From 135 to UChicago: A Story of Failure and Determination

I've been waiting for a long time to write this. Perhaps too long. But as I sit here on this rainy day I couldn't think of a better time.

Before I start, I have to give a huge thank you to @danielznelson and @dml277. They have helped me so much on this journey and I'm so appreciative for everything they've done. But the person I attribute most of my success to is @twssmith. Without her motherly love, there's no way I would have gotten into the schools I have. She has been more than a study buddy. She is one of my best friends and I am eternally grateful for that. We even went to the masters together! Anyways, on with the story.

I started my LSAT journey around 2014. I took my first PT during that summer and got a 132. The 135 comes from me bubbling in B on the 40 or so questions I didn't have time to get to. When I looked at where I was and where I wanted to be, I was furious. I wanted this so bad and reading TLS articles where people scored higher than me without even trying enraged me even further.

I was using fox test prep at the time. The instructor said on average, people go up ten points. This was so discouraging. I wanted to get into Harvard. How am I supposed to do that with such low scores? So I followed his curriculum and kept burning fresh PTs. I didn't know what I was doing. Logic games seemed impossible. I didn't even know what a game board was never mind writing rules down. So I did what any rational person would do. I walked away and tried to find other resources.

I stopped studying for a few months. I bought the trainer but didn't read it for two years. Instead, I used fox prep books, foolishly, despite knowing that the course wouldn't work for me.

Where I was in undergrad, I focused on my grades for the rest of that semester and tried not to think about LSAT much. But I knew I wanted to go straight through so I had to get started soon. Towards the end of that academic year, I found 7Sage. At that point, I made up my mind that if this didn't work, I would quit studying and find a new career path.

So I made it work. I studied all the time. I studied at my summer internship. I sacrificed everything: my college friends, my family, even my girlfriend. All to beat this test. I was even studying during my classes to get ready for the September 2014 LSAT. Which got postponed to December. Then June 2015. Which meant I had to find a job because I no longer could go straight through. But I kept telling myself, "how bad do you want it?"

I finished the curriculum in May 2015 was PTing around 155 during that time. But for some reason I thought that I could go in there and hit a new personal best of 160. I was so wrong. I left the test center, crying, regretful. I blew it and I knew it. I wasted my time and my score ultimately reflected that. 153. I wasn't surprised but I was disappointed. Following the familial pressure, I applied anyways. I blanketed the T14. Shockingly, I was waitlisted at Chicago and Columbia. Hell, I even interviewed with Chicago. And even more surprisingly, I got into Georgetown. I had such mixed feelings. I went to the open house and all that it did was motivate me even more. "If this is the results I got with a 153, imagine what I could do with a 163 or 170," I told myself.

Where there were some things going on at my job that I won't mention, I decided to leave and study full time for the September 2016 LSAT. After restarting my studies in January of 2016 I was now well into the 160s. I was happy with my scores but not satisfied. I was working with Nicole Hopkins and felt myself improving each day. But when I walked in that testing so center on September 24th, 2016, it all hit the proverbial fan.

It was a disaster. It was the first time in my life that I was suffering from severe anxiety. I felt paralyzed. I put so much pressure on this moment that I could not move. I was petrified of making a mistake. I mean I'm not trying to make excuses but I feel that my situational anxiety got the best of me. Even worse, I was going home unemployed, leaving my job for what felt like nothing. I took a risk and failed, only scoring 1 point higher than my 153.

I applied anyways and was waitlisted at every single school from #4-9. Again, I was just more motivated than before. If these are the results I'm achieving with a 154, what could I do with a 164? How bad did I want it?

I didn't do any LSAT until I found a new job. But where my commute was now 2 hours each way and I was too tired when I got home, I woke up at 5am four days a week to study. Every single day I woke up, I would ask myself "how bad do you want this? How bad do you want to go to Harvard?" So I did what was necessary and plugged along.

It was around this time, in February 2017 that I found my lord and saviors: @twssmith and @dml277. For some context, I can be really rude sometimes. In fact, I hated Tyler. More than I hated study groups. I was a lone wolf. But she pushed me. She forced me to dig deeper. Literally our study calls would not progress until I provided her with an answer sufficient enough to make her happy. Which is exactly what I needed. @dml277 did the same thing...but was less Socratic about it. Kinda like good cop, bad cop. This was all so weird to me. I hated studying in groups but this was working so well.

Still, there was another postponing dilemma. I postponed June. Then September, ultimately taking December 2017 reluctantly, knowing that this is late in the cycle.

But it finally went well. Finally. After 3 long years I felt like I had taken an official test that I did well on. Given my standards, it was still not good enough. I crawled under my bed and laid there for an hour. But that day, I mustered up the courage and pressed submit on all of my apps.

While I'm by no means an LSAT aficionado like many of you here, there's one thing I'm really good at: crafting an application. My application tells a coherent story that makes sense and captures the readers attention. Just like an LSAT question, each and every part of my application lends support and is supported by something else. In a cycle like this, that is the most important thing. To some ends, it is a numbers game. But that's only 67% of the application. What about the other third? Why should the admissions committee pick you? It's truly because my essays (thank you @"David.Busis") and résumé telling a compelling story. It's because of the hard work I put into not only studying but the application.

My results are as follows:

Yale: Denied

Stanford: DLS (Waitlist or Denied (probably denied))

Harvard: Waitlist

Chicago: In with $$

Columbia: In with $$$

NYU: In, awaiting aid

Penn: Waitlist then denied (lol whatever)

UVA: In with $$

Duke: In with $$$$

Michigan: Didn't apply because I can't stand @danielznelson

Yes. I didn't get into Harvard (yet). I failed at my ultimate goal. But Chicago is more than good enough. And I'm not saying that out of pure rationalization. I'm saying that because I went there and I loved it. Small class size, great faculty, amazing clerkship numbers. I truly feel that there is nothing I couldn't achieve from Chicago in this profession.

This process has been a long and difficult one. Honestly it's been the hardest thing I've ever done. By far. But without this community I couldn't have done it. I'm so appreciative I can't put it into words. Thank you all so much. I hope I can help the same way that I have been helped time and time again.

Edit: I had no intentions of making this controversial but the internet being the internet, the trolls came out to play. I am a URM. I also had 16X, 3.7X, one year in a V50 firm, one year in a top state public office, and other great softs with only 3 months off to study. I wrote this to express gratitude and motivate those in similar positions, not to promote any controversial or particular agenda.