Tuesday was my wedding anniversary. It occurred to me that I have been helping clients with law school admission, financial aid and LSAT preparation for longer than I have been married. Both seem shorter than they’ve been.
I’ve been helping prospective law students for more than 20 years. There are companies that are have been around longer but mostly they change out staff every year or two. Most college and university pre-law advisors have been on the job for far less time than I have.
Singular experience matters, as long as it doesn’t lead to tired, by-the-numbers work. My clients make sure that mine doesn’t; they constantly present new challenges, or new twists on old challenges. The law school and legal markets have changed over the years as well, from a hot market with too many applicants to a chillier one that caused some law schools to close and others to retrench. Each of those changes causes shifts in how my clients and I approach our work, including the right application targets and financial aid possibilities.
Our success has been extraordinary. From a very small client base, in the first year of Advise-In, clients secured admission to all of the top 20-ranked law schools. We’ve only gotten stronger, helping clients secure in the last year, an average increase in their LSAT of over 13 points and over 40 percentiles. Not the end of the story, of course, because the application package and admissions strategies make a tremendous difference in both admissions and financial aid awards.
So, 20 years of success and it keeps building. We are looking forward to an even more impressive year next year…and the year after…and the year after that. Just as in a successful marriage, commitment and dedication are two of the secrets.