Do you work for a non-profit? How about promote positive social change? Manhattan Prep is honored to offer special full tuition scholarships for up to 16 individuals per year (4 per quarter) who will be selected as part of Manhattan Prep’s Social Venture Scholars program. The SVS program provides selected scholars with free admission into one of Manhattan Prep’s Live Online Complete Courses (a $1299 value).

These competitive scholarships are offered to individuals who (1) currently work full-time in an organization that promotes positive social change, (2) plan to use their degree to work in a public, not-for-profit, or other venture with a social-change oriented mission, and (3) demonstrate clear financial need. The Social Venture Scholars will all enroll in a special online preparation course taught by two of Manhattan Prep’s expert instructors within one year of winning the scholarship.

The deadline is fast approaching: July 6th, 2015! 

Learn more about the SVS program and apply to be one of our Social Venture Scholars here.

Manhattan Prep offers instructors flexible hours and great pay ($100/hour for all teaching and $116/hour for all tutoring). As a Manhattan Prep instructor, you will have autonomy in the classroom, but you will also be joining an incredibly talented and diverse network of people. We support our instructors by providing students, space, training, and an array of curricular resources.

Our regular instructor audition process, which consists of a series of videos and mini lessons, usually takes weeks, even months, to complete. Through this process we winnow an applicant pool of hundreds down to a few people each year.

We are offering a one-day event on April 12th for teachers interested in working with us. Candidates who attend will receive a decision that day. The event will take place at our company headquarters at 138 West 25^th St., 7^th Floor, in Manhattan, New York City.  It is open to candidates who live in the tri-state area, have taught before, and are experts in the GMAT, LSAT, or GRE.

The day will include several rounds of lessons, as well as other activities. Each round will be pass / fail. The day will begin at 10:30 am. It may last as late as 5:30 pm for those who make it through the final round. Candidates will need to prepare lessons for some rounds; we will send more detailed instructions to candidates when they sign up for the event.

To register, please email Yanilda at auditions@manhattanprep.com by Wednesday, April 12. Please include in your email a resume including your teaching experience and a score report.

U.S. News & World Report yesterday released the 2016 Best Graduate School rankings.  Like our friends at jdMission have reminded us, all rankings should be approached with skepticism and that “fit” (be it academic, personal or professional) is far more important.

That said, here’s how the top 15 American law schools stack up this round:

1. YaleUniversity

2. Harvard University

3. Stanford University

4. Columbia University

4. University of Chicago

6. New York University

7. University of Pennsylvania

8. Duke University
Read more

Application season is well under way, and early decisions are starting to roll in. Before you know it, the New Year will be here and it’ll be time to finally choose a law school.

I know, I know. It seems like just yesterday you were first cracking open that LSAT study guide, so young and naïve. Scared of what the future held; scared of what your score would be. And scared that you’d be rejected from every law school to which you applied.

However, a recent NYT article points out exactly how misguided you might be—could law school really be a buyers’ market?

SUMMARY

Professor Rodriguez of Northwestern University School of Law says, “It’s insane,” and I agree. We do, however, disagree on what aspects of law school tuition are insane.

According to the article, the number of people taking the LSAT is down over 50% from 2009, and the incoming class of first-year law students is the lowest it’s been since the ’70s. Law schools have reacted in a number of ways, including cutting employees, faculty, and even entire campuses (see Thomas M. Cooley Law School). And many now rely on their parent school to keep them afloat (a stark contrast to the previous decade where these schools were viewed as geese laying golden eggs).

As Professor Rodriguez points out, law schools are now battling over top students. In order to keep their GPA/LSAT numbers up, schools are pulling from an increasingly small pool of candidates with high scores. To do so, they’re negotiating until almost the first day of classes, increasing scholarship amounts to match or beat competing schools. “It’s insane,” he claims, to need to fight with these other schools for students.

I would rebut that it’s insane tuition at his school has increased $9,000/year during this same time period.

THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS

So is law school a buyers’ market, or is that a bit of editorial license taken by the writer?

Law school is a service, and the goal of that service is to get you a job as a lawyer. Because of the financial crisis, legal jobs are a lot scarcer (though they do still pay staggeringly large salaries). And despite fewer positions being available, the amount of work hasn’t decreased that much. This translates to even longer hours than pre-crisis (in other words, the jobs are even less pleasant).

