What Schools with 160 LSAT In These Markets Forum

[fourwinds]

I take the LSAT in a few days. I've been scoring around 160 on practice tests. I wanted to get some help building a list of schools to apply to that are realistic. I want to work in tax law in either Miami, Washington DC, Los Angeles, or San Francisco / Silicon Valley. I currently live in and go to undergrad in Florida, so I lean towards Miami just because it'll be easiest to attain given my current situation. I'm originally from D.C. and have family in the area. And California is desirable for obvious reasons. Fairly indifferent to these three/four markets. I want to apply to schools in each and compare my options when I have admissions offers in hand.

What are some schools that feed into Miami / DC / LA / SF tax law with a 3.7 GPA and around 155-160 LSAT?

So far the only two schools I know I am applying to 100% for sure are University of Florida and University of Miami. I need a few suggestions from each market.

[UVA2B]

When you say tax law interests you, what does that mean? Are you looking to get into corporate tax law structuring? Or more advising on individual tax affairs on the state and federal level? Or something else I'm not directly asking?

Focus on the LSAT for now, and come back when you have your score. But initially you're approaching this from the wrong perspective. You need to figure out what job you want following graduation within tax law, and your application strategy can derive from that.

You have too many geographic foci right now given your GPA/LSAT range. If you want to be in Florida, UF is actually an atypically great option for someone wanting to do tax law in Florida. If you can get the requisite LSAT to make UF seriously discounted, you might be positioned very well for your eventual career. But this all depends on what type of tax attorney you want to be, and more importantly, what LSAT you eventually get.

[fourwinds]

That's the thing. I'm not 100% sure on the sub field of tax law. I'm interested in most of them. I took a taxation class from an economics perspective this past semester (I'm an economics undergrad) and I loved the corporate tax section of the class. Then we transitioned to estate/inheritance taxation, and I could see myself enjoying estate planning as well. They're obviously different careers. Where's a good resource where I can learn about the different doors a JD / tax LLM can open for me? (If I go to UF I'm planning on trying to get into their dual JD/LLM because why not? Only delays graduation by a few months and they have a good program).

Anyway, what if I limit geography to Florida and a few reach options in Washington DC? And not apply to any California schools. I have no problem with practicing in Florida if and only if I land a career in Miami. I don't want to be forced to practice law in Orlando or Tampa. And to me, Jacksonville doesn't even count as Florida. I looked at both U Miami and U Florida's NALP data, and they both have good placement in Miami.

Location is kind of my biggest criteria. I'd rather do estate planning in Miami at a mid-size firm than get a dream big law position in Boston. I have no interest in Boston. That's why I'm going about it geographically. I want to work in tax law, this much I know. The exact sub field is negotiable at this point, since my lack of in-depth knowledge of my options has made me fairly indifferent. At least now. When I start my tax classes in law school, I will have more information to adequately choose.

[nealric]

As a practicing tax lawyer, I'd advise you to wait to take the LSAT until you get that score up another 6-7 points. I would not advise targeting non-top schools if that's your practice goal.

[fourwinds]

I got my LSAT score back today from the June LSAT. I got 156. Pretty much around where I expected to be. For all the people above who said wait until I get my score, can we revisit this thread now?

[RedPurpleBlue]

I got my LSAT score back today from the June LSAT. I got 156. Pretty much around where I expected to be. For all the people above who said wait until I get my score, can we revisit this thread now?

Assuming the question is still "What are some schools that feed into Miami / DC / LA / SF tax law with a 3.7 GPA and around 155-160 LSAT," then the answer is that there aren't any good schools (i.e. that will give you a decent shot of actually practicing as a lawyer) that you can get into with a 3.7 GPA and 156 LSAT that won't financially bankrupt you and your future. You're going to need to retake the LSAT and score 10 points higher if you want to have a shot at going to schools where practicing tax in Miami/DC/LA/SF is both a realistic outcome and not a financial disaster for you.

[cavalier1138]

I got my LSAT score back today from the June LSAT. I got 156. Pretty much around where I expected to be. For all the people above who said wait until I get my score, can we revisit this thread now?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you still have two years of undergrad left?

Slow your roll.

[fourwinds]

Nope. I'm going into my senior year next month, meaning that I'll be applying to law school in September/October this year.

[cavalier1138]

Nope. I'm going into my senior year next month, meaning that I'll be applying to law school in September/October this year.

Still, slow your roll. There's no need to go straight from undergrad to law school, and you should focus on getting into the right law school, not just going to any school as long as it's right now.

[UVA2B]

Nothing has changed except you have a lower LSAT than you anticipated. You'll want/need a higher LSAT to have good options for what you supposedly want to do. I know you probably don't want to hear it, but retake until you have UF for free. Or retake until you have a T14 on a decent scholarship. Going K-JD with that LSAT would be a huge disservice to your eventual career.