Hello All,

I was wondering if there are any disadvantages for applying to t6/14 schools with December LSAT score.

(I'm planning to complete the whole application by the date I receive Dec. lsat score on early Jan. think: Jan. 2~5)

My top choices are Harvard, Columbia,NYU, and Cornell.

(Y,S,Chi. all seem to have relatively smaller class sizes and I feel their admission policy is very unpredictable).

Thank you in advance for your comments : )

Here's my situation:

I've wanted to go to law school every since I was little. All of my life, things came easy to me, which is not necessarily a good thing. I got into IU and decided socializing and making friends was more important than spending the extra time I had studying, which I know is no excuse at all. I had one completely awful semester not because I wasn't trying, but because I had mono. I got a 2.0 that semester. It took me two years into my undergrad to realize I actually had to put more effort in if I wanted to have a decent GPA. Too little too late, I ended up with a 2.75. On a bright note, my GPA increasingly got better each and every semester.

Now, I took the LSAT last Dec. 2015, and did bad. I "studied" but not really because I was also taking classes at the time. I ended up with a 142. I decided to wait to apply to law school and work full time to build my resume. Fast forward to this Dec. 2016 LSAT. I feel more confident in how I did, but I truly won't know until the score comes back. I studied but probably not as much as I should have and my PT score was averaging 156. I think if I focused the next two months and took for my third and final time in February, I could do even better than that. What does anyone think about taking the LSAT for a third time? Does putting my application in that late make my chances drop even more than what they already are at?

With that being said, I have two previous professor's writing excellent recommendations for me. I am working with one of them on my personal statement and addendum's.

Obviously I know I'm not someone law school's want to admit because of my low GPA and low LSAT score, but my uGPA is not indicative of my ability whatsoever. I touch a bit on this in my personal statement/addendum. I want to stay in state, go to Indiana University, or it's sister school IUPUI McKinney Law.

I guess my question is: should I even continue applying? Will law school's take a chance? This is something I so badly want, but know it may be far fetched to think I'll get accepted... Any advice or insight will be helpful.

Thanks!

1

I would appreciate any feedback that anyone can give. I am applying to law schools this fall, and I am shooting particularly for YLS. How impactful will my softs be to overcome my not-so stellar UGPA (LSAC GPA 3.17) from over 10 years ago? My LSAT is 176.

Softs are:

I'm wondering how lenient/picky schools are when it comes to giving out app fee waivers. I plan to apply to many of the T14, Stanford, Harvard, Columbia, Chicago, UofM, Northwestern for sure, perhaps others. Paying $300+ just for apps is really going to hurt my budget. My background, I have about 25k debt from undergrad, but its not documented (loan from grandparents), im currently making about 40k yearly while paying off car loan, the aforementioned college loan, and of course daily expenses, rent etc. Also, is there any way to add an addendum to waiver applications? I would like to explain my undocumented debt etc but there's nowhere to do so in most forms I've seen.

I am aware that the most important factors in the law school admissions are LSAT scores and undergraduate GPA. However I don't have an undergraduate GPA since it is from an international institution (LSAC will only evaluate the score and give a rate but doesn't calculate the GPA for international institutions). I only have graduate level GPA from US institutions.

How should I improve and add some strong softs to compensate for that? I know military experience is a plus, how about military spouses? Is being a military spouse also a plus?

Thank you~!

So I've found myself in a bit of a pickle with regards to letters of rec. One of my own making, but still. I am nearly six years removed from college at this point, so finding professors who remember me is a bit of a stretch. Thankfully I applied to grad school a year after college and had to ask for recommendations. I was able to track down one of the professors who still had a copy. He made slight alterations and submitted. One down. The other two have ignored my emails, so I'm not counting on hearing from them. That leaves me in need of a minimum of one more.

Normally, I could ask a current or former manager / senior co-worker, but my situation makes that difficult. I worked for company A right after school for a few years before leaving for company B. At company B I did not get along with the team lead in my first position and ended up switching teams just before I decided to apply to law school. I left company B to return to company A as my position with company B was all encompassing and would have left less than no time to study for the LSAT or write essays. Needless to say, my second team lead there was not exactly thrilled with me leaving so shortly after switching, despite understanding my reasoning. She might have been willing to write one, but has also ignored my email. That would leave all the managers / leads I've had at company A, all would be more than willing to write me great letters of rec under normal circumstances, but having just returned I cannot tell them I'm going to be leaving just yet. This is due to financial considerations / the very likely scenario of them looking to get rid of me before I hit the one year mark due to provisions in my offer. I've thought this through pretty thoroughly and there is no one I could ask who would be likely to keep it to themselves (at least not a risk I'm willing to take).

