Retake a 172 or focus on essays?

inthesea

I got my first LSAT score from Aug. back today and scored a 172. My original goal for admissions was 173+ and anything below I would retake, but this is just close enough I feel concerned about retaking/tempted to not retake. I’m already registered for October. I'm not sure if it's worth it compared to starting on my essays now and applying in Nov.

I was honestly fortunate to get the score I did. I didn't feel as well-prepared as I could have been study-wise (crammed for 4-5 weeks, totally my bad). I was averaging ~169/170 in the weeks leading to the test, highest PT was 174, BRs 175/6. However, I didn't -0 the LGs on the day-of, which had been my goal and which I am capable of doing on PTs (ran out of time toward end and guess-timated a few Qs on last 2 games).

If I really buckled down in the next month, I think I could do a bit better in Oct. I don't want to have any admissions/scholarship regrets down the line, but I'm just not sure if it's worth what seems to be a few points increase at best. I work 40-50 hours a week, so I couldn't focus on both LSAT prep and essays.

uGPA is 3.77, T3? softs (prev. grad degree, 2-3 years work exp. in policy/law, a few publications). My dream would be to get into NYU for PI, but aiming for T14s in general.

Any advice would be appreciated! (Also s/o to the 7Sage curriculum for even getting me here at all!)

alexpommells.lsapp

I am going against the grain here and saying you should retake, even an extra two or three points would help tremendously.
You have very good softs undoubtedly and a good GPA and LSAT by most standards. However if you're aiming for a t14, as much as it sucks that GPA is going to work against you (and this is coming from someone who is in a similar spot GPA-wise and score-wise). The lowest t14 median GPA is a 3.83 and NYU's is a 3.88 meaning that, you're a splitter as ridiculous as it sounds. The best way to make up for that at this point would be a high LSAT. A 174 or 175 puts you at or above the 75th percentile for a lot of the schools in the t14 and would really work in your favor numbers-wise.
A 172 is a great score, you should be very proud of it. But those extra 2-3 points from my understanding are likely to be the difference between a waitlist and an acceptance to where you want to go. I would suggest biting the bullet, signing up for October and studying hard until then.

inthesea

@"alexpommells.lsapp" said:
I am going against the grain here and saying you should retake, even an extra two or three points would help tremendously. ... But those extra 2-3 points from my understanding are likely to be the difference between a waitlist and an acceptance to where you want to go. I would suggest biting the bullet, signing up for October and studying hard until then.

Thank you, this is just what I needed to hear! I think my desire to never look at the LSAT again was getting in the way of what I knew deep down, haha. I can't do much about my undergrad GPA now (besides cursing out my past self for not dropping organic chemistry when she had the chance), but I could definitely maybe get my LSAT to a more comfortable place, even if it's just a few points. Best of luck to you as well!!

SL412023

I think you should write an addendum to explain.