Is 20 too young for LSAT?

[habeas dorkus!]

I guess I'll elaborate on what I said before: I was 20 when I took the LSAT. Looking through the Yale Law admitted student boards, quite a few people are 21. I've heard of people as young as 16 (admittedly, an outlier) getting into Yale.

I believe, based on my observations from the past two years, that being under 20 at the time you start law school can negatively affect your admissions cycle. However, it seems like 20 is a magic number -- I've never seen someone demonstrably affected by their youth at that age. You're of course free to judge for yourself how representative what I've seen is -- just throwing it out there for you to consider. It seems that as long as you don't give admissions officers a good reason to question your maturity, they generally don't.

[umd blue devil]

thanks HD.

[Yale College Inferno]

20 is not too young to take the LSAT, and 21 is not too young to enter law school.

[SplitFinger]

On the other hand, this could be why I am 34 and just found the man I am going to marry, and am finally starting law school after 3 different careers.  Maybe I shouldn't be handing out advice to anyone!

People starting their fourth careers are awesome.  JSIA.

And mad props, because I'm not starting my fourth until I'm 35.

[tcs5384]

Go for it.  Some law schools think you need "life experience," but if you know you want to be a lawyer I don't really see any point in putting it off.  I'll be 22 when I start law school.

[SplitFinger]

My thought is, if you don't specifically mention it, are they even going to notice?  As long as your essays don't make you sound immature, I doubt they'd even give it a thought.

[JulieJul]

I'm 20...turning 21 the day after my college graduation (May .  I don't think it hurt me at all, but then again I can't even remember if any application even asked me for my DOB, so I think it's a fairly neutral factor.

[Groundhog]

Your report from LSAC will have, amongst other things, your DOB. I saw the DOB on the applications, though.

[Mr. Pink]

I'm 20...turning 21 the day after my college graduation (May .  I don't think it hurt me at all, but then again I can't even remember if any application even asked me for my DOB, so I think it's a fairly neutral factor.

I think it factors in more depending on the specific college you apply to.  LS do NOT want a class full of students right out of college.  I think the average age of students at Columbia is 25.

[Groundhog]

Yeah, and it looks like I'm working next year, so I won't be one of those, although I'll still be pretty much the youngest if I go in '07.

Hopefully some WE will help a bit.