Law school unveils virtual booth for LSAC digital recruitment event
Each year the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) sponsors eight law school forums in major cities across the country, where prospective law students learn about law school and connect face to face with representatives from about 200 law schools at each event.
“Last year we attended all eight of the LSAC forums,” said Barbara Weinzierl, associate dean for administration and enrollment management at The University of Akron School of Law.
Due to the evolving COVID-19 pandemic, LSAC has shifted the 2020 forums to a convenient online format. The first one is next Saturday, Sept. 26.
This isn’t your everyday Zoom video call. Prospective students will have the opportunity to virtually meet one on one with law school admission professionals from more than 200 law schools as well as attend several livestreamed workshops.
Virtual booth
“Each of the 200 participating law schools was given the opportunity to design their own virtual booth for the forum,” Weinzierl said. “While very exciting, designing the booth was a rather complicated process. Just like at a live forum, the appearance of the booth is often the first impression that students have of your law school. This is what prospective law students will see when they enter our LSAC booth, besides my shining face! Kudos to Director of Admissions Emma Schulze, who spent hours working on this.
“Although nothing beats actual face-to-face conversations, LSAC’s digital format does have some advantages,” Weinzierl continued. “Even under normal circumstances, a lot of prospective law students just aren’t able to attend one of the in-person forums, because of distance or expense or both. So, a lot of potential connections are never made. About 75% of our students tend to be from Ohio, but I think people would be surprised to know that we typically get applications from students at over 75 colleges in more than 25 states.”
Another advantage of the digital format is that Akron Law Dean Christopher J. (C.J.) Peters can also attend and meet with prospective students at each of the digital forums, Weinzierl noted. In a normal recruiting year, due to the time commitment, he typically is only able to attend one or two of the LSAC events.
“And there is one more advantage,” Weinzierl added. “The virtual booth is quite an improvement over the typical ‘booth,’ that LSAC allows. That’s usually just a table with our Akron Law banner draped over it!”