Hello all, just looking for some advice on admission for someone getting out of the military.

Long story short - I initially learned in July that I was facing a possible medical discharge from the military (discharge will 100% be honorable). I had always intended to go to law school following the military, but this made the timeline much tighter than I would have preferred. I began studying for the LSAT, and took it in September. I did poorly, I scored on the low end of what my practice tests were (151-161 for PTs, all progressing towards 161...I scored 153 in September). So I signed up for the January LSAT knowing that I'd just have to apply later in the cycle to ensure I'd have time to study for the January test.

For some context:

My undergraduate degree is in electrical engineering from Penn State, however, I graduated with a 2.99 GPA. I made some mistakes as a freshman/sophomore, and really turned it around my junior/senior years, just missing the 3.0. Following school, I worked using my degree for 2.5 years before I decided to join the military. In that time, I took some grad classes and had a 4.0 GPA.

I now know I AM being medically discharged, likely in June/July. My fiance and I would like to stay near where I am currently stationed, near Nashville, TN. There are only two viable options (in my mind) for law school in Nashville, Vanderbilt and Belmont. Now, obviously, I'd love to go to Vanderbilt, but I know that it is a long shot and a stretch for my past academic performance.

I guess my question revolves around the January/February LSAT dates. In an ideal world, I'd have applied before today, but the world that was handed to me not ideal (the best laid plans of mice and men...), and I'm looking for advice as to whether I ought to apply this year, or wait another cycle. Is the January/February timeline too late to apply to a stretch school with my low GPA? What score range should I be looking at on my LSAT before I need to look in the mirror and understand that Vandy is not a viable option? I'd love to score 170, but I realistically expect I can manage around a 165.

Did some searching on the forums and couldn't find a clear cut answer on fool proofing.

For context - I am scheduled to take the JAN 2020 LSAT (may move it to FEB 2020).

I am currently just through the CC on LG, about to start RC. I am almost always able to solve the logic games with -0 or -1, however, time is almost always an issue. New games definitely take me longer than what JY recommends, but I can usually get them almost perfect with more time.

I took the SEP 2019 LSAT and scored 153 and went -11 on LG/AR, -10 on RC, and -18 on LR.

I feel that the core curriculum will definitely improve my LR scores - there was some basic concepts that I was missing that I think will enable me to improve there. At this point - does it make more sense to spend the time to start fool proofing AR/LG or to move on to RC? I went close to -10 on both, but understand the concepts behind LG well enough to solve them, albeit slowly.

In the Analytics Videos JY shows how to score your LSAT and there is an option to score a single section at a time. Due to my work schedule, I plan to do a full practice test 1 time per week, and another PT in 1 section per day increments so that I can complete 2 PTs a week, even though the one will be over a 4 day period.

Is there still an option to score a single section or do I just need to make 4 copies of the test? I think that'll screw with my analytics tab if I do that? Is this even still possible?