So I'm running out of ideas. I don't do things like volunteer work, etc. I've thought to ask a few grad TAs I used to work for in college with no response (seriously, how difficult is it just to send a "no" email, this is worse than online dating*). Worst case I can probably find someone just to fill the quota, but it won't be a good one. Like, I might as well just write one myself and submit it at that point. Any outside the box ideas I might not be thinking of?

* Please note that this is a joke and I understand the impulse in both scenarios to say nothing and am ok with it.

Which admissions cycle would the June 2017 LSATS be ideal for?

Would it be really important? How would a personal statement factor into it? What if someone has no good softs?

Hi 7Sage,

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To put it bluntly, my UG scores are below average - the LSAC will probably have a seizure looking at my transcripts. My transcripts will most likely have a ''Below Average'' evaluation.

I am from India - which has grading similar to UK. A 2:1(60%) is considered standard good marks while a 2:2 - ( 50 -59%) is considered death knell.

I have a 2:2.

I am certainly not expecting a T14.

So hypothetically if I manage a good LSAT score - 175+ I know that sounds a stretch.... will any T20 or T30 consider me? To what extent does LSAT scores mitigate a very low GPA?

If it helps - its been 4 years out of undergrad. I have had a great grad GPA ( wont help much), cracked a national level exam with great marks, and presently working as a lecturer.

Please help out guys.

How much consideration does law schools place on academic performance in graduate school?

Hi friends,

This is sort of a weird question, but I'm sure some of you have had similar experiences, and any advice would really help me out!

I guess I'm a nontraditional applicant in that I graduated in 2015. Since then I've been working, traveling, and making sure I actually wanted to apply to law school (I do, hooray). I was pretty successful in college, but I sort of distanced myself from my school after graduation because I was turned off by several political and social decisions being made by the administration. This is to say that I didn't do a great job of keeping in touch with my professors.

The problem is, I spent a year and a half working with one professor on my Honors History Thesis, for which I ended up winning the highest departmental awards. I viewed it as an accomplishment for both of us! He has since left my undergrad, and the school has no idea where he went. I ended up emailing one of his colleagues who asked him if it would be okay if I got in touch with him, and he said yes. I've emailed him four or five times over the last three months, to no avail. Aside from worrying about him, I'm selfishly frustrated because he was the person who knew me and my work best, and I'm afraid it will reflect poorly on me if 'honors thesis' is plastered all over my resume and then no recommendation from my advisor appears.

I have a great employer rec coming in, as well as one from a dean with whom I worked closely, and I've asked another professor who I feel pretty good about but perhaps not great. I'm aiming for a T14, and I think my GPA and softs stack up (I'm sitting in September). I would hate to miss my shot because I can't find this one guy!

Has anyone else lost their best recommender? Is this something that would be worth trying to explain, or would that be seen as making excuses/make me sound insane?

Thanks team, and seriously, good luck to everyone out there, especially those of you who've taken weird convoluted paths!!

Hi guys! I was wondering if anyone had experience or knowledge regarding how/if the LSAC calculates AP credit in with GPA.

The website says that it will factor in if your university gives credit and counts the grade. My university gives credit, but I don't think it uses those credits in GPA calculation. Does anyone know of situations where AP scores have been taken into account? Could I potentially transfer universities/enroll in an additional one and apply under it to have my AP scores factored in?

Much Appreciated!

I'm studying for the Sept test right now (will be my first test) but I want to apply this cycle. I know I should be working on my personal statement and my diversity statement but I'm really bad at multi-tasking and I worry that writing while studying at the same time might distract me from fully concentrating on the test.

Would it be too late to start on the personal statement and the diversity statement immediately after I take the Sept LSAT? Would the admissions course on 7sage help me with this?

,

Hi, does anyone know for sure whether law schools even read your personal statement after seeing that your lsat score is not in their desired range?

Disclaimer: This is fairly long. However, its length may be good practice for you as an RC passage. I can write practice questions if you would like.

Hi all, I first want to say thanks to 7sage for the awesome prep course. I hadn't really used the Discussion section of 7sage until just recently but I wish I had sooner as it seems to be a great community with a lot of knowledge. I sat June 2017 and am looking to apply this cycle. My goal is to attend a T14 school, particularly one of the higher-ranked T14 schools. I have a few questions regarding retaking the LSAT, softs, and work experience.

