Should I still apply for Fall 2018?

Artorius

Hi everyone,

My Feb LSAT got postponed to Feb 24. This will be my third attempt and my current highest score is a 150.

I am not trying to get into a T10 school. My dream school is Loyola Chicago, which currently ranks #82. And I am also considering DePaul and John Marshall Law School which are at even lower ranks. In other words, I will be happy if I got accepted into any law school in the City of Chicago which offer a part time program.

With that being said, should I still apply for Fall 2018 admission after I received the Feb LSAT score?

Thanks!

Cant Get Right

What will be different if you delay until next cycle?

Artorius

@"Cant Get Right" said:
What will be different if you delay until next cycle?

The earlier the better for me, base on the following:

1) I am working full time, my father is semi-retired and my mother will fully retire before the end of this year. The entire financial burden of my family will fall on me fairly soon, which a lot of things could become uncertain for the next couple of years. So I would like to start my legal journey while nothing is preventing me from doing so.

2) On top of #1, I wan't able to get a raise for last year due to not many changes in my job duty and education background. If I enrolled into law school this year, I would at least have something to bargain by the end of this year. This will help reduce certain financial burden immediately.

3) The owner of the company likes me a lot, and in a recent conversation he implied that if I graduated from law school, he will likely retain me as the company's general counsel. So the sooner I graduate, the faster I will move up in the company and with a huge raise. This will ensure I could carry the entire financial burden before my father fully retire.

Kind of long, thanks for reading.

LindseyDC

I am sort of in the same boat - I didn't take the february LSAT, so I am looking at schools accepting a June LSAT. Most of the schools ... lower down the chain... accept the June LSAT if you wanted to retake it. That being said, if you don't anticipate a higher score, it's better to get in now and start sooner.

J.CHRIS.ALST

I think a lot of it depends how sure you are that your boss will hire you. IMO, worst case scenario would be you attending school right away and the company ultimately not hiring you as general counsel, and you end up wishing you would not have rushed into school because now you have a degree from a school that might not have a ranking that represents your potential.

Maybe it is very unlikely that this would happen; it really hinges on the type of relationship you have with your boss and whether there will still be a demand for the general counsel position by the time you graduate. But, if you are certain that they would hire you and you could very well see yourself working there and enjoying it, then by all means that certainly is a great situation to be in and could be a fair justification for going to to school in fall 2018.

Would they hire a different attorney if you took an extra year to get the degree?

westcoastbestcoast

As the above posters have said, I think its important to consider if the potential offer for you becoming a General Counsel is time sensitive. If it's not perfect nor near perfect, I would try to get my Logic Games score as high as possible before the 24th. You could still apply with a February LSAT score, but you probably won't be able to get as much as money as you would had you applied earlier in the cycle.

Since you will have to shoulder considerable financial responsibility, I think you should consider that applying next cycle with a potentially higher score will yield higher scholarships.

Best of Luck and also Revan is a great jedi.

LSAT_Wrecker

Thread hijack: @westcoastbestcoast @Artorius Revan is cool; however, Darth Bane is the far superior Force user.

westcoastbestcoast

Bane is cool too. But Darth Krayt is better for making the Rule of One, crowning himself as the Supreme Sith lord. And being able to live for such a long time ( from his time as a Jedi during the clone wars to Yuzhan Vong era after the Empire as already dissolved) Going from a human Tusken Raider to a Jedi to finally a Sith Lord is pretty epic.

@mstng9878 said:
Thread hijack: @westcoastbestcoast @Artorius Revan is cool; however, Darth Bane is the far superior Force user.

LCMama2017

@westcoastbestcoast said:
Bane is cool too. But Darth Krayt is better for making the Rule of One, crowning himself as the Supreme Sith lord. And being able to live for such a long time ( from his time as a Jedi during the clone wars to Yuzhan Vong era after the Empire as already dissolved) Going from a human Tusken Raider to a Jedi to finally a Sith Lord is pretty epic.

Holy smokes! I have no idea what you just said! Who are all these people! lol!

