I'm a month into LSAT Prep and took my first practice test a couple weeks ago with a 156. I find the material learnable but definitely think that improving my performance on logic games, in particular, is going to be a very strenuous process. I wouldn't be able to sit until June of 2018 or January of 2019 due to logistical constraints. So I was wondering if it's worth getting a GRE score in beforehand considering the recent changes in admissions policies. Is it that much easier/shorter of a preparation process?

I've been told that it's limited to reading comprehension, writing, vocabulary, and geometric/algebraic concepts, which seems like much less daunting of a process. And I could still look into taking the LSAT at a later date. I'd also have more opportunities to take the exam, considering I'll be abroad and my host country only offers the LSAT twice a year.

I know it's limited to only a select few schools, but Harvard and Northwestern would literally be my two dream schools. And I'd be just as ecstatic with Georgetown. I'll be on a Fulbright for ten months starting in January and will be working in financial services for at least a year. I am also intrigued by having the opportunity of pursuing an MBA or a joint degree program down the line. I have a 3.98 GPA under a more math-intensive undergraduate degree than most pre-law students. I also came across an Economist article that implied that above a 3.87 threshold, schools don't even have to report the GRE score (source: https://gre.economist.com/gre-advice/graduate-school-admissions/which-exam-take/gre-vs-lsat-which-exam-should-you-apply-harvard-law). Thus, would you guys think it might be in my best interest to get a GRE score in over the next few months before the LSAT?

Hey all,

Since the LSAT scores have come out, I've received fee waivers from some pretty prestigious schools. Like schools that my LSAT score is below the median (my GPA is above most of theirs tho). Like, I just got one from UChicago.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN!? Is it an indicator you have a decent chance of acceptance?

Does it mean they like me and I might get accepted :'(? The e-mail says I've demonstrated a "strong academic record." What does it meeeeeeaaaan?!

My plan is to blanket the T14 schools with no expectations of acceptance. As far as I can tell, my best shot is University of Austin Texas (or #14). According to the LSAC GPA/LSAT browser, applicants with my GPA and LSAT had between a 54% and 64% chance of getting accepted into Austin in 2016. The same people only had between 27% and 40% chance of getting into Cornell, which #13.

If I get accepted into any one of them, I'll go. If not, I'll take the LSAT again in June 2018 and hopefully beef up my resume along the way.

My personal issue is that I don't actually know the national reach of a lower T14 school; this is especially a concern for Austin. I don't know where I want to practice, and I haven't evaluated any job markets yet.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

My priority school is UW.

My GPA is quite mediocre (3.57cumul/3.7 degree)

I’m aiming for 165-167. Am I not doing myself any favors with that expectation for that school?

I've been trying for a month to get an LOR submitted. The professor is saying that they keep following the link and submitting it but it doesn't even show that it's acknowledged on LSAC. Has anyone had this problem before?

I took the LSAT for the first time in June 2017 while I was abroad. I don't even want to mention what my score was (157), but I think there were a lot of contributing factors to that, as I consistently tested in the 165-170 range on practices. I really want to go to NYU for a variety of reasons. While I am not technically a URM, I am a former ward of the state/ foster child and I have a powerful backstory and personal statement as well as an interest in practicing public interest law. I have a 3.7 GPA, and I think that if I can score on the actual test within the range I mentioned earlier, I should have a real shot at NYU. Thoughts?

Grey day has come and gone taking my dreams of a 175 with it ? Yesterday I was distraught, today I am resolved. I'm planning to retake in December and finally get a score that matches my PTs!

I have all but finished several applications, just need to sign and finalize my essays. My question is how the process of updating an app goes. Is there an advantage to applying now with my sept. score, and then updating when hit a 178 (lol, as if) in december? Or should I wait to apply until January?

Financial aid is a big concern for me, so I badly wanted to apply early, but I realize that a 2 point bump would help more than a 3 month wait. Advice? Thoughts? Comfort food suggestions? Haha

Hey everyone,

Check out our new spreadsheet of law school medians. Someone on TLS did this a while ago, but didn't update it for 2017. We've also added application requirements for T20 schools. The sheet is free to anyone:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kE98659Gp_T828edsUZRKrhcxnK6xF1mR5RICN_FDYs/edit?usp=sharing

Edit

View on site:

https://classic.7sage.com/admissions/top-law-school-admissions/

Anyone applying to H/Y/ and/or S who wants to do a personal statement swap? Mine is (broadly) related to wanting to do social movement lawyering.

So I posted a couple days ago about LSAC miscalculating my GPA on the Academic Summary Report; they treated eight hours of high school test credit as a C. They fixed it today, but I'm posting this to remind people to verify their grades. I know LSAC has their own way of calculating GPA, but this was pretty blatant and took my overall GPA down by 0.10

Good luck all!

I just got back my third LSAT score and was crushed - a full 10 points lower than my practice tests where I was consistently getting around a 171, and 2 points lower than my last test (163). I've been studying for over a year at this point so I think its time to move on and just apply already.

My question is: is there any way to spin these scores as a positive in an addendum? I want to believe the admissions officers will see my three scores over a year and a half span and see perseverance. And if they were to look at my section scores, if you put all my best ones together I would have gotten around a 174. Would it come off badly to highlight these facts?

Thanks for the advice!!

My September score is leaving me in purgatory.

