Mysonx3's Law School Thread

[mysonx3]

Buddy, with that score and your 4.0, you can get into one of the top 10 schools.

Start applying to Yale and Harvard Law.

That's the dream! Thanks for the encouragement

[IHatePickingUsernames]

Update:

- I got my score back from the LSAT this morning. I scored a 176. Now I will need to consider whether to settle for that or go for higher on a second attempt (since most of my PT scores were a bit higher than that). Leaning towards not retaking, since from everything I've looked at I don't think the extra point or two will materially affect my outcomes
- My last recommendation letter has been submitted

What's left to do:
- Make decision on potentially retaking the LSAT
- Write application essays (this will entail a personal statement, a 250 word essay required by one of my target schools, and some "Why such and such a school" essays for schools that care about that)
- Wait for applications to open
- Submit applications
- Wait on pins and needles to hear back from schools

Law school alumna here. Don't retake the LSAT. Your 176 is only 4 points off of a perfect 180 and with your 4.0 GPA and non-traditional route to law school, you will do well in the admissions process. I predict that you'll get some free rides. And, FYI, the practice tests are always easier than the real thing. Bottom line: don't worry, you have an amazing score.

I will say this, though. Don't consider any law schools where you're going to have to borrow large sums of money to afford. AVOID student loan debt as much as possible. Lawyers are leaving the field every day and, last I heard, BigLaw firms weren't hiring the way they used to hire. Going to the Harvards and Yales is great ONLY if you can graduate without significant debt. Barring that, your best bet is to get a full ride to a solid law school, even if it's not in the top 50. The thing you should be most concerned about is a school's first time bar passage rate. Compare it with the state's first time bar passage rate. If it's close to, equal to, or exceeds the state's rate, it's a decent school.

All the best to you!

[bjcheung77]

Hey! Great work mysonx3...

- Skip the thought of retaking the LSAT, that's an awesome score already
- Decide on the schools you want to attend after you research the schools that interest you
- Prepare for applications/essays, wait for applications to open and submit them when ready
- Apply for scholarships, accept the schools that are affordable to you

Good luck on your future studies.

[anewmanx]

Buddy, with that score and your 4.0, you can get into one of the top 10 schools.

Start applying to Yale and Harvard Law.

That's the dream! Thanks for the encouragement

https://www.ilrg.com/rankings/law/median

Aim high buddy!

[SweetSecret]

Congratulations! I could probably use some study tips from you. That score is spectacular! I agree that it's not worth even bothering to try again. It's too close to 180 and with your 4.0 GPA you're going to be into top 10 school easy. I would be very curious to hear what your thoughts were about the LSAT flex though. I suspect a lot of people scored differently than how they normally would have scored, primarily from the extra stress of coronavirus happening.

[mysonx3]

Congratulations! I could probably use some study tips from you. That score is spectacular! I agree that it's not worth even bothering to try again. It's too close to 180 and with your 4.0 GPA you're going to be into top 10 school easy. I would be very curious to hear what your thoughts were about the LSAT flex though. I suspect a lot of people scored differently than how they normally would have scored, primarily from the extra stress of coronavirus happening.

I know a lot of people had extreme wait times with ProctorU - to the tune of 5-6 hours, and I'm sure that had a negative effect on many people's scores. My wait was about 90 minutes, and it was hard to stay mentally ready that whole time, especially when we had been told it would be 20-30 minutes.

A bigger factor, I think, was that the LSAT-Flex was a differently constructed test than the regular LSAT. Although it used the same kinds of questions they were organized differently. It had only three sections, all scored (whereas the regular LSAT has five questions; four scored and one experimental). Not only did this change the experience of taking the test, it changed the LR/LG/RC weighting from 50/25/25 to 33/33/33 - a major disadvantage to people who did best on LR.

[anewmanx]

I’m dying to find out what schools you are applying to!

[mysonx3]

I’m dying to find out what schools you are applying to!

