I need solid advice

zotter14

Long story short: I took the LSAT 3 times. First time was a cancel>149>153. In all my PT's my range was 160-166, so to say that I am devastated with my score is an understatement. I know I am intelligent and I know that my actual LSAT scores aren't indicative of my abilities. My LSDAS GPA is 3.1 and regular GPA is 3.4 (switched majors from hard science to humanities). I have work experience in the legal field, good LORs, and a solid personal statement. My question is more about which direction to take moving forward. I can:

a) attend a sub-par law school and attempt to transfer to a top 30 after 1L.
b) retake the LSAT in December 2016, improve significantly, apply for 2017 admission.
c) apply for a bunch of reach/safe schools, if I don't get into any school I want, then wait it out a year and take the LSAT in Dec. 2016; reapply.

Any advice/input would be immensely appreciated.

blah170blah

a) attend a sub-par law school and attempt to transfer to a top 30 after 1L.

>> DO NOT bank on transferring. You are banking on tremendous odds and you have no guarantees you'll have the grades at a subpar law school to even transfer in the first place.

b) retake the LSAT in December 2016, improve significantly, apply for 2017 admission.

>> This is your best course of action. Trust me, as someone who has been wanting to apply to law school since 2014, go when you are ready. Especially if you were PT'ing in the 160s, use this time to study incrementally and then retake at your next available date.

c) apply for a bunch of reach/safe schools, if I don't get into any school I want, then wait it out a year and take the LSAT in Dec. 2016; reapply.

>> This isn't a terrible idea but doesn't seem like a good use of your time. My guess is if you were aiming to apply to schools with your low to mid 160 LSAT, you'll have a really difficult time getting into those schools at this point in the cycle with your current LSAT scores. I would recommend doing something more productive with your time, whatever that may be.

zotter14

@blah170blah Thanks for your advice. I was also considering option B, but I'm wondering how law schools view 4 lsat attempts. Does it matter? Will it matter if i hit a high 160 score on my fourth take?

blah170blah

Nope, it won't matter. They'll take your highest because it's a mutually beneficial relationship -- they get to record your highest LSAT on their books and you get to go to their school.

belleboxer

As an older non traditional potential student, I think it depends on what kind of law you want to practice and how you want to practice. There are many very good, smaller private law schools that would be a great opportunity and while your LSAT is not where you want it to be, you have an average score and your grade point is good, LOR's and work experience and depending on how old you are some life experience...if this is your passion, don't let the have to go to a top 20 law school stop you. Plenty of great lawyers and plenty of successful lawyers have come out of smaller, not so popular schools...just my two cents. Stick with it if it's truly what you want to do, best of luck to you :-)

JURISDOCTOR35

Are you in NYC?

zotter14

@JURISDOCTOR35 LA

JURISDOCTOR35

Very True, you even have some people going to not so popular law schools in order to get their foot in the door then transferring with impeccable grades as a L1. Do not let this stop you from your dreams. One icon TV judge did it so you can too. Never Give Up. Keep your head up....

as5324therapy

Go now! Best time to apply is now once economy starts sliding down LSAT takers will spike and possibly your average will be less. Look at 08/09 recession. I recommend to go now who knows what's gonna happen or not in 2017. Just do it!

zotter14

@as5324therapy lol k.

Pacifico

@zotter14 said:
a) attend a sub-par law school and attempt to transfer to a top 30 after 1L.
b) retake the LSAT in December 2016, improve significantly, apply for 2017 admission.
c) apply for a bunch of reach/safe schools, if I don't get into any school I want, then wait it out a year and take the LSAT in Dec. 2016; reapply.

b and c are essentially the same thing and definitely not mutually exclusive. You definitely can't rely on transferring, but it is a possibility. I think right now you don't really need to be making all these decisions. You just need to apply to a bunch of reach and safety schools and see what happens since that is necessary for both of your potential options. Then once you get the results in the spring you can figure out what you want to do and still have more than enough time to study for December regardless of whether or not you keep up with studying now. If you get into some schools the draw of acceptance might make you get over the LSAT and be ready to go to law school, but you'll never know until it happens.

zotter14

@Pacifico Thanks for the input. Lets say that I apply this cycle and don't get into any school that I would like to attend and I decide to retake the LSAT in December and reapply --- can I still use the same personal statement and "why do you want to attend x law school" essays? Or would it be better to re-write something new for the 2017 cycle?

Pacifico

When reapplying I fall in the camp of updating everything because doing anything less can come off as lazy. Of course if it's going to different schools the second time around then it doesn't really matter.