This question assumes the person has T-14 credentials. My answer is prefaced on a choice between T-14 sticker vs. lower-ranked full-ride.

Before law school I had a T-14 or bust mentality. After being waitlisted or rejected at the T-14 I took a full-tuition scholarship to a T-20 school. If I'd have got off a T-14 waitlist I would've been paying a lot more for my education and taking on debt. I had not anticipated attending the T-20 school before their offer, but something told me it was the right choice. It was one of the best decisions I ever made.

My school is in a cheaper part of the country, so I pay bills with savings from post-undergrad work. My tuition is covered, so I don't spend all day thinking about debt. I know my classmates worry about this. I started school knowing that this school wanted me. They didn't treat me like I was lucky to have been offered a seat. I felt good being here. I knew that they thought I could succeed. I wouldn't have felt this getting off the T-14 waitlist. That difference, if only slight and marginal, helped me get good grades. I now have a 1L summer associate position at my first-choice firm.

When I applied for the SA role, I told them a compelling story about why they're the right fit for my career goals. I knew this through networking and law school events. I seriously doubt they cared about the prestige of my school. They cared about grades, work experience, soft skills, interveiwing abilities, creativity, personability, "fit" within the firm, shared goals, things well beyond the law school name on my resume. They didn't care about geographic ties either. A T-14 won't give you those skills any more than a T-20 will. If anything, a T-14 might hamper your chances at getting top grades (assuming they are more academically competitive, which isn't certain).

TL;DR - I think people underestimate the burden of debt. I think employers care more about grades and soft skills than they do the name on your resume.

Also, this blog post from Spivey helped calm the nerves that come with waiting.

https://blog.spiveyconsulting.com/this-will-be-a-slow-cycle/

One school made me chuckle as they had my file recorded as 'waiting TOEFL score'. I'm English, live in England, and went to an English university...

@minjungpark517248 said:

How are all your apps going? Where are each of you in the process?

All submitted. Heard nothing from most (as expected), but Georgetown got back to me within ~3 week to say I was a strong candidate but that they were postponing a decision until the new year. I'm above their 75th so I didn't feel so great about that. But in hindsight, if they wanted to reject me they could have done so right away, so it's not so bad.

I can say from experience that you need to learn how to cope with a section that is not going well. For me, the test-day-nerves never completely went away for LG, so I had to make sure I knew what to do when it wasn't going perfectly and I was panicking.

For me this involved getting really clear on setting up correctly, accurately, and in a helpful way. This means you can confidently go for the low hanging fruit on a more difficult game.

You also have to time yourself and get a real solid feel for when you - personally - need to skip questions/games (IMO).

Just to add some confusion to how fee-waivers are decided; I don't have a reportable GPA (foreign) and I've received unsolicited fee waivers from Penn, Cornell, Vanderbilt, UCLA, as well as some lower-ranked schools.

@jacobseeley861 said:

I can tell you from personal experience this cycle, gaps in your resume draw questions.

As an aside, stay-at-home dad is apparently not good enough to cover the gap, but that's a conversation for a different forum.

That's sad to hear. You have my sympathies. It's already rare for Dads to stay-at-home and it's something we should be encouraging as a society, not discouraging!

@jhaldy10325 said:

Yeah, I ran into this as well. I listed the same job twice using the different hours. Just make sure the dates line up right.

Yeah, this might be the safest thing (with full disclosure in mind). Either way, I have emailed a couple of T14 schools to see what they say. I'll feedback with anything useful.

@leahbeuk911 said:

I kept mine at Times New Roman 12 for everything, including resume. (12 pt seemed to be a size that worked for all schools, so I kept it that to not have to re-size things all the time.) My resume is all the same with the exception of my name at the top in the header. I don't know that it would have to be the same, but I personally think it looks nicer and more consistent to have your resume match the rest.

That's what I'm thinking, just keep it consistent wherever possible.

I felt size 11 was a little small on my résumé, since it isn't double spaced. But then size 12 makes my PS just over 2 pages, which isn't acceptable for some places. I think I'll go for size 11 PS if needed, and size 12 résumé. I figure I'd rather they notice I used two font sizes than they have a résumé they're struggling to skim read.

@jacobseeley861oshun1 said:

I don’t even know what type of font or size my resume was, I was just trying to shrink it to a page and make it look pretty. I don’t think it matters for your resume since it’s an entirely diff format than an essay. For your PS and additional essays I think it would be best to keep it all the same font and size. I really doubt adcomms would be paying attention to that though. Double check the prompt too as some schools like UCLA say to keep your PS to a 12 pt font.

Yeah, that UCLA one is tricky. 12 size font plus 2 pages max. Sigh.

@paulmvbenthem537 said:

Do admissions committees tend to regard more highly the title/position of the referee or the amount of experience shared with the applicant?

The latter. Knowledge of the candidate trumps rank any day of the week.

You will have to get very good at getting the low hanging fruit on LR. Easy questions should feel easy and you should be able to breeze through them. This will give more time for the curve breakers. You should be doing enough LR blind review and watching enough of J.Y.'s explanations that you start to get a really good feel for LR questions. That's what worked for me.

I had my worst illness in years the week before my test and I still performed +/- 3 my PT average. If that's an acceptable outcome for you I'd consider taking the Nov. test.

I would suggest getting back on the horse. Doing nothing won't help (IMO) as you will simply focus on the recent poor performance. I would recommend being pro-active. Blind review the test that gave you problems, as this should give you the reassurance that you can do this!

I'd then suggest building confidence with your remaining time. I used to do this by taking a full section of whatever gave me problems. I'd BR a new section, and after that I'd do a timed section. E.g. if I bombed an RC section I'd go back to the CC, revisit some core concept, BR a section of RC, then do a timed RC section.

@kellysmithsmithsmith354 said:

Spivey does hourly consulting....

Thanks! I might take a look at this after trying with a 7Sage consultant.

@jacobseeley861 said:

7Sage does hourly consulting that may be what you want. I had an extremely positive experience using it myself.

Thank you. I had a 7Sage editing for my PS and was very pleased with the process so I'll shoot them an email.

Scores are out for me. 3-pts below my PT average but I'll take it given how ill I was. Good enough for most of the T-14 so I'll see how the cycle goes. Hopefully that's me done with the LSAT. Thanks, 7Sage. It's been a blast. (3(/p)

Gone grey but no score yet.

All these new comments making me think scores are releasing! Stay strong, friends.

@emilycarrazana801 said:

I just don't see the point because you either had more time to study or studied harder and adcoms would know that.

Sometimes there are mitigating circumstances that need to be explained. It’s not a black/white issue of studying longer or harder, which is precisely why schools want the addendum. Maybe OPs 7 point increase is because they worked harder, but it could be because their dog died the day of their first take...

Also if a school tells you to write one then write one. If they say explain an X point difference in an addendum, do it. The fastest way to get rejected from a school is not following their instructions.

Yep. The stress and anxiety is worse than the exam itself.

I've got in multiple times with the same picture. It had a weird shadow on the wall because we'd just plastered it. Was never an issue for me.