About me: 4.0 GPA, 170 LSAT, mechanical engineering major at a top 10 engineering school, looking to probably go into intellectual property law.

As for retaking the LSAT, I figure I have good enough numbers to get into a majority of the T14 school as is, but I think an extra couple points could go a long way for chances at HYS CCN, as well as grant money everywhere. I only started to score in the 170s during the last two weeks of prep leading up to the test and had a slow upward trend all the way which I felt I could have continued and scored higher had the test been a month later. All said and done, I hit my target score that I set when I started studying seven months ago and am thrilled with it, but I do think that I can do a little better with more work. I am thinking about sitting again in September. If I am not consistently scoring above 170 on PTs leading up to September I will withdraw, and if I do not feel like I scored above 170 on the test I will cancel my score (don't want to risk getting a lower score). My question is: do schools even see that you have taken a test and cancelled? Or that you have registered and withdrawn? If so, does this hurt your application in any way? How badly would taking and getting a lower (say 168, 169) or same score hurt my application?

My softs: internships with three different companies: one of the "Big Three" auto manufacturers (2 summers), a well-known engine and machinery manufacturer (2 semesters), and a smaller engineering company (1 summer); Formula SAE team member; study abroad semester; tutor; course grader; scholarship D-1 student-athlete (2 years, at previous school before transferring to my current school)

The majority of my softs are internships, and I have heard different things as to how internships are viewed as work experience by law schools. I know a lot of schools and law firms want to see a good amount of full-time work experience, especially in industry for IP law. Do you think this combination of internships (totaling 9 months of full-time and 10 months of part-time engineering work) would be seen as a significant amount of "work experience," however that is defined by law schools, rather than merely a set of internships? Also, I graduate in December and will then be working full-time for around 7-8 months at either the auto manufacturer I have interned at or an engineering consulting firm before starting law school. I would just really rather not put off law school a whole year just to build up more work experience if it is not necessary.

If you are still reading this, you the real MVP. Thank you for any help, insight, suggestions, funny comments, whatever.

I graduated from ASU Barrett, the honors college with a 3.91 and completed an extensive honors thesis. After taking a semester long Princeton review prep class that didn't seem to help my practice test scores at all, I got a 154 on the June 2016 test. I decided to take a year off and will be working at a nice law firm for this next year. I believe I'll have great letters of rec from my my thesis director and employer. I want to retake the lsat this September but I think my score will not improve much as I will only have about two months to study again. I'm worried that my school options with these scores won't be ideal even with my higher GPA and everything else. Any thoughts or recommendations?

I've been thinking about where I want to apply in a few months and if I want to apply early decision to any school. I'm from the midwest and I'd like to stay here at a top 20 school with more of a national reputation; I'd eventually like to work for the federal government or in the AG office of a state government. My top choices are Chicago U, Northwestern, Wash U STL, and Notre Dame.

Wash U and Northwestern both offer full rides if you apply and are admitted early decision, which makes those schools look extra tempting. My question is this. Wash U promises a two week turnaround for a decision from the time you apply. If I were to apply to Wash U early on and receive either a rejection or a note saying I'll be considered with the general applicants, would I then be allowed to apply early decision at Northwestern? Or any other school in any order for that matter?

My gut would say "no" based on the early decision agreement most schools make you sign, but I figured I'd confirm that. I'd appreciate if anyone could help me out!

I signed up for the July Forum in DC thinking I'd be in town then. I'm no longer going to be there, but am considering making a trip (~5 hr bus each way) down in order to attend. To those who have been, is it worth it? Also, I'm taking the LSAT in September so won't have a score on file by then, if that affects anything.

As a departing veteran - my captain or senior in rank wrote work evals on myself that distinguished my performance against peers on a ship / unit and against the Navy as a whole - shall I include those write-ups somehow in my admissions package? Additional materials mailed to the law school?

I understand the diversity course gives socioeconomic + early respond ability which I have both. However, I am a white, straight male and have been told by pretty much everyone that I am not diverse and would have nothing to in that department. TLS for instance is universally negative, and to be honest most adcomms have given lukewarm responses at best. Is it better if I don't do it even if I think it would add to the diversity, or is it really just race/sexuality?

Might be off topic, but what is the likelihood for international JD students to find work?