On Friday, March 27, 2020, the President signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which provides relief to student loan borrowers.  Here’s what this means for you.

Just over twenty years ago, the Seton Hall family experienced an inconceivable tragedy as three freshmen students, Aaron Karol, John Giunta and Frank Caltabilota, lost their lives in an early morning fire in the North Boland dormitory.  Members of the priest community decided then to divide ourselves among the three families, each of us accompanying one family during the days of mourning. I attended the Karol family.

So, you want to go to law school?  You already know you will need to complete the LSAT exam, as well as the LSAT Writing requirement.  LSAT Writing is a thirty-five minute writing assignment requiring you to assess a hypothetical problem, select between two possible solutions and write a persuasive essay advocating for one side.  While the essay is not scored, it will play a role in admissions committees’ evaluation of your application so you will want to make the best possible impression.

Issa DiSciullo jumped right into her role as Seton Hall Law’s Assistant Dean for JD and Graduate Admissions when she took the helm in September 2019. As a national leader in admissions and a recognized expert in diversity and inclusion, she is already making tremendous strides as she commits to providing equal access to education for every prospective student. We asked Dean DiSciullo what she loves about higher education and what she hopes for interested applicants.

I recently presented keys to success at a law firm as part of the Women’s Leadership Committee’s programming. These tips are things I learned along the way during my career, things I saw others doing, or things that I wish I had done differently or better while in practice since hindsight is 20/20.

Once you have tackled your personal statement and secured outstanding letters of recommendation, it is time to stand back and look at the “pieces” of your law school application objectively. It is helpful to view your law school application as a puzzle to be understood by the readers (those evaluating your potential for success in law school and in a legal career).

In most cases the readers will only get to know you from the items in your application file. There will be no interview and no other way to assess your potential. So, stand back and objectively determine – with everything that will be seen in my admissions file, what raises questions? What are the missing puzzle pieces to understanding why I am a good candidate for admission?

If you feel that your application, when viewed as a whole, is missing an important piece of information that could answer the above questions, you should consider writing an addendum. Below are the most common types of addenda we see:  

It’s going to sound cliché, but as I approached the end of my 2L summer I started asking myself what I could do to leave the law school better than I had found it. It had been a bumpy road for me, largely because of my own struggles as a first-generation law student. Although I felt very confident about my own future, having secured a job offer with Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, I realized that others were dealing with similar issues and I decided that founding a First-Generation Law Students Association (FGLSA) at Seton Hall Law School was the way to go. With plenty of help from administration and other students, the group was successfully formed in September of 2018. The mission of the organization is to create a community for all first-generation students to come together to tackle law school and the legal profession with support. FGLSA now has roughly 60 members, with more joining every week. 

(Updated October 21,2019) Congratulations!  You’ve been admitted to a few different law schools!  Now – you just need to figure out how to pay for it!  You thought the hard part was over – but, now, it seems like it is just beginning.  Let me help you get a realistic vision of what to expect/what not to expect with regards to paying for law school.

The Weekend JD program is now about half-way through its second successful year, and with two classes having gone through the admissions process, with a third in the works, I thought it would be a good time to reflect back at the questions I’ve received during this time. Here is a list of the most frequently asked questions I’ve received in the last 2 years.

Prospective law students have always been interested in the bar passage success rates of schools they’re considering attending. After all, while a law degree is a prerequisite to taking the bar almost everywhere, passing the bar is a prerequisite to actually practicing law in almost all states.