Thurgood Marshall School of Law, Texas Southern University

Step 2 of the seven-step application process. NO LENGTH LIMIT IS PUBLISHED at all -- TMSL states no page count, no word count, and no formatting, spacing, or font requirement -- so page_limit is left unset rather than guessed. The prompt is short and unusually blunt about its purpose ('your “sales tool”'), and like several schools in this data set it steers applicants away from restating the rest of the file. The admissions welcome adds what the committee reads for, which is the closest thing to guidance on content: 'The admission decision, however, is more complex than the mere rank ordering of applicants on the basis of a numerical formula. Leadership ability, prior community service, work experience, the student's background, extra-curricular activities, and graduate study in another discipline are all considered. The Admissions Committee also seeks to determine the applicant's level of motivation by reviewing personal experience indicating determination, patience and perseverance. The Committee believes that past success in overcoming an economic and/or educational disadvantage is a prime indicator of motivation.' NO SEPARATE ESSAYS: TMSL publishes no perspective or diversity statement, no standalone 'why TMSL' essay, and no optional essay prompt -- those types are omitted from this file entirely per docs/CURATION.md rather than recorded as required: false. Adversity and background material has nowhere to go but the personal statement or an addendum. RE-READ 2026-10-07 on the migrated overview: unchanged.

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Optional and open-ended, listed under the personal statement rather than as its own numbered step. 'Short' is the only length guidance given and is not a stated cap, so no page_limit is recorded per docs/CURATION.md. TMSL also publishes a SPECIFIC AND UNUSUALLY CONCRETE SCORE-ADDENDUM TRIGGER, which is worth passing on because most schools leave this to judgement: 'If you have taken the LSAT multiple times and have scores that are disparate - 5 points plus or minus, it is helpful to provide an addendum of explanation of that disparity.' Addenda travel with the CAS submission -- the application step lists 'ALL transcripts for any college/university you've attended, resume, letters of recommendation and any addenda you wish to include.' Character and fitness is addressed as a bar-admission caution on both the admissions landing page and the overview, but no explanatory attachment is requested, so none is recorded. RE-READ 2026-10-07 on the migrated overview: unchanged.

Verified 2026-10-07 · source page

Step 3, stated in one line: 'Each applicant must submit a current résumé.' Required rather than optional, and listed again among the documents submitted with the CAS report. No page limit, format, or content guidance is published, so none is recorded -- TMSL says less about the resume than almost any school in this data set. RE-READ 2026-10-07 on the migrated overview: unchanged.

Verified 2026-10-07 · source page

Step 4: 'Letters of recommendation are important in the selection process. You must submit at least two letters of recommendation. Each letter that you submit should be written by someone who knows your academic ability or is in a position to assess your potential for success in law school.' An explicit discouragement worth passing on: 'We strongly discourage obtaining letters of recommendation from friends, acquaintances, and/or family members.' Substitution is allowed for applicants out of school: 'We realize that some applicants, especially those who have been out of school for a number of years, may have difficulty finding an academic recommender. If that is the case, letters from employers or others who have worked closely with you will be helpful.' NO MAXIMUM IS PUBLISHED, so count_accepted is left unset rather than guessed. Routing is recommended rather than mandated -- 'We recommend that your letters be submitted through the LSAC letter of recommendation service' -- and the page still refers to that subscription by its retired name, LSDAS, one of several signs the text has not been refreshed in some years. RE-READ 2026-10-07 on the migrated overview: unchanged.

Verified 2026-10-07 · source page

Step 4: 'Letters of recommendation are important in the selection process. You must submit at least two letters of recommendation. Each letter that you submit should be written by someone who knows your academic ability or is in a position to assess your potential for success in law school.' An explicit discouragement worth passing on: 'We strongly discourage obtaining letters of recommendation from friends, acquaintances, and/or family members.' Substitution is allowed for applicants out of school: 'We realize that some applicants, especially those who have been out of school for a number of years, may have difficulty finding an academic recommender. If that is the case, letters from employers or others who have worked closely with you will be helpful.' NO MAXIMUM IS PUBLISHED, so count_accepted is left unset rather than guessed. Routing is recommended rather than mandated -- 'We recommend that your letters be submitted through the LSAC letter of recommendation service' -- and the page still refers to that subscription by its retired name, LSDAS, one of several signs the text has not been refreshed in some years. RE-READ 2026-10-07 on the migrated overview: unchanged.

