In this episode of Admissions Straight Talk, Accepted Law Consultant Brigitte sits down with Sophia Sim, associate dean for admissions and financial aid at George Washington University Law School (GW Law), for a candid, behind-the-scenes look at the admissions process. Drawing on her 30-plus years in law school admissions, Sophia breaks down how rolling admissions really works, what applicants should know about waitlists and scholarship reconsideration, and how GW Law approaches LSAT-optional admissions. From application timing and professional etiquette to letters of continued interest, this conversation offers practical guidance straight from the source for anyone navigating the law school admissions cycle.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• The Challenges of Law School Admissions
• Understanding the GW Law Admissions Process
• The GW Law Waitlist Process Explained
• Navigating the GW Law Personal Statement
• LSAT Optional: Who Should Consider It?
• GW Law Part-Time Program Insights
• Final Thoughts and Advice

Show Notes

Hello everyone. Today at Admissions Straight Talk, we’ll be speaking with Sophia Sim of admissions and financial aid at George Washington Law School. Before diving in, I just want to introduce myself, because I’m a new host. My name is Brigitte and I work with Accepted to advise students who are looking to go to law school. It’s a long process. 

I have lots of questions. My students have lots of questions. So we’re excited for this opportunity to speak with Sophia. Also, we’ve interviewed Sophia once before, so I hope listeners will go back to that interview. You can learn a lot of interesting things about GW and what makes them unique. 

Sophia, welcome.

Thank you.

Thanks for coming over today. And I did have a couple of big picture questions. And then I wanted to get into the nitty gritty of some of your prompts at GW and also what you’re looking for at GW. 

So I think students get confused with all the overlapping prompts and all the details. And sometimes hearing straight from someone who works in this day in, day out is just really helpful for them. So that’s what I’d love to do. Let’s dive in.

Just kind of on the big picture, what draws you to admissions work? What do you love most about it?

You know, I kind of fell into this job 30-plus years ago. I started out thinking I was going to practice traditional law. And then I took one of those Myers-Briggs tests, which I don’t think people take these days anymore. But it said I should go into higher ed. And I disagreed vehemently. And I took the test again and tried to skew my answers. And the same thing happened.

And I did enjoy my experience in law school and in college, doing other things besides just studying. And so I started my first job with legal counsel over at University of Maryland and then had a director position, not in admissions, but I kept in touch with all my deans at my law school and then an opportunity came up and one of them, you know, this is…

I never really thought about networking, but this is a great example of why networking works. Before I left, I met with all the deans just to understand what they each did. Besides from a student perspective, I really wanted to understand if this was a career I should jump into. And every year I’d send them a little holiday card with my resume and say, “How are things going?” And then four years later, I think one of the deans contacted me and said there was a position, was I interested?

And that’s how I fell into that job. And then here at GW, the same thing happened. Someone had heard I was on some committee work, and they asked me if I was interested in applying for this position. And same thing. So a good point toward the value of networking.

The Challenges of Law School Admissions

That’s great. That’s really great to hear because we talk about that all the time. And this is just a good example of it actually happening and working really well. What do you consider to be the most challenging part of your job in admissions for a law school?

What was challenging for me is really, if you’d asked me this year I would say all the changes within the financial aid, because I have both an admissions and a financial aid hat so the different loan regulations the Department of Ed all that stuff is very challenging at this time. But overall when I look over my 30 years in law school admissions, I would say it’s really the volume. Every school I’ve worked at has high volume. GW has the third-largest volume of applications, you know, 9,000 to 10,000 per year just for 1L, not even including transfers. 

And with that comes, you know, emails and documentations and a lot to review applications and then a lot of emails to go back and forth. And I feel like this generation, and my kids are in college, so I hope I still connect with them, you know, they just, even with my daughters, I’m firing off texts all the time. And I feel like, applicants see that with emails. It’s a conversation. It’s not a one email where you answer everything. They go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And next thing you know, you’ve exchanged ten emails and you’ve lost time to review applications. And just managing all those things is a lot.