I’m glad to see the article use the “nine months after graduation” metric to measure employment, as other numbers tend to be gamed by law schools who hire their grads to inflate their stats. It’s still important to recognize, however, that 57% doesn’t represent people working at Big Law, or even the public sector. A large percentage also ends up at smaller firms, earning nowhere near the $180K/year salaries most young lawyers dream of. The amount of work, though, is about the same.

So, in short, the “service” being provided by law schools is coming down in value. At the same time, their supply of new students is drastically dropping. And most numbers being reported suggest that the largest drop in applicants is coming from the top of the LSAT pool (see the decline in LSAT averages of even top schools). All in all, it is a good time to be.

HOW TO USE

Emily Trieber is exactly right—treat the relationship as a business contract.

When you first apply, the relationship is extremely asymmetric—you desperately want to be admitted, and they have all the power. However, after you’re admitted, the dynamic shifts. You’re their customer, and they’ve already told you they want your business. It’s hard to shift your view after spending so long hoping for any letter of admission, but it’s important to change your perspective so you graduate with as little debt as possible. And with a few other schools also interested in you as a customer, it’s time to negotiate.

It’s always best to get in touch with the school via phone (or in person, if you can make a visit). Be honest with them about your offers from other schools, but use those offers to leverage better terms from preferred schools. And always be willing to ask—no one has ever had their offer rescinded for politely requesting a lower tuition bill.

That’s really the key—treat the relationship as business one, which entails courtesy. The schools know that tuition is expensive and scholarship offers are on the rise. They also know that applicants are an increasingly rare commodity. Use this to your advantage and don’t accept sticker price as what you have to pay if you want to go to a particular law school. They’ve already told you they want you as a student; now, tell them that, in order to make that happen, they’re going to have to make you a better offer.

For the first time ever, Manhattan Prep is holding a one-day audition for new GMAT, GRE, and LSAT instructors! Come join us December 14, 2014 at 9:00 AM and transform your passion for teaching into a lucrative and fulfilling part-time or full-time career.

Manhattan Prep offers instructors flexible hours and great pay ($100/hour for all teaching and tutoring). In addition to teaching classes, instructors can work on other projects such as curriculum development.

Our regular instructor audition process, which includes a series of phone, video, and in-person mock lessons, usually takes weeks, even months, to complete. However, we are offering a one-day event on December 14^th for teachers interested in working with us. Candidates who attend will receive a decision that day.

The event will take place at our company headquarters at 138 West 25^th St., 7^th Floor, in Manhattan, New York City at 9:00 AM EST.  It is open to candidates who live in the tri-state area, who have teaching experience, and who are GMAT, LSAT, or GRE experts.

The day will include several rounds of lessons, as well as other activities. Each round will be pass/ fail. The day will begin at 9 AM and may last as late as 4:30 PM for those who make it to the final round. Candidates will need to prepare lessons for some rounds; we will send a more detailed instruction packet to those who sign up for the event.

To register, please email Rina at auditions@manhattanprep.com. Make sure to include in your full name, an attachment of your resume detailing your teaching experience, and an official GRE, GMAT, or LSAT score report. We look forward to meeting you on December 14th!

Are You Prepared for Law School Admissions?

Join Manhattan LSAT and Admit Advantage for a free online workshop to help you put together a successful law school application.

This workshop will discuss how right personal statement can make all the difference in your law school applications. Even applicants with great LSAT scores and a high GPA need top-notch personal statements to set them apart from the pack. Admit Advantage’s Director of  Law Admissions will teach you how to make the best impression with your personal statement.

Are you also getting ready to sit for the December 2014 LSAT? Veteran Manhattan LSAT instructor, Brian Birdwell, will focus on what kind of prep to do in the last weeks leading up to the test.  One of the key points here is to be prepared to adapt to little twists that you didn’t expect. Brian will teach you a hard  LSAT game where that’s important.  Detailed Q&A to follow.

Breaking Down Law School: Writing a Standout Personal Statement & Strategy for the December LSAT
Thursday, November 13 (8:00 – 10:00 PM EDT)
Sign Up Here

Below is an excerpt from Andrew Yang‘s new book, Smart People Should Build Things: How to Restore Our Culture of Achievement, Build a Path for Entrepreneurs, and Create New Jobs in America, which comes out in February 2014. Andrew was named Managing Director of Manhattan GMAT in 2006, Chief Executive Officer in 2007, and President in 2010. He left Manhattan GMAT in 2010 to start Venture for America, where he now serves as Founder and CEO. 

