It's no secret that graduate school has long been the hideaway for many an indecisive, unsure, noncommittal student. Those who studied the liberal arts often see law school as a way to turn a seemingly useless degree into the building block of a valuable asset--a JD. Add to this group those who are genuinely driven to become lawyers and you have quite a competition. However, add to that number the hordes of recent college graduates and the newly unemployed trying to gain more skills and wait out the storm of the bad economy in law school and you have a serious fight on your hands.
Show Where You're Going by Using Where You've Been
In the current application climate the second most important message to send with one's application--behind "I'm very well qualified for admittance on paper"--is "I'm not just applying because I don't want to work or can't think of anything else to do in this economy." To do that one must have a targeted application in much the same way one would have a targeted resume for a given position.
