Self-study
Hi everyone- I am currently gearing up to apply to law schools, mainly in the NYC area, this upcoming cycle. I currently have an LSAT score in the 158-162 range and am hoping to submit a score of at least 163-165. For my undergrad, I have a 4.0 GPA from Excelsior University, a fully online school based in Albany, NY. I was wondering if anybody had any insight into how much this will impact my admissions chances at schools? Will it matter if i apply to schools that I am within their lsat median, or will I need to score a few points ovber medians to secure acceptances and hopefully scholarships?
The main schools i am currently targettng are: Cardozo, St. Johns, Brooklyn, NYLS, but would love to shoot higher if my LSAT permits me to do so. (fordham, nyu, columbia)
Any advice or answers people may have is appreciated, thank you all and best of luck!
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1 comments
I hope I can give some insight @JiggityJack5!
First, there's generally been a greater knowledge and awareness of fully online programs in the past decade, especially post-COVID. It used to be pretty rare to see competitive law applicants from online programs just because the fully online programs were - themselves - very rare. That all has changed! But with that said, just know that it would be useful for you to address why you chose to attend Excelsior. Was it because you were also working full-time and this was the best fit? Because it was the best option based on where you lived? Because of health/mobility issues? Military deployments? Even just a sentence or two that mentions that factoid, that would help the admissions officers understand things a bit more.
But notice how I haven't brought up your actual question yet! That's because admissions officers aren't going to use a different LSAT threshold for folks who attend online schools vs in-person schools. If you hit their target median, you hit their target median. But - obviously - the higher the LSAT score, the greater the opportunity for merit scholarship. Additionally, the best way to assuage any concerns about an online BA is to have a good LSAT, and a good resume, and have a clear rationale for wanting to attend law school via your personal statement.