Verified 2026-10-07 · source page

BOTH TESTS ARE ACCEPTED. The site used to contradict itself on this; the migrated overview now mostly settles it, though one stale sentence survives. The Admissions Overview states the LSAT as mandatory with no alternative: 'All applicants for admission as a J.D. candidate must take the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) and have their scores reported to TSU Thurgood Marshall School of Law, within the five-year period immediately preceding the date of their application to the Law School. TMSL considers an LSAT score valid for a period of 5 years.' The school's own 'LSAT vs. GRE' handout, linked from the admissions navigation, says the opposite and sets out a clear rule: '**Please note: If you've ONLY taken the GRE, we will accept those scores and use them as a part of your holistic review. However, we are required to accept LSAT scores over GRE scores if an applicant took/takes both exams.' The handout is preferred here because it is the more specific and more recent document and because the 509 corroborates it -- of 221 first-year enrollees, 216 are LSAT admissions enrollees and 5 are GRE admissions enrollees, so the GRE path was genuinely used. The practical rule for applicants: the GRE only helps someone who has never sat the LSAT, and an LSAT score once taken cannot be set aside. THE HANDOUT ALSO PUBLISHES A GRE BENCHMARK, which is rare and useful because the 509 withholds GRE percentiles under the ABA's under-10 rule: 'TMSL MEDIAN = 295 - 300' on the GRE's 130-170 per-section scale, against 'TMSL MEDIAN = 150' on the LSAT. LSAT Writing is required as part of a complete file -- the CAS report must be on file 'with transcripts from all colleges and universities attended, LSAT score, writing sample and letters of recommendation.' No JD-Next variance is mentioned and the 509 prints no JD-Next row. Nothing is published about superscoring or averaging. UPDATED 2026-10-07: THE OVERVIEW NOW PUBLISHES A SEPARATE GRE APPLICATION, which settles the conflict in the handout's favour: 'J.D 3 - Applicants who have never attended any law school and are applying with GRE scores only may complete this application. Applicants who are submitting a GRE score should request scores for the past five years from Educational Testing Service (ETS) using the Thurgood Marshall School of Law school code 1196. GRE scores are reportable for five years following the applicant's test date. If you have an LSAT score, please DO NOT complete this application.' The LSAT-mandatory sentence quoted above is still further down the same page, but it now sits beside an application built for GRE-only applicants, so it reads as unrevised boilerplate rather than a rule. The one-way rule is stated twice: GRE only for someone with no LSAT.

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Step 1 routes everything through LSAC: 'You should complete the application online at https://os.lsac.org/Logon/Access.aspx and submit the required documents for the required LSAC CAS Report (ALL transcripts for any college/university you've attended, resume, letters of recommendation and any addenda you wish to include).' The file is not read until that report lands, however early the application itself is filed. INTERNATIONAL APPLICANTS face two requirements, both stated on the overview and both applying to JD and LLM alike: 'All international applicants must take either the TOEFL or IELTS English proficiency test if their first language is not English or their instruction (undergraduate or law) was not in English,' and 'All international applicants must register for LSAC's International Authentication and Evaluation Service and submit all transcripts for evaluation by that Service.' No minimum TOEFL or IELTS score is published -- recorded as silence rather than as an absence of a floor. No minimum GPA is published, and the pages do not state when a bachelor's degree must be conferred. Note that TMSL splits its applications by prior law study: first-time applicants file the J.D.1 application, while 'Applicants who have previously attended a law school (academically ineligible to continue, students applying to transfer and Visiting Students)' file J.D.2, and a previously disqualified student 'must have been separated from that law school for a period of one year from the date they were advised of their disqualification to the start date of the fall semester for which they are applying (one academic year).' RE-READ 2026-10-07 on the migrated overview: unchanged.

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Step 5: 'A non-refundable $55 application fee must be paid online through LSAC when applying.' The 509 independently certifies the fee as $55. NO FEE-WAIVER PROCESS IS PUBLISHED ANYWHERE -- neither a need-based waiver, nor an LSAC-waiver-based waiver, nor a priority-deadline waiver of the kind South Texas offers -- and the fee is described as non-refundable and payable at submission. Recorded as the site's silence on waivers rather than as a statement that no waiver exists. LSAC's own CAS and registration fees are separate and TMSL does not address them. RE-READ 2026-10-07 on the migrated overview: unchanged.

Verified 2026-10-07 · source page

Recorded as the site's silence, not as a statement that TMSL does not interview. No page fetched on 2026-08-18 -- admissions landing, admissions overview with its seven-step application process, admissions FAQ, the Admissions Fact Sheet PDF, the LSAT vs. GRE handout, or consumer information -- mentions an admissions interview of any kind, evaluative or informational, by invitation or on request. The admissions welcome sets out at length what the committee weighs ('Leadership ability, prior community service, work experience, the student's background, extra-curricular activities, and graduate study in another discipline') and no interview appears among the factors. The only contact offered to prospective applicants is a campus visit request or a virtual tour, neither described as part of the evaluation. RE-READ 2026-10-07 on the migrated overview: unchanged.

Verified 2026-10-07 · source page