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Applying to Law School with a Lower LSAT
mikalyn.greenzweig
Alum Member
Throughout my time studying for the LSAT, drafting my law school application materials, and simply trying to find the motivation to continue on when the going got rough, I feel like I need to share my journey to law school story with others on here who may be experiencing the same things I once felt. I found these post to be extremely helpful when I was going through every stage of applying to law school, so hopefully this will help someone else too!
Over the past two years I have spent hundreds of hours studying for the LSAT, taking it a whopping four times, to only score a 158 on my highest attempt. Don't get me wrong, this is a GREAT score, so please do NOT feel discouraged if you are scoring in this range! I am grateful for this score, however, I feel like it did not display my true academic, or LSAT potential. Unfortunately for me, I ran into countless difficulties every time I took the test. Whether it was issues with proctors interrupting and closing out my test, unable to access the online exam, and even having my wifi cutting out during the exam, I believed these issues played a big role in me not being able to perform to my test average and because of this I felt like I was not going to get into the schools I was hoping for, let alone with a scholarship.
In November I finished up applying to all the law schools I was interested in (about 15), most of which my LSAT was below the 50th percentile, even the 25th for some. But regardless of my LSAT score, I was confident in my application as a whole and knew that deep down my GPA, resume, and essays had a good shot at making up for my LSAT score. I believed in the quality of my application and I was hopeful that the admissions committee would see this as well.
As of today, I have received my first FULL RIDE scholarship to a T-30 school where I was below the 25th percentile for the LSAT. Even without this full ride offer, I have been accepted into many good schools with great scholarship offers. Had I listened to reddit or others on the internet who told me to not even bother applying, I would have found myself in a very different situation.
I'm writing this all to say please do not give up or count yourself out, regardless of what others have to say. Shoot your shot and don't tell yourself no, let the school tell you no. Hopefully this is motivating for those who find themselves in a similar situation. If anyone wants to know more about my LSAT/application process please feel free to message me!
Comments
It means so much to hear a realistic journey. Thank you for sharing. Congratulations on so many awesome choices of schools and the countless scholarship offers!
This post literally brought tears to my eyes.
It's definitely possible if you have a ~3.9 GPA
@nunat9205 wishing you the best of luck!!
@jc333333 thank you so much! And yes, it definitely helped me so much to hear from others. There's so many ups and downs that come with applying for law school, but the most important thing is to keep pushing through.
@wimoeller71 yes I think this is true to some extent. I was a reserve splitter at every school I applied to so my GPA played a big role in getting one foot in the door. I think my resume, essays, and LOR played a very big role in my scholarships though, but since I'm not an admissions officer I'll never know for sure. If I had to guess I think the supplementary part of my application was a big boost.
Exactly. No offense to 7 sage but I feel like all you see here is 170 stories with full rides to Harvard which is really unrealistic. It seems as if there's a misconception that such scores are necessary.
Thank you so much for sharing your journey! I feel like I am in a very similar situation with my score and where I applied; I have received multiple acceptances, but I was feeling discouraged about scholarship offers, so your story gives me hope! Congratulations on the full ride
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Retweet! This is inspiring to hear and brings some much needed energy back to so many law school journeys! Thank you for this!
@ryelmcge of course! I'm glad this post helped you. Wishing nothing but the best for you. I've learned through my law school journey that everything will work out in the end!
This kinda makes me feel a bitt better. I am glad that your GPA helped makeup the difference. For me, I am hoping that my multiple essays will. And I did apply a little late in the cycle as I took the Jan LSAT, so I am really hoping that one school will have mercy on me
@"mikalyn.greenzweig" Thanks for sharing your journey! I am in the same boat. I applied for 8 local schools with a 158 LSAT score. I applied in early November. I have a 3.9 GPA. I have received a rejection and one waitlist for schools where I was within the median LSAT score and above in the GPA. Then, I received a waitlist for UCLA, although I am far below the LSAT median.
So, that gave me some hope. Your post gave me hope, too!
I don't think you mentioned it, but what is your GPA?
I really needed to see this post!
Did you happen to send an LSAT addendum per chance?
I can't help but practice some conditional logic here...
If scholarship then 170. Thanks for the post!
