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QuantTrader77

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Post by QuantTrader77 » Tue Apr 01, 2014 9:52 am

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Hipster but Athletic

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Re: BlkMale-Aero PhD, EE MSc--Top 6 Law Schools?

Post by Hipster but Athletic » Tue Apr 01, 2014 10:05 am

Youre in a unique spot. You're just about the most difficult applicant to predict. No URM in your position