Yeah, that is a lot. I have a question about that a little bit later about how students manage the waitlist process. Because sometimes I sense there’s what they want to do and another is the reality of what you would like them to do. 

That’s a good point.  And then there’s all these changes. Admissions is not static, especially at law school. I don’t know if colleges change that much, but law school, you know, first there’s digital LSAT and there was taking the GRE. Now there’s JD-Next. And of course we have a test-optional process as well. So it’s just a lot of changes that happen. So in technology, et cetera. 

Understanding the GW Law Admissions Process

Yeah, and I’m definitely going to ask you about the LSAT optional because that’s something that comes up and I’d like to understand it a little bit better myself. Two more kind of big-picture questions. What do you wish applicants understood about the process that they don’t seem to understand?

You know, probably two things. One, I wish students understood that it’s rolling admissions. I know a number of law schools still try to review the bulk of applications closer to the deadline, but GW, because of our volume, we have to keep the trains running, keep decisions. So we start making decisions in mid-October. And sometimes our class is full by the end of January, even before the March 1st deadline. So applying earlier in the cycle does help you. And that’s true for a lot of schools. There’s that. 

And then the other thing is, I think, the merit scholarships on the back end, right? It is a finite pool of funds. It’s not infinite. It’s not the person that is the most aggressive or pushes the hardest, gets the largest amount of money. I mean, we have certain parameters. We try to be equitable. The last thing we want is for two students to come in as part of our entering class and to hear one person got double the amount of scholarship because they kept emailing and calling. That’s not the way it works. And I know there’s a lot out there where people think, yeah, that’s all you need to do. And that’s not true at all. 

And we’re about to enter that phase as well, where people do try to see what they can get, because it is an expensive proposition. Again, on the one hand, you understand the student wanting to maximize their aid. On the other, I do understand you want to keep that equitable so that students aren’t comparing and getting uptight before they even get there.

To delve into merit scholarships, it’s become its own little kind of animal. It’s almost as big of a project as reviewing applications and making decisions at this point. I think students just really, it is an investment in your legal career, and I get it’s expensive. But it’s also, what’s hard is if you really want to come to GW and maybe a slight increase will make a difference. 

I’m happy to have that conversation. I want to have that conversation with you. I think that’s true for many law schools, even if they say they don’t do reconsideration, you’re talking to them in person. But I also think if you are admitted to ten schools and you shoot an email to ten different schools and you have this spreadsheet, you know, that’s not a conversation a lot of schools want to have because they really want you to have narrowed down those choices before you get to that.

And I understand from the students, it’s almost the opposite, right? They want to see who gives them the largest package.

Every once in a while, I do run into the student where I feel like for them, it’s almost this competition. How many schools can I get the most money out of? And, you know, that’s probably not the best approach. And I usually counsel them at that point just to really think what do you want and then go for that rather than keep, you know, all these ten in the air. 

Great advice. That’s excellent advice.

And then just briefly on the timing issue, because that’s something that comes up all the time. In my perfect world, I advise a certain timeline, and I try to get my students to apply by October, November. And I think that works for all the reasons that you’re talking about. What happens when someone applies February 1st? Who from that pile gets seen – I have, I suspect I know – and who maybe languishes and never really gets seen?

Right. And so that’s a tough question. And I always tell students, “I don’t want to cause panic or anxiety, because if you feel that you can put together a stronger application if you wait until after Thanksgiving or in early January, then you should wait,” right? You don’t want to put together a… You want to be ready to hit “Submit” before you do, but you also want to plan ahead if you can and get it in as early as possible. 