@"mikalyn.greenzweig" Thanks for sharing your journey! I am in the same boat. I applied for 8 local schools with a 158 LSAT score. I applied in early November. I have a 3.9 GPA. I have received a rejection and one waitlist for schools where I was within the median LSAT score and above in the GPA. Then, I received a waitlist for UCLA, although I am far below the LSAT median.
So, that gave me some hope. Your post gave me hope!
By the way, I don't think you mentioned your GPA. What was your GPA?
This is so refreshing to hear. Thank you for sharing and congrats!
@"grant.ashley114" yes I had a 4.0 GPA! I realized after submitting the post I probably should have included that because I do think that helped a lot, at least when it came to getting one foot in the door. Wishing you nothing but the best of luck though! I'm sure things will work out in your favor.
@isispevans I'm glad this post helped you! And no I did not submit an LSAT addendum. In hindsight, I should have reported my problems to LSAC but I felt like my reasons were not good enough for a retake (now I know this is not the case at all) so I cancelled one of my scores instead. Other than my technical difficulties, I had no other reason to write an LSAT addendum. With the test being offered online, I know it's pretty common for people to have technical difficulties and I felt like admission officers hear that a lot. I submitted optional addendum ("diversity statement") instead, and didn't want to give the admission officers something else to read that really wasn't necessary. Personally, I wanted to highlight something positive in my application then come across as making an excuse. My score progressed on paper with each attempt (except for my 4th attempt), and I hoped that this would show the admissions officers that despite my scores I was going to keep trying to aim for the highest score I could get. LSAC gives us 5 attempts for a reason and I wanted to show that I was going to take advantage of that. Hopefully this helps you out! Feel free to message me with any other questions.
Thank you for sharing this. I love hearing everyone's stories and it helps me have more hope knowing we are all in this together. I have a 3.85 GPA but I scored low on LSAT (146). I am so stressed because I got two rejections so far. Im trying to tell myself that if I get rejected from ALL the schools, that's ok. I will study again and try for the next cycle. Wishing everyone the best of luck!!
Thank you for sharing your story. I've been studying for the LSAT for almost a year, and unfortunately, I can't get the score I wanted. I have similar issues with the proctors. The system kept logging me out from my exam, and I had to go through the same check-in process every time. The exam itself was stressful then plus those technical difficulties made the situation worse. I left feedback, but I'm not sure if it was different after me. Then I decided to do it in person, which also has advantages and disadvantages. It's harder when English is not your first language. Law School applications motivate me to keep my studying materials open : ) I hope whoever is struggling with this exam will get the score they want and receive the acceptance letter from the school they want. Good luck in law school; I hope you'll enjoy it more than you did during your study period.
@mbabic I'm so glad my post was able to give you some hope! After spending 8/9 months studying for the LSAT I thought I was ready and decided to take it, and I ended up scoring a 149! Which was 9 points below my average and only 5 points above my cold diagnostic. I felt defeated when I got my score back and knew that I had to push my applications back and figured out what went so wrong. All this to say, everything will work out the way it is suppose to! Wishing you nothing but the best of luck.
@Dianaaa23 oh my, I'm so sorry to hear that
, I've been there so I know how much it stinks. I also can't imagine taking the LSAT and not having your first language as English, I can only imagine the struggles you've had to overcome with this test. There were many times throughout my 2 years of studying where I felt like I was getting no where and many times I wanted to quit, but I'm so glad I kept on going. I was hitting so many breakthroughs on this test, without even knowing, just by showing up everyday and trying my best to study the materials the right way. I wish you nothing but the best of luck and really hope everything works out in your favor. Thank you so much too! I really hope law school is a lot better lol
This is inspiring! I got 152 on Jun LSAT, but am still working for the next one or two in Aug. and Sept. GPA is 3.45, over ten years related professional work experience. My goal is to get 170 anyway, but still would like to apply as soon as possible. English is my second language and I am over 50.
Congratulations!
@mikalyn.greenzweig
What was your biggest hurdle on the LSAT? If you took it for 2 years and still only score a 158, this does in fact discourage me. I only have a year to study, since I hope to apply by next fall of 2025 for the school year in the fall of 2026. I need at minimum a 160, and it makes me anxious to know you spent countless hours and still didn't hit what you really wanted to hit. Again, what was your biggest hurdle? Do you recommend a tutor?
Man I needed to read this, thank you for sharing and congratulations