Should I use my current GRE score only or take a gap year and prepare for LSAT?

xinhui_xu

I find that I do not have enough time to get a satisfactory LSAT score in time. I have already taken GRE exams before. My GRE score is 160 (86 percentile) for verbal reasoning and 165 (86 percentile) for quantitative reasoning. My analytical writing score is low because at that time, I considered applying for graduate school programs instead of JD and writing score is not that important for those programs. Also, I am not a native speaker so my writing is definitely weaker. I really want to be in a T20 or T14 law school. My undergraduate GPA is 3.67, and I am in a master program in economics now. I am not sure if I should take the September test since the score won't be very high. But I know that LSAT is important and not many people use GRE only. Hence, should I use my current GRE score only or take a gap year and prepare for LSAT?

Thank you very much!

marc-antoine.leblanc

I would recommend you take the gap year and study for the LSAT. Your GRE and GPA are usually not considered competitive for a T14 school (your GRE is equivalent to a 162 LSAT while you usually would prefer a 170+ LSAT, which is around 97th percentile, for T14). Unless you have some very solid extracurriculars or letters of recommendations you are probably not going to get admitted to a T14 law school. Your master in economics is good, but won't save you from your GPA and GRE. So, if you are sure you want to go to law school and go to a T14, I would recommend taking the gap year, study for the LSAT and take the exam next year. A good LSAT will not only help you with your admissions, but could also open the door for valuable scholarships.

David Busis

We wrote about this! https://7sage.com/should-you-take-the-gre-instead-of-the-lsat/

xinhui_xu

@"marc-antoine.leblanc" said:
I would recommend you take the gap year and study for the LSAT. Your GRE and GPA are usually not considered competitive for a T14 school (your GRE is equivalent to a 162 LSAT while you usually would prefer a 170+ LSAT, which is around 97th percentile, for T14). Unless you have some very solid extracurriculars or letters of recommendations you are probably not going to get admitted to a T14 law school. Your master in economics is good, but won't save you from your GPA and GRE. So, if you are sure you want to go to law school and go to a T14, I would recommend taking the gap year, study for the LSAT and take the exam next year. A good LSAT will not only help you with your admissions, but could also open the door for valuable scholarships.

Thanks a lot. The information you provide is very helpful!

HLoom1222

I'm finding I am in a somewhat similar spot to where you were about a year ago - would be very keen to hear an update on what you decided to do and how it panned out. Thanks!