Artorius

This post has fallen to the dark side......

Anyway, back to the story. My boss hires lawyers from outside every now and then to handle legal matters but he just don't trust them and always questions about their billings. I am my boss's liaison with lawyers and his eyes on the lawyers. Therefore, as someone who work closely with the boss everyday and have his trust, if I become a lawyer, I will become the general counsel of the company.

The general counsel offer is not time sensitive, but my boss is. He is over 80 years old and could pass away anytime.

If it turns out my boss dies before I graduate, there will still be benefit. Our company consist of less than 50 employees, and the headquarter where I work at has only six people. therefore, as the only one who have in depth legal knowledge and know all the backbones about the company, job security is very high.

Although if I apply this year I may get less money from the law school, but if I graduate one year sooner, the potential income maybe able to make up the difference.

Oh man this could becomes a writing sample question for the LSAT.

OneFortyDotSix

@westcoastbestcoast said:

Best of Luck and also Revan is a great jedi.

Depends on the ending you chose

dansykes94

I really don't want to sound too negative but i think you really should consider waiting until next cycle. I'm in your position too, i messed up Feb lsat and cancelled by score.

Even if you managed to get into Layola Chicago, its a huge gamble. Look at how much you are paying to go there vs the employment prospects.

Wait another year if you can, get into the 160s and go to the university of IL in champagne. That's a great school. Or northwestern if you're feeling very brave and think you can crack 170 by September.

Seeking Perfection

Will you have the needed legal experience to be general counsel immediately out of law school?

westcoastbestcoast

@"Seeking Perfection" said:
Will you have the needed legal experience to be general counsel immediately out of law school?

This is important to consider. From what I have been reading, if a company gets under legal trouble and if its in-house legal team can't satisfiably fix the issue, there is a chance that the entire team can be fired and replaced. With a glut of lawyers in the job market, replacing the team doesn't seem too far-fetched. Alot of general counsels and in house counsels already have at least a couple years of experience working in BigLaw.

LSATcantwin

@mstng9878 said:
Thread hijack: @westcoastbestcoast @Artorius Revan is cool; however, Darth Bane is the far superior Force user.

Uhm, As one of the ORIGINAL Darth's, I have a few words to say here...Vader is as OG as they come and by default has to be #1 or #2 because, well, we wouldn't have the others without him and his master...

Basically it goes;
1.) Darth Sidious
2.) Darth Vader
3.) Darth Bane
4.) Darth Revan (before the stupid MMO story ruined him/her)

Although Darth Bane is my favorite (named my Husky after him).

westcoastbestcoast

Throw some Sand in Vader's eyes and its GG.

Artorius

Hi everyone,

Thanks for providing point of views from both the positive and negative side (and the dark side).

I think I will decide after I received my Feb LSAT score.

Adam Hawks

@LSATcantwin said:

@mstng9878 said:
Thread hijack: @westcoastbestcoast @Artorius Revan is cool; however, Darth Bane is the far superior Force user.

Uhm, As one of the ORIGINAL Darth's, I have a few words to say here...Vader is as OG as they come and by default has to be #1 or #2 because, well, we wouldn't have the others without him and his master...

Basically it goes;
1.) Darth Sidious
2.) Darth Vader
3.) Darth Bane
4.) Darth Revan (before the stupid MMO story ruined him/her)

Although Darth Bane is my favorite (named my Husky after him).

No no no! John Cena still rises up to give him a FU/AA and wins 1,2,3!

https://media.giphy.com/media/xTiTnoHt2NwerFMsCI/giphy.gif

But to remain on the topic. Unless you have it in writing that you will get a general counsel job, I'd be a bit skeptical. 150 is solid, but you can do better. I'm not saying don't go to Loyola, but put more effort into the LSAT so you understand the fundamentals of the tests of argument cores, delay a cycle, and then apply.

Because law school is still a meat grinder and will chew you up and spit you out a different person, please understand what the LSAT represents and how it will apply to you in your studies.