Many students have recently received their LSAT scores and may be unsure of what the next step to take might be. The first thing many applicants do when they receive their LSAT test score report is to check whether it falls into the LSAT range of previously admitted students at their target schools. If it does, they relax. If it doesn't, they panic.

Neither of those reactions is really justified. While there's no question that LSAT scores are an important factor in law school admissions, it's crucial to remember that test scores are only one of many factors that the admissions committees consider in reviewing applicants.

Check out what one of our Senior Law School Consultants advises regarding the LSAT and how the admissions committee views your score.

While it's not a slam-dunk guarantee, we won't be surprised at all if June test takers receive their scores before the scheduled release date. As Senior Consultant Amy Johnson states, "A lot of the time, LSAC releases the scores before their stated deadline. I've told my clients to let me know their scores as soon as they receive them and, even though the last LSAT scores were not released until their scheduled date, I'm fairly confident I will be hearing from my clients soon."

Starting July 1, 2009, Robert C. Post will become Dean of Yale Law School. Post is succeeding Harold Hongju Koh, who is currently awaiting Senate confirmation as Legal Adviser to the U.S. State Department. As reported in a previous blog, Kati Stith has been acting dean since March. Post has been a Yale faculty member since 2003, specializing in constitutional law.

Post has been a professor for 26 years, first at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law where he spent 20 years and then moved to Yale. Post is also a Yale Law School graduate, earning his J.D. and receiving the Michael Egger Prize in addition to being note editor for The Yale Law Journal. He also holds an A.B., summa cum laude, and a Ph.D. in the History of American Civilization from Harvard.

Yale's President, Richard C. Levin, is quoted in a Yale press release stating, "As a leading constitutional scholar and a respected citizen of the legal profession, Robert Post is ideally positioned to move the Yale Law School forward. He is greatly admired by his colleagues for his wisdom and judgment, and his commitment to sustaining the excellence of the Law School is unwavering."

According to a recent press release UVa Law School will be offering a Family Alternative Resolution Clinic designed to help low-income families resolve legal issues through mediation or other options outside of a courtroom. The clinic will open this fall and is expected to focus on custody, divorce, visitation, and support issues. Law school students will be participating in the clinic by co-mediating.

A seminar will take place to help train students to handle these issues in the Fall. In addition to the seminar, up to eight students will receive "20 hours of mediation skills training through a program approved by the Supreme Court of Virginia, plus six hours of academic credit."

Clinic instructor Richard Belnave is quoted in the release stating, "All year long students are going to be given opportunities to observe mediations and collaborative practice cases, and to actually participate in those."

The next edition of the Insider Edge will be emailed to subscribers on Wednesday, June 17.

This edition of our free, monthly newsletter will include these items:

• 6 Steps To A Successful Law School Application
• Increasingly, Attorneys are Pursuing MBA Coursework
• Amid Recession, Law Schools Delay Proposed Openings
• Ready for the Fall LSAT?

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