Where do I go from here?

alex.e92

Thanks for the advice.

stepharizona

To be honest I think you are in a good position for NYU with a 169, unless you are talking about NYU with scholarship money.

25% of the class has less than a 3.6. The Median LSAT is a 169 and the 75% is 171. Anything over a 171 puts you in a great position for NYU, even if your GPA is below a 3.61.

If you get a 171 with your 3.6 I would be shocked if you were not accepted. You can't always trust the LSAC numbers, there are tons of people, including a few Mentors and Sages that overcame 0%-10% chances to getting into the schools according to the LSAC site. What really matters is the school profile and percentages.

And the LSAT trumps the GPA and the general rule for a splitter is if your GPA is below/at the 25% you need a 75% LSAT to have the best chance at admission and scholarship money.

For Columbia, you are slightly above their 25% and a 169 would be at their 25% a 173 would put you at their 75%

NYU data:
GPA 3.61 3.78 3.87
LSAT 166 169 171

Columbia:
GPA 3.59 3.70 3.81
LSAT 168 171 173

alex.e92

@stepharizona, thank you for the encouraging words!

Unfortunately for me, NYU's numbers have changed quite a bit in the last couple of cycles, and according to their 2016 entering class profile the most recent percentiles for GPA are 3.9/3.8/3.7, which places me a full point below their 25th. But I think you're right. Like you said above, LSAT trumps GPA, I just need to buckle down and get a score that would place me in more comfortable "splitter" territory.

http://www.law.nyu.edu/about/ataglance