Understanding the Jargon of Law School Admissions

If you are applying to law school and using the Internet as a guide, there's a lot of tricky jargon you should learn. Post regularly on a law discussion board, such as Law School Discussion, and you will naturally pick some of this jargon up. But let me make life easier for you: Here's a breakdown of some of the more popular, and more confusing, terms that you might discover in hunting down that perfect law school.

LSAC: This is the acronym for the Law School Admission Council. This organization administers the LSAT and offers a vetting service for undergraduate transcripts that most law schools require. You will use its website regularly in your law school search, and, if you do choose to apply, you will be required to use it. Applying to schools using LSAC and its applications filler feature is a breeze.

LSDAS: This is the acronym for the Law School Data Assembly Service. Sign up for LSDAS, then have your undergraduate transcript sent to LSAC. They will process it and produce the report that is sent to each law school you apply to.

T14: Top-14 law schools in the U.S., as ranked by U.S. News & World Report. Many law students and prospective law students consider membership in the top-14 to be prestigious.

HLS: Common web acronym for Harvard Law School. I bet you wish you could go there, huh.

HYS: Harvard/Yale/Stanford. Often used to delineate the three schools regularly ranked in the top 3 by U.S. News & World Report. Again, just as top 14 is considered a meaningful distinction, so is top 3.

Tier 1: Tier 1 law schools are those ranked in the top 50 by U.S. News & World Report. This phrase is used quite often, as the tier a law school belongs to (from 1 to 4) is considered an important indicator of prestige.

Cooley: Cooley is often used as a derogatory term to insult a law school or a prospective law student. The Thomas M. Cooley Law School, in Michigan, is known to have high acceptance rates. Elitist students - which, unfortunately, tend to populate many of the popular websites that deal with law school admissions - slam Cooley and use its name as an insult.

J.D.: Juris Doctor. The degree you're going to get, silly.

LL.M.: Master of Laws degree. A graduate law degree, often obtained in a specialty or by international lawyers who want to practice in the U.S.