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Who interviews? What does it mean?
Roughly half the schools in the T20 do interviews. Some, like Northwestern, offer interviews to all students. Others, like Harvard, Chicago, and Columbia, offer interviews by invitation only. An invitation to interview is never a bad sign. Sometimes it’s a great sign, and a prelude to an offer, but it’s just as often a chance for the interviewer to ask you genuine questions before they make a decision. You should always treat it like the latter.
This handy spreadsheet tells you which schools in the T20 interview.
Basic All-Purpose Interview Advice
You
must
be prepared to talk about the following:
- your résumé and experience
- your interest in law in general
- your interest in their law school in particular
You should probably be prepared to talk about these:
- an academic or professional accomplishment
- a mistake, failure, or weakness
- a time you worked on a team
A couple other tips:
- Dress business casual.
- Make sure you show up early for in-person interviews. There’s no excuse for being late.
- If possible, plug into your modem for online interviews. Otherwise, do what you can to clear bandwidth: don’t download anything big beforehand; consider moving closer to your router.
- Be friendly, charming, and enthusiastic. Smile even if you’re on the phone. Don’t panic.
- Prepare at least two questions for them.
A Word about Preparing and Being Unprepared
Don’t try to memorize lines—you’ll only sound stilted. Don’t worry about hitting every talking point or being perfect. You’re just having a conversation. Speech is supposed to be messy. If they wanted to see what you could do with time to revise, they would send you written questions.
Expect that you’ll get a curve ball or two. It’s okay to give yourself time to think by saying something like, “Wow! That’s an interesting question! I hadn’t thought about that before. I guess if I had to give a preliminary answer, I’d say…” (But don’t memorize that!) If something really stumps you, it’s okay to say, “Sorry, I’m a little nervous,” so long as you pick up the thread. It’s normal to be a little nervous. They don’t expect you to knock every question out of the park. They just want to see that you can perform in an interview environment without freaking out.
A Note on Questions for Them
At the end of the interview, they’ll probably ask if you have any questions for them. I divide questions you can ask them into two categories: genuine questions and suck-up questions.
Suck-up questions are designed to show off your knowledge of a program or convey your eagerness: “I see that your Immigration Rights Clinic helps clients mount detention challenges, and I’m wondering how successful those challenges have been in the current political environment.” You can also lob softballs at your interviewer: “What does Harvard do to promote a sense of community in its large student body?” Make sure that the answer to your suck-up question isn’t easily available online.
Genuine questions are usually more broad: “what’s student housing like?” I’m a fan of questions like this because I’m a fan of authenticity in general. I think it’s also good to demonstrate that you are seriously considering the prospect of moving to their school and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on your tuition.
A few questions are both suck-uppy and genuine: “What’s your favorite part of the law school?” “What do you remember about your days as a student here?” (The last one only works, obviously, if your interviewer went there.)
After the interview…
You should send your interviewer a short, polite thank you note. If you can’t find your interviewer’s email address, you can send your thank you note to the email address of the general admissions office.
Standard Interview Questions
- Why do you want to be a lawyer? [Duh.]
- What do you hope to do or accomplish with your JD?
- Why are you interested in X type of law?
- Why are you applying to law school now?
- Why are you switching careers? (For older applicants.)
- What interests you about our school?
- Tell me about a time you were challenged while working on a team.
- Tell me about a time you overcame an obstacle.
- What have you learned at your current job?
- Why did you study [something you studied at grad school] and how will it inform your career?
- Tell me about a time you showcased leadership.
- Talk to me about [the hobbies or interests you listed on your resume].
- What do you do for fun?
You can find school-specific interview questions in this this doc.