So February 1st, I mean, I review the bulk of applications, as does the director and the associate director here within my office. So we’re all looking at the applications. It’s just, there’s very few spaces at this point, so we are looking very carefully. I think we try to employ a holistic process. It’s more holistic at the beginning when we’re fresh and we haven’t reviewed… I mean, I think I’ve reviewed about 4,200 applications at this point, right? And so it just really depends where you are and how strong, because we’re comparing you to the other applicants at this point and can you stand out from them.

That’s really good advice. Or it’s really good to hear you say that because it gives credence to this idea that you should apply as early as you can. Of course, sometimes things happen. We never plan to have a January LSAT, but sometimes it does happen. And so you kind of have to know what you’re getting into. What’s one thing in the process that confounds you from the applicant side? Something head scratching that candidates do or say.

You know, it’s always the small things that confound me.

I think not always being polite, I would say, not to me necessarily, but to others in my office. Because I do hear about that or just not understanding this is a professional school. We’re assessing you on a number of qualities. Here’s a good example. 

I had a Zoom session, an information session, last week. And someone who did… You know, it’s always nice to see the few faces on camera. I always remember who they are, but this person didn’t show their face on camera. And then at the end I took questions. And I think it’s pretty common now people know you either raise your hand or you use the little hand emoticon. And what she did was she kept asking questions, even though there were people that raised their hand. She just kept talking. And I said, “Well, there actually is an order.” She explained that she couldn’t see that, and then she would continue to ask her question. And then I said, “Well, if you can’t see, maybe put it in the chat. There’s someone monitoring it.” And then she said that her question wasn’t getting answered quickly enough that she would like to get her answer now. Those kind of, you know, there is some etiquette to that, I think, that we are… And obviously a virtual session is not, an info session is not designed to assess you for application, but it’s hard to forget her, right, and her name. 

And so I would say those kinds of things, like just being respectful and polite through this process, and understand we’re moving as quickly as we can, and just treating everybody with a level of respect is something that I think is important, not here, but also in your legal career as well. So that would be something that it just puzzles me a little bit about why do that? Do you think there’s a level of anonymity that there really isn’t always?

That’s great. That’s a really good example where you’ve distinguished yourself in the negative direction.

Yes, that’s a good way to put it. I know some people are always trying to stand out in a positive way and that’s great too. You’re emailing or saying hello or stopping by a table or something, but it’s those few rare cases where you remember.

The GW Law Waitlist Process Explained

So let’s talk a little bit about the waitlist scenario. Earlier in the cycle, it seemed like GW was waitlisting a lot of folks who didn’t have 170. So that’s a lot of folks. So you’re going to have a pretty robust waitlist, I’m assuming. Tell me a little bit about what to do, what not to do. Sometimes students, they’re nervous and they haven’t heard at all, and so they want to communicate pre-waitlist decision. Is that okay, and when is that okay? And then once there’s a waitlist, what’s the right process?

Sure. So we try to provide as much information in our waitlist decision letter as we can, letting them know the list is unranked, that we have scheduled several virtual sessions to kind of answer any questions that someone may have. But the waitlist process doesn’t really kick off until after our first deposit. So after April 15th. So nothing is going to happen until then. You’re welcome to send emails, letters of continued interest. 

And people will respond and we will collect that information, but we will not review an application again until after April 15th because we’re so busy trying to do an initial review of all the other people that have applied at this point. So nothing is going to happen. And I occasionally get emails and I always respond to them as well. So there’s nothing… It’s one of the things we do. Maybe because my children went to the college application process. You don’t want to feel like a number, right? You want to feel like this is a school you might want to attend. The only thing, the least thing I can do is respond to your emails. So now if I get thousands of them, that’s a totally different, different matter, but I don’t get that many. And I don’t think many of our people in our office do as well. So it’s perfectly fine. It’s a little different than the undergraduate admissions process, I think, for most law school admissions offices. So welcome to reach out.

So what we tell people in the letter is that most years we do pull over 50 students into our entering class. So, and in reaching out to 50, we move very quickly and we reach out to multiple people. Say we anticipate a space opening up in April, a couple of weeks prior… We won’t reach out until April 15th is our deposit. We won’t reach out to the waitlist until early May. Let me just be clear and not create confusion.

