154 LSAT Going to T30 Law School, Thanks 7Sage Community!

Jonah Chadwick Griego

What Be Good 7Sage!

Wanted to give y'all a heads up with how my application cycle went and where I will going...spoiler alert, going to the University of Georgia!

To preface, I want to put some info out regarding my demographics: Hispanic/ Latino (Checked the Mexican Box), Graduated Undergrad in December 2016 so been working a while, married, living in the Florida Panhandle, and am a first gen college student.

With my score being a 154, I understood that I would be below the majority of my choice schools' 25th percentile. Thus, I made it a point to follow the 7Sage admission course guide and have at least 3 safety, 3 target, and 3 reach schools.

I applied to the following schools: Seton Hall (Accepted w/ 10k scholarship offer, withdrew application), Miami (Was on hold, withdrew application), American (Accepted, withdrew application), Florida State (Rejected), Florida (Rejected), Washington and Lee (Was on hold, withdrew application), Cornell (Was on reserve, withdrew application), Emory (Never heard back, withdrew application), Alabama (Waitlisted), Virginia (Rejected), Vanderbilt (Rejected), and UPenn (Rejected).

I went into the application cycle knowing that my wife and I wanted to live in the Atlanta area after graduation, thus UGA made the most sense for us for law school. Knowing that I would have to over shoot my numbers, I made it a point to visit UGA prior to applying. I was able to meet with an assistant director of admissions, dean of the law school, and a first gen law school student coordinator on my visit. I applied regular decision the first day applications opened as I knew I would want to negotiate more scholarship money (if I got any) later in the cycle.

In December, after being told my application was on hold by the committee, I made it a point to send a school specific LOCI explaining why I wanted to go to UGA. I like to think that they liked the letter, as not even a few days after this I was notified of my acceptancemwith a 5k merit scholarship offer.

As I received other acceptances and another merit scholarship offer, I knew my time for negotiation would be coming soon. I received an email a few days ago stating that I would need to let them know if I was going to accept my merit scholarship or not by April 1. Thus, I called the admissions office and notified them I wanted to negotiate. I was able to get my merit scholarship up to $7,500 annually ($22,500 3 years) as well as have all my seat deposit fees waived. I understand that there is a possibility that I can negotiate for more as the cycle goes on, but for the time being this is where I am at.

All in all, I like to think that 7Sage really helped me overshoot my numbers and allowed me to go to the law school of my dreams. I write this in hopes of allowing others to see my thoughts in addition to be able to reach out to someone in the midst of the process. While not all of us can be 170+ LSAT takers, this does not mean that you cannot go to a T30 school! Keep your heads up and do the work.

Feel free to direct message me for any questions you may have. Thank y'all for the amazing journey. Not sure how much I will be on here after this with school starting in August, thus if you do not hear back from me on here in a few days shoot me an email at jonah.griego@gmail.com!

Faithfully 7Sager,

Jonah Chadwick Griego

ReginaSpiewakJones

Congratulations to you - that is very exciting.
I live in Atlanta and plan on applying to GSU, from where I earned an MBA previously.
UGA is a great school ... you will love it!

Glutton for the LSAT

Congratulations Jonah. Your story is one of hardwork and inspiration.

miriaml7

Congratulations! I'm a first generation student as well and navigating through this process has certainly had its ups and downs. It's super inspirational to hear a success story from someone who has a similar background. Thank you for sharing! Wishing you continued success!

Hopeful9812

Congratulations!! Wishing you all the best in your law school journey! Atlanta is such a great place to be! If you ever get the chance, be sure to visit the National Center for Civil and Human Rights- it is absolutely amazing/inspirational.

ageorge18

Thanks for taking the time to encourage and motivate us!! Really, really appreciate it!!

Mike_Ross

Yay!! Congrats!

lexxx745

Congrats!

zaney learner

how do you go about negotiating scholarship money? any suggestions?

Jonah Chadwick Griego

@"zaney learner" said:
how do you go about negotiating scholarship money? any suggestions?

Shoot me an email, would love to answer that as best I can!

Juliet - Student Service

Congratulations!!!

avoro002

Could you please tell me more about negotiating too, I didn't know you could negotiate with schools.

JDream2025

I loved reading your story. I was thinking to myself, "finally, someone who thinks over 150 and under 160 is a decent score (because I think it is). I have been reading stories of over 160 or 170, it is great and all but for some of us, it might not be easy attainable. And honestly, I am happy getting into Rutgers or Seton. They are good schools. Thank you for sharing! I hope you succeed in law school!

September2019FlowerGameSurvivor

Congrats!!

Jonah Chadwick Griego

@avoro002 said:
Could you please tell me more about negotiating too, I didn't know you could negotiate with schools.

Of course, please shoot me an email! Would be more than happy to chat with you!

BinghamtonDave

congrats @"Jonah Chadwick Griego" ! Very happy to hear this! I will more than likely be at admitted students day for UGA towards the end of the month!

TrigirlESQ

Congratulations and thank you for posting this! I’m in the mid 150’s on my PTs and I was a little discouraged about my LSAT journey. Seemed that everyone here was a high scorer.

Jonah Chadwick Griego

@BinghamtonDave said:
congrats @"Jonah Chadwick Griego" ! Very happy to hear this! I will more than likely be at admitted students day for UGA towards the end of the month!

NO WAY! I just emailed the email we used for tutoring back in the day to follow up with you! Let’s talk soon on there!

tams2018

You got money for school. You accomplished what a lot of us strive for in practicing for this exam. Congratulations! I wish you much success in your career.