To be honest, I've been rather sheepish to share my list as I don't want to come across as braggadocious or naively optimistic, but I suppose that's not going to get better over time, so I might as well share.

I will be blanketing the top 13 law schools (the general consensus is that there is a drop-off after those 13), so that would be (in roughly the order they are ranked): Yale, Stanford, Harvard, University of Chicago, Columbia, NYU, Penn, University of Virginia, University of Michigan, UC-Berkeley, Duke, Northwestern, and Cornell.

Beyond those 13, I'm not sure what else I'll do. To some extent, it will depend on which schools offer me application fee waivers - a couple of them already have, but not ones I'm interested in. I'll probably apply to Washington University, as they have a reputation for accepting (and offering large scholarships to) students with high LSATs, almost regardless of the rest of their application. There's a (applicant-reported) database of people's admission results, and going back to 2012 it doesn't show a single rejection or waitlist from WashU for an applicant with my LSAT. So Washington will probably be my primary "safety" school, since it lets me hedge against my paranoia that my alternative credits degree may be looked down upon (which I doubt, but is possible) while also being a very strong school.

I'll also probably apply to Georgetown - for a long time they were considered on par with the Top 13, but have lost some traction in recent years. However, they're still very strong (the best in the 14+ rankings range) and are particularly good at placing students in goverment and public interest jobs, which is what I want to do. The downside is that they're known for being a bit stingy with scholarship money.

Beyond those, there's a handful of schools I'm considering applying to, but I'm definitely hoping/planning to get into one of the Top 13, hopefully with significant financial aid. Since law schools are rolling admissions, I'm going to apply for the Top 13 first and, by the time I would've applied for other schools, it's possible I could already have an admission and scholarship offer that makes it a moot point.

[natshar]

I’m dying to find out what schools you are applying to!

To be honest, I've been rather sheepish to share my list as I don't want to come across as braggadocious or naively optimistic, but I suppose that's not going to get better over time, so I might as well share.

I will be blanketing the top 13 law schools (the general consensus is that there is a drop-off after those 13), so that would be (in roughly the order they are ranked): Yale, Stanford, Harvard, University of Chicago, Columbia, NYU, Penn, University of Virginia, University of Michigan, UC-Berkeley, Duke, Northwestern, and Cornell.

Beyond those 13, I'm not sure what else I'll do. To some extent, it will depend on which schools offer me application fee waivers - a couple of them already have, but not ones I'm interested in. I'll probably apply to Washington University, as they have a reputation for accepting (and offering large scholarships to) students with high LSATs, almost regardless of the rest of their application. There's a (applicant-reported) database of people's admission results, and going back to 2012 it doesn't show a single rejection or waitlist from WashU for an applicant with my LSAT. So Washington will probably be my primary "safety" school, since it lets me hedge against my paranoia that my alternative credits degree may be looked down upon (which I doubt, but is possible) while also being a very strong school.

I'll also probably apply to Georgetown - for a long time they were considered on par with the Top 13, but have lost some traction in recent years. However, they're still very strong (the best in the 14+ rankings range) and are particularly good at placing students in goverment and public interest jobs, which is what I want to do. The downside is that they're known for being a bit stingy with scholarship money.

Beyond those, there's a handful of schools I'm considering applying to, but I'm definitely hoping/planning to get into one of the Top 13, hopefully with significant financial aid. Since law schools are rolling admissions, I'm going to apply for the Top 13 first and, by the time I would've applied for other schools, it's possible I could already have an admission and scholarship offer that makes it a moot point.

That could get expensive once you multiply times 13 schools.

Washington is a good school, not sure about Law but there are one of the top public schools in the country. Definitely good to apply there as a safety.

I just googled and it says the average student spends $900 just on law school applications. Wow!

4 ivy league schools.

[Ideas]

Congrats on your score!

I would not retake given what you said about proctor wait times. I think there's a big risk of scoring slightly lower the next time. And you can spend that time on your essays instead.