But typically what we do, we’ll do a kickoff email in early May to kind of say, “We’re starting the waitlist, confirm your interest,” things like that. And we tend to go with those that respond. Everybody else that does not respond to that initial email, we will then email once more to say, “We assume you’re no longer interested. We wish you the best of luck.” And then we’ll just move forward without them. Then in the times that we expect a space to be open, what we will do is we’ll typically email, say, 20 people and say, “We anticipate a space. You’ll have very little time to make that decision. Do you remain interested?” They’ll respond. Not everybody does because we’re moving again very quickly, within a day or two. 

So maybe we receive about ten emails we go through. We probably extend two or three offers for every space and then go on. So as you can see, we actually are reaching out to almost the entire waitlist by the end of our cycle. So, but again, it depends what we’re looking for. What we really like is to admit those from the waitlist that are interested in GW because we know you’ve been waiting. The last thing at that point, usually there aren’t that many, there’s not much scholarships left. It depends who withdrew, if there’s any funds available. And so we’re not there to have a lengthy discussion. “Should I?” “Should I not?” “How big can my offer be?” That’s not really… The waitlist is just designed to quickly fill this year’s entering class. And especially since we have a number of summer initiatives, we have a career jumpstart that kicks off. We have an eight-part free virtual intro to 1L class that we do in groups of eight, so we really want to get you onboarded as quickly as possible. 

That’s great. That’s really great information that students are asking. So it’s really good to hear the nitty-gritty. So they’ve been waitlisted, let’s say. Is one letter of continued interest sometime between when they were waitlisted and April 15th, is that sufficient?

We will ask you, we’ll specifically say in that kickoff email in early May that even if you’ve submitted something, we ask you to submit again. Because even if you tell us in January that you’re absolutely 100% committed to coming, you’re still waiting to hear from other schools, or scholarship offers, or maybe you’re signing a lease or looking at apartments. Who knows what’s, there’s a lot that’s gonna happen within that five months. 

And so that’s why we would ask you to just resubmit, even if it’s the exact same letter. We just want to confirm that you’re still interested. And hopefully you have some updates, right? If you’re still in college, maybe you’ve graduated with honors or something you want to let us know.

That all makes good sense. So one nice LOCI [letter of continued interest], that is what we call them. But it’s L-O-C-I. So after that one big one, let’s say, maybe you do it in advance, maybe you do it at the end of March, you do it early April, fine. Then they’ll get the communication from you, they’ll do another one or reiterate. 

What happens after that? We usually suggest every three to four weeks, just a mini-LOCI, we call them. So that you know they’re still interested, right? Because you’re right. Any other day they could be getting an offer that they just decide to take. So how does that sound?

Yes, you know, I would say actually every two weeks. Because every three weeks… The summer is short, right? Our orientation is the second week of August. And so there really isn’t that many times. What we will let you know is when our deposit deadlines are, so you certainly want to submit something right before. And these days, because every law school in the country uses the same system for applications as created by the Law School Admission Council called Unite, we all use it. And so the students can upload their own LOCI. They can update it themselves. So you can submit as many as you want. Now, I wouldn’t submit one every single day or every week, but every couple of weeks is certainly reasonable. And we often have students sometimes call or email and say, “I’ve got a deadline at this other school,” right? “And once I make that deposit, I need to make this decision or I need to sign a lease” or something. And we will review one more time before that. 

Now, what you can’t do is if it’s not favorable, then say, “Well, I changed my mind,” right? “I can wait longer.” But if you really do have a hard and firm deadline, we have some people that have military issues that they need to hear about right away. And so we will do our best to try to give you a firm decision or talk to you and explain what’s going on.