Smart People Should Build Things. 

I believe there’s a basic solution to our country’s economic and social problems. We need to get our smart people building things (again). They’re not really doing it right now. They’d like to. But they’re being led down certain paths during and after college and told not to worry, they can figure it out later.

Take me, for instance. I wasn’t very enterprising when I graduated from Brown in 1996. I had a general desire to be smart, accomplished, and successful—whatever that meant. So I went to law school and became a corporate attorney in New York. I figured out I was in the wrong place after a number of months working at the law firm. I left in less than a year and cofounded a dot-com company, Stargiving, which helped raise money for celebrity-affiliated nonprofits. It was extraordinarily difficult. My company failed spectacularly, but I recovered. I went to work for a mobile software company, Crisp Wireless, and then a health care software company, MMF Systems, over the next five years, eventually becoming the CEO of a test-prep company, Manhattan GMAT, in 2006.

I spent five years running Manhattan GMAT, helping young people get into business school. I taught our corporate classes of investment banking analysts and consultants at Goldman Sachs, McKinsey and Company, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Deloitte, as well as hundreds of individual students over the years. Some were exactly where they wanted to be. But there seemed to be just as many top-notch young people who wondered why they didn’t like their jobs more. They sought a higher sense of engagement with their work and their careers. Sometimes they would put words to what they were looking for; they’d say they wanted “something entrepreneurial” or “to be really excited about something.”
Read more

This past week, some really interesting articles about the legal profession, its present and its future, made their way to me. I thought I’d share them here on the blog, since they will also probably interest all you future lawyers! Here they are, in no particular order:

Will computers replace humans as lawyers?

(And will it be this cryptic start-up?  More on it here)

How to fix the justice gap: A controversial suggestion

And more on access to justice:

A futuristic infographic on what’s to come…by a paralegal:

Good news! Lawyers can still act human, and even be fun ones:

A lawyer dad applauds a son’s decision not to become one, too.

Happy Friday! Here is a roundup of some of our favorite news articles and law school tips from the week:

Harvard’s Still Hard to Get Into, Law School Promises (The Wall Street Journal Law Blog)

Students wondering whether to take the plunge into law school may want to consider this: the evaporating pool of applicants could boost their chances of getting into Harvard.

LSAT Sanity: Stop Taking So Many Practice Tests! (Part 2) (jdMission)

What are the Do’s and Don’ts of getting the most out of your practice tests? Here is Part 2 of jdMission’s series.

Are Fully Online Programs a Viable Choice for Law Schools? (Lawyerist)

As everything has raced towards the virtual, including getting a degree online, law has unsurprisingly lagged behind.

LSAT Scores at Top Law Schools Hold Steady Amid Applicant Plunge (The Wall Street Journal Law Blog)

Given that the most competitive undergraduate schools are pumping out fewer prospective lawyers, you might assume that the nation’s top law schools are enrolling less competitive students.

Should The Obama Rankings Be Applied To Law Schools? (Above the Law)

Obama hopes to tie the Obama Rankings to federal financial aid: schools that perform well will have a larger pool of federal money to dole out to students, while schools that perform poorly will have less.

Did we miss your favorite article from the week? Let us know what you have been reading in the comments or tweet @ManhattanLSAT.

Happy Friday! Here is a roundup of some of our favorite news articles and law school tips from the week:

Weigh the Benefits, The Risk of Attending a New Law School (U.S. News Education)

Some new law schools are experimenting with new curriculums that allow students to have concentrations. But what are the risks?

Law Schools Devise Debt-Free Path to Degree (Politico)

Some law schools are exploiting the loophole that could lead to billions of dollars in written-off federal student debt.

A Life Outside Law School—Just Breath (Ms. JD)

Next week law school classes start up again, so this week is 1L Orientation. Here are some great tips for making it through that first week.

Which Law Schools Have the Best Return on Investment (Above the Law)

There’s been a lot of talk lately about the value of a law degree and ATL shares why degrees from some law schools are worth more than others.

Off the Beaten Path: First Lady Michelle Obama (jdMission)

Becoming a lawyer is not the only path you can take after graduating from law school. JdMission takes a closer look at Michelle Obama’s career path.

Did we miss your favorite article from the week? Let us know what you have been reading in the comments or tweet @ManhattanLSAT.