I got a 170 and I have a 3.57 GPA. I want to apply ED to UChicago (I know, it's a reach) while applying to Michigan, Duke, Virginia, Penn, Northwestern, and Cornell.

Looking on Law School Numbers, even a 175 (my PT average) in December wouldn't do much for my application chances anywhere, and would marginally help with scholarship money. My thoughts are if Chicago were going to reject me, seeing that I'm taking in December would at least get me waitlisted.

I'm in the middle of a gap year and I burnt myself out going into the September test, and I don't want to go through it again.

What should I do?

Hi,

How does one's political views affect one's chances at admission, especially to elite schools which tend to lean left? I wouldn't say I'm a liberal, by today's standards of what constitutes left at least; if one defines "liberal" as "one who values liberty", then yes I am a liberal. However, I try to understand both sides of the political spectrum without being wedded to any particular ideology. By no means am I what many have called the "alt-right", however, there are some views that they hold that I am sympathetic towards; in particular, I believe that it is necessity to guard the freedom of speech. There are, of course, reasons for me to be sympathetic towards this idea: language evolves. To legislate on what constitutes "appropriate" speech is to attempt to directly and consciously control the evolution of language. If I were to reject this notion, I would have to reject the liberal value of liberty, which is distinct from license. Thus, to remain a liberal, it seems that I must defend, what is now considered to be, a conservative ideal.

In short, I am a centrist. But it seems that being a centrist, especially in this politically charged climate, would hurt my chances. Am I correct in being concerned?

I have 3 former professors who agreed to write LORs for me. Can I pick just 2 to send to law schools even after all 3 submit their letters to LSAC? I got the third letter just in case as a backup and don't want to send it if I don't have to..

ss

Hello, Im in the beginning stage of writing my personal statement, however i am having super writer's block and i'm stuck. I dont know what direction i should take my essay. Its so difficult because i am a career changer , from medical to law and all my experience are medical related. so if there is anyone who would like to review it and maybe throw some ideas in that would be helpful.

Hey all,

I'm concerned about something in my personal statement. So I'm basically writing about my family's refugee story and how that pushed me to go into law.

I was originally going to be a doctor (my mom wanted a doctor in the family to take care of her when she gets older), but through some experiences in college regarding racial discrimination and then the rhetoric of the 2016 election, I found myself called to pursue law - specifically immigrant law, public policy, etc. Appropriately, I took ~1 year off school to work on the presidential campaign - hence sparking my transition from pre-med to pre-law.

I am worried though about talking about the 2016 election, specifically about Trump's immigrant rhetoric. I'm worried about making any politically charged statements and any backlash I may face in the admissions boardrooms. What do you all think? I would be respectful of course, but I'm worried just mentioning it could be bad.

Would anyone be interested in swapping personal statements and providing some constructive feedback?

Two schools I'm applying to want two pages max. Three other schools want approximately two pages. And the other seven schools either don't have a page limit or it's max three. I'm at about two and three quarters pages right now, and am wondering what to do. I know the "two page max" schools are a hard line, and I plan to edit shorter for those, but what about the "approximately two pages" schools. How flexible are they when they say approximately?

Having a very hard time editing down while still telling the full story I want. Any advice or help would be appreciated. Thanks!

For those that are currently applying to law schools, I was wondering how much you guys tweaked your PS for each application. My generic statement is two, double-spaced, pages, but some of the schools I'm applying to allows up to four double-spaced pages. Are you guys sticking to the generic PS, or are you guys adding additional stuff into your PS for schools that allow longer PS?

I'm applying after being out of undergrad for 2 years. I took time off work for a few months to study for the LSAT and move back to my home state to do more meaningful work. Does that need to be explained in an addendum? I was thinking of including it in part of my "Why X" narratives, but that may be out of place.

Thanks!

Hey guys,

One of the schools that I am applying for is having an open house this weekend. This sounds like a silly question but would it look bad to bring my mom with me? I'm very close with my mom and she will be the one who's paying for my law eduction so it makes sense that she wants to see exactly where her money is going...but I read on some other forums that taking your parents with you looks immature and can send the wrong message.

Any thoughts?

Anyone want to swap personal statements????

I know, i'm dramatic.

But guys i'm freaking out.

So, i'm a senior in college and my school just finished my "grad check" so that i'm set to graduate in the spring. All of a sudden they started factoring in my dual enrollment classes from high school in to my GPA. While they are Bs, they brought my gpa down .08 points, which actually brought it down a .1. As we are all prospective law students, .1 is a big deal. (Example: 2.6 to 2.5, trust me, not my GPA but you get the idea). I have not yet submitted my transcript to lsac because I caught this. Will my dual enrollment classes factor in to my lsac gpa? Because my I would LOVE to apply with my actual college GPA.

Help :(

Hi guys,

I'm at a Canadian university (UBC) and paid to have my transcripts sent to the LSAC awhile back. My FedEx tracking showed that the transcripts were received about a week ago, but my LSAC account is showing something weird on the transcripts page. On the right hand side in the "my status" box, it shows "received: 0", "not received: 1". I think this means one of two things: either my transcripts were sent in a method that doesn't meet LSAC standards and they were not accepted even though they were received (although I followed the directions exactly), or the transcripts will be denoted as received once they are processed and "not received" just signifies that they are being processed.

I emailed LSAC about this yesterday, but I figured someone here might be able to provide some information in a more timely fashion about what this actually means. Thanks so much in advance!