That’s all really good to know. And these subsequent letters of continued interest, can they be short? The ones that are coming every couple of weeks, is that okay for it just to be a little paragraph?

Yes. It doesn’t have to be… You know, they’re rarely more than a page, as I think through all the ones I see, and many times they’re an email. Now, what I will say is I recall in the past, last summer, there’s someone that sent the same three lines, right? Every single LOCI, it was just an email with three lines. And when I was sorting by his name and the email account, I noticed it was just verbatim the same email. And I started wondering if maybe that was just going to different schools, was sending me the exact same thing, because it was very generic. I actually emailed to ask some specific questions, and then the same response came back, and I thought, he’s just kind of hanging in, right? And so I would say the brevity of it doesn’t matter. And sometimes if it’s repetitive, it’s fine because maybe not that much has changed, but maybe a couple words would be different in the email.

A restatement, not a cut-and-paste. That makes a lot of sense. I have seen students, even within their own application, they’ll kind of repeat the same thing over and over, cut and paste. I’m like, “No, you’ve got to at least make the effort to change it a little bit.” And we know it’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it.

Yes. And to add to that. I think someone… Not to go down this rabbit hole, I think when we were just in the search engine, typed a couple sentences of one email, like a dozen emails popped up from a dozen different candidates, which made us… When we went back and looked, we saw it was almost verbatim the same email. And we realized, they must be pulling this from some website or something and just using it. That’s not to say they’re not interested. Maybe they really are and they were searching for a way. But again, it should be… All emails should be written by the applicant.

That’s really interesting. You don’t want them cutting and pasting from someone else’s work or just even, of course, ChatGPT now.

And we only noticed it because back to back two people emailed. It just popped up in the email account, and it was the exact same email. And so we were like, “Oh, that’s interesting.” And then we were just… As someone was trying to show me, and then they remembered a couple and they typed in certain keywords, and then it was funny how many popped up. We’re not normally investigators like that. It just happened.

Interesting. Gosh, that is really funny. I didn’t even know that was a thing. It’s probably going to scare some candidates, but maybe it’ll scare them straight. 

Navigating the GW Law Personal Statement

We don’t have a ton more time, but I do want to talk a little bit about the specifics of GW prompts, just because we’ve got you here. And your prompt is very broad. I’m talking personal statement now, super broad. What do you really hope to see in that? I think just to give the listeners a little bit of context: “A personal statement is required and may include additional information you believe will assist the admissions committee in considering your applications.” That is about as broad as you can get. So what are you hoping for?

So we didn’t want to give you an exact specific problem. Some schools go the other way and you write specifically about that. We wanted to give you a chance to talk about what you wanted to talk about. It should not be a regurgitation of your resume in paragraph form. Generally, what I’m looking for is potential. I’m looking for certain qualities. Resilience. Grit is another word you’ve probably heard very often. 

I think this is a tough time in law school and education, job placement, so we want people that have that determination, that perseverance. Our dean has often used the three I’s. You could ask many people in this building and they would know that. And it is that she wants students that are going to go out there to influence, impact, and inspire. And so those are also qualities that we’re looking for in a personal statement. So it’s not a specific topic. It’s more as we generally read and get a sense of who you are and what your passion is.

I’ve heard the three I’s from GW. So those are great. Those are really great. And I’m guessing you also don’t want students to specifically regurgitate those three I’s but the concept of what it’s going for. 

Are there any topics you think are out of bounds or anything you’d like to see less of?

I am not a big fan of “why I want to be a lawyer” and “why I want to go to law school.” Now, I know you kind of have to answer that indirectly in your personal statement, but I’ve read a lot over my career, and you know, the “why I want to be a lawyer” is “I’ve wanted to be a lawyer my whole life” or “I’ve never wanted to be a lawyer until X happened to me.” And you know, “Here’s what I’ve done. Here’s my resume.”

