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That’s not a terrible way to go, but I’ve avoided some common mistakes by doing more research. You can find a lot of great stuff on the forums of www.lawschool.life and the law school admissions subreddit.
Yeah @joezim425753 pretty much nailed it on the head. Plus Columbia puts a lot of people on the waitlist, so it’s important to stand out.
@yifeiwang926 said:
Can I ask what it means to "save all that stuff for LOCI"? Do you have a storage of things to say about a school for when you get waitlisted that is distinct from the things in the "why X" essays you wrote?
Yes I do for the T6 schools I applied to, because I didn’t write a “Why X” essay for them. I want to be able to write a killer LOCI if I get waitlisted that doesn’t just recycle a “Why X” essay that would already be on my record. I’m not claiming that this will definitely work, it’s just my personal strategy. Another thing to keep in mind is that a bad “Why X” essay can hurt you, whereas a strong essay probably won’t move the needle very much in comparison to your LSAT, GPA, PS, or Resume. T6 schools don’t ask for them, so I didn’t think it was worth the risk. OP can do whatever works for them, though.
The deadline is in four days so whatever you write would be pretty rushed at this point. From what I've read, the T6 schools tend to assume that you want to go there. You can do what you want, but personally I am saving all of that stuff for my LOCI if I get waitlisted.
Uffda that's a tough one. I'm not going to lie, that is a very severe time crunch. Going from 155 to 160 is easier than 165 to 170, but 5 points is still a tall task in just a few weeks. What is your PT range right now? I obviously don't know your exact situation, but if I were you, I'd seriously consider sitting this cycle out and applying next year. That way, you can max out your LSAT and have your application ready to go in September when most scholarships are untouched and ready for the taking. You could do as much of the Starter course as you need over this upcoming year and go from there. It sounds like you have a pretty stable situation in life right now, so if law school is your life-long dream, then my advice is to not rush it. I was sersiously considering this myself before I got my November score back. I mostly say this because it seems like you are setting yourself up for doing some very crammed and rushed studying, and it is very easy to forget that surface-level knowledge the second that the proctors say "Go" on test day. It all just sounds unnecessarily stressful to me; the process is already stressful enough as is. That's just my two cents, though. If it's this year or bust, PT's might make a bigger difference than the course if you are taking the January test. The admissions course could definitely help, because as a university professor I assume that you're soft factors will be pretty solid and it is important to maximize their impact. Soft factors are a big deal for all of us that are more than a few years removed from undergrad. Best of luck!
Honestly I hadn't even thought of that yet. I don't think so, though.
As you probably know, the LSAT measures your logical ability, reading comprehension, and mental acuity. Perhaps just as importantly, though, it also tests your confidence, fortitude, and ability to handle stress. I’m going to talk about the latter, because focusing on these made a world of difference for me.
I started studying off and on for the LSAT from about February to May and I was getting about mid-to-high150’s in a couple of PT’s. I started to study seriously in May, and thanks largely to 7Sage I moved into the 168-170 range on my PT’s by September! This range was my goal, and so I took the September test hoping that I could match my PT’s and start applying by October. Unfortunately, though, I got a 165. This was still a fine score, but I didn’t understand why I had underperformed. The more I thought about it, the more realized that it had more to do with how I prepared for the test than how I had studied for it if that makes sense. I made some significant changes, and in November I got a 169!
Those four points have COMPLETELY changed my application outlook. At best, I had a fair-to-middling chance at getting in to a T14 school before, with a T20 school being more likely. That would have been great, but now I have a decent chance at a T6 school! (I should note that I’m a former Air Force officer with a masters and some other strong soft factors.) The thing that might surprise you, though, is that from September to November I did almost no studying. The only thing I did was take two PT’s in the week before the test to shake off any rust that might have developed. Below is a list of what I did do.
To be fair, 7Sage says a lot of this in one of its early lessons, but I think my example is a good anecdotal case study of the importance of the intangible factors. Feel free to use or not use any of the things I did, because in the end it all comes down to your specific experience and how your individual brain will respond. I'm probably an extreme case to be honest, so you should probably tone some of these things down a bit if you do use them. Bottom line, the important thing is that you do everything you can to create the best circumstances for success. Good luck!
P.S. I just used the Edit Once sentence-level edit feature in the Admissions course, and it might be the best $200 I ever spent. I definitely recommend it for peace of mind before you send off your applications if you are at that point.
Word on the street is that the curve is probably going to be -11, so that is encouraging. It looks like the mining game messed just about everyone up. Personally, it started to click for me eventually once I locked in the last couple spots, but I’m not sure if I took enough time to completely understand the questions. Otherwise, I thought the rest was a pretty typical test.
So if the word "some" was removed from answer choice A, it would be a valid answer choice, correct? I completely missed that word when I took this PT and the rest of it seemed to match the stimulus.
#help
Thanks all I will definitely use some of these! Bill Nye Saves the World has been sitting in my Netflix queue for awhile so now is probably a good time to catch up.
I’ve recently taken up sudoku’s and reading Scientific American in my spare time when I’m not studying to supplement my training and help my brain get used to the mindset needed for LG and the science selection of RC, respectively. I saw these suggestions mentioned briefly in one of the lessons in the core curriculum, and honestly I am pretty sure that it has improved my performance. I know that these methods have certainly made me feel more comfortable when I’m doing my PT’s. Does anyone have suggestions for similiar low-stress, supplemental methods to help with LR sections? Thanks!
If you get the BLOS, then you should absolutely do that and it’s not even close at that point in my opinion. You should still go and visit a your top choices, but a full ride at Berk is an insanely good deal. The difference between NYU and Berk is almost negligible in comparison to the difference between NYU and UCLA/USC. UCLA and USC are excellent schools, but Berk was #6 in the USNWR rankings less than a decade ago. Plus, just by being in Cali you’ll be able to network in that area better. So yeah, if you get the BLOS and anything less than maybe $100k from NYU, then it’s no contest.