Mysonx3's Law School Thread

[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.

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.

Actually, the Washington to which I'd be applying wouldn't be University of Washington (the public school in Seattle), but Washington University (a private school in St. Louis) - kind of ironic, since I live in the Seattle area. U of W also has a pretty decent law school (not quite as good as WashU), but the problem is their graduates can only really find work in the Pacific Northwest, and I'm not sure if I want to be here for the rest of my life. WashU places graduates in a much larger geographic area (in addition to doing a better job placing in the more prestigious/higher paying jobs within the legal profession).

As for the costs: yeah, it's going to take a bite out of the wallet, that's for sure. For the price of applying, I could just about go get a master's from WGU! (That's an exaggeration, of course, but not by as much as you might think). Hoping for lots of fee waivers, but even with those it'll still be a $45 cost per school just to send my scores/transcripts/rec letters. Luckily, I got the first six of those included with my LSAT in a bundle deal - can't remember how much I saved with that. But anyway, I've been putting away bits of money towards that expense for a while - obviously, it's not unexpected - so I should be okay. It'll still be painful to part with the cash, though.

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.

If I were to retake - which I'm about 99.9% certain that I won't - I'd wait for things to reopen again and do the regular, in-person LSAT, and wouldn't have to deal with ProctorU being ProctorU. But, like you said, as much as I'd like to think it wouldn't happen, I think the risk of scoring lower (which isn't really a big risk even if it happens, since they look at your top score for the most part), small though it may be, outweighs the negligible potential upside. Even if I retake and get a 180, I doubt that materially affects my outcomes.

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.

The one who never catches a fish is the one who fails to cast a line. Aim high, apply, and here’s hoping and praying it goes well for you.

Stories like yours make me want to apply to medical school. Great work.

Thank you for the kind words!