So, why do you want to go to law school? If you do it right, it should be why you want to go to GW Law school, but then you’re spitting the brochure and website back at us, and I feel like you really lose an opportunity to convey… It’s a personal statement, right? We want it to be personal, so I think that those can be solid topics. It’s just hard to really stand out in those formats.

LSAT Optional: Who Should Consider It?

Sophia, one thing I wanted to ask you about was what… Tell us a little bit about LSAT optional. I see that you have it as an option. Who is that for? Who should take advantage of it? Who is going to come off just like, “I don’t want to bothered to study for the LSAT, so I’m gonna try this”? Tell me a little bit about what you’re looking for there.

So we started this a year ago because we really felt there were certain cohorts where the LSAT was not an indicator of their academic success or how they would be as a lawyer. So we requested a variance through the American Bar Association. It was not an easy process. They granted us a five-year exception, and it can’t be more than 10% of our entering class. So this is not a backdoor to get into GW. I think there was some assumption about that, and that’s not true.

So there are only five scenarios where you can apply through a test optional. If you’ve passed the patent bar. If you’ve served in the military. It’s hard to take the LSAT if you’re active duty. If you’re part of a PhD program or a doctoral program. There’ve been other doctors, MDs, pharmaceutical doctors, a doctoral program. And then if you’ve had at least four years of professional work experience. And typically we’re looking for a lot more, but that’s our benchmark. And then finally, if you’re a K through JD [kindergarten through Juris Doctor] or you’re currently in school. You could apply through test optional if you have evidenced social entrepreneurship, and that’s something you have to get pre-approval from us for. 

There’s a form we ask you a number of questions such as:

Is this a 501(c)(3) organization? 

Are you the founder?

How big is your staff? 

What’s your business plan? 

How do you measure success? 

How long you had this organization? 

All this kind of stuff. So this is not someone that has volunteered someplace. That’s not what we’re looking for in that case.

That’s really interesting, all those specific categories. I don’t think I was aware of all the nuances there. What about someone who has an LSAT score but doesn’t want to show it? That’s okay as long as they’re under one of those.

No, you have… If you’ve taken the LSAT, you cannot apply test optional. Because that’s only an option. Yeah, if you can’t… These were cohorts we thought really, well, maybe not the social one, but the other ones, sometimes you just couldn’t take the LSAT. There just wasn’t time. Yeah. Or some had been really older and don’t…in their careers and don’t have time to prep for it or things like that. 

GW Law Part-Time Program Insights

Let’s also talk about the part-time program because it’s one of those things that for a certain kind of applicant, it’s golden, right? And at the same time, I think some people also want to use that as a backdoor and right, you know, if they don’t quite have the LSAT score don’t quite have the GPA. And you know, of course we’re empathetic to that, but what are you looking for, and what should students be aware of if they try to use the or want to use?

We are looking for full-time work experience. Typically, 100% of the entering class for the part-time has full-time work experience. The test options worked out that more have applied through the part-time. So when you look at the metrics, probably not quite the same, but they have other things that we feel show potential and promise. Those are qualities we’re looking for. At GW, there’s open switching between divisions. You can switch back and forth between full and part time.

Some people do come here hoping their career will work out. Sometimes they don’t. And then there’s others that want to switch because of the job market. They have their foot in the door or they’re networking while they’re in school.

So when I do work with students who have full-time work, they’re trying to figure out if they should leave their jobs and go to school full time and move on from there, or if they should keep their job and try the part time. And I know it’s a hard decision to make, but when someone has employment on their resume and decides to do the part-time program, are they expected to keep that job or not necessarily?

No.

That’s good to know.

I mean, I just do admissions, right? Once you come in, if the career, if the job doesn’t work out, that’s fine. We’ve had a police detective, but it didn’t always work out. There was a principal that was at a high school in Baltimore, and he was coming in every night, and it just didn’t always work out, right? So sometimes you have to make that tough decision.

