students applying to law school take a different approach when choosing their perfect school than when they applied to colleges for their undergraduate degrees, said Amy Allin, senior in Media.
“(Applying to law school is) a whole different process for me, having to worry about test scores and GPA,” Allin said. “And going into law school you know what you’re going to study and what you’re trying to do. For (getting into an undergraduate program) what was important for me was having a lot of options, and Illinois had a bunch of options for majors in the future, and now it’s time to narrow that focus.”