I know how the metrics look, but I should also point out that the part time is typically only 25 students. So it’s a very small cohort. It’s not necessarily that, you know, given the volume of people that choose part time, it’s not necessarily easier to get in. We’re just looking for slightly different things.

Okay, that makes a lot of sense. And something I’ve kind of sensed as well or heard from others is that when you are a bit older, you’re coming to law school after ten years, let’s say, the LSAT’s much less of a predictor of how you’re gonna do, because you’re kind of out of that kind of thinking. And yeah, you’ve got to get back in it for law school, but the LSAT may not be the best predictor. Is that something you guys have noticed?

Yes. That is totally accurate. That’s why the test optional, right? With work experience. Actually, I have tried to take the LSAT again, just a practice test. I was on a committee where they made us take a section, and my score wasn’t nearly as high as when I was applying to law school. So I think it really, I don’t wanna say I’m not as smart as I was, but I think it’s a little different.

You’re brave. Well, we’re out of practice. I took the LSAT many decades ago, so I’d be a little scared to take it now, I think. But that was definitely brave.

A variety of students, right, the ones who are still a junior in college or just graduated or people with all kinds of work experience, sometimes the more recent grads, they’ll say, “Well, you know, I have a really great job in X related to my major. It was what I wanted to do, but it made me realize I want to go to law school. I don’t have a lot of legal experience. Should I quit that really good professional job to be a legal assistant? Or should I just kind of stay in the lane that I’m in because it is a good job and I’m learning a lot of good skills even if it’s not legal?”

Sure. So, you know, we have students coming from all walks of life and some people don’t have the luxury of choosing. They have to go where the highest salary is or they’re trying to shore up money to pay for law school. So, we get that. It’s not always legally related, but they learn arguably any job you have is going to teach you some skills. So that’s fine. I think it’s not always a clear-cut answer. 

I think I hate to say it, but it depends, because it depends what career you’re going to go into, what area of law. If you never want to go into big law, maybe working in a law firm is not that useful for you, right? And maybe other things. If you want to go into maritime law and you’re working something that involves oceanic waters, maybe that’s really useful for your career and it’s going to help you actually get the job that you want after you graduate law school. Again, I think it really depends. For admission purposes, it definitely doesn’t hurt to stay at that job. Especially if you’re happy, you’re doing well, you might get an absolute phenomenal letter of recommendation that you wouldn’t get from someone that you start a new job with. So there’s other considerations as well.

Yeah, that’s really interesting to hear you say that. That was my gut as well. If you’ve got a good job and you’re doing a good job at it, it is building something and it might be better than leaving for a different job. And then also what you say, because a lot of my students, because I have a background in the nonprofit sector, so a lot of my students come to me also for that reason. And I think working in the area that you want to work in, even if it’s non-legal, you’re already building that network.

Final Thoughts and Advice

Well, Sophia, thank you so much for joining us. Do you have any last comments that you’d like to share with our listeners and our students?

I really enjoy it. I wouldn’t have been doing this for 30 years if I didn’t love it. It’s such an honor to be part of this kind of milestone, part of students as they embark on their 40-plus-year legal career. So I always welcome students to come visit if they want. My door is right in the entrance. They can always pop in and say hello. But you know, if you have, people have questions, they’re always welcome to follow up. You of course as well.

That’s great to know. And it’s really also great to know that you welcome people to drop by because sometimes that does come up. We always want to do that balance of getting the information you need and making that impression you want without annoying you guys in the admissions office. So it’s good to know it.

It’s always nice to put a face, their name, especially even now post-pandemic, right? It’s hard to see people and it’s always nicer than emails. 

Well, thank you so much and really great talking to you. I learned a lot.

Related Resources

• Sophia Sim bio
• GW Law JD Admissions
• Law School Admissions Calculator, a free tool

Related Episodes

• How to Get into George Washington School of Law, Episode 584
• Get Accepted to Cornell School of Law, Episode 590
• How to Get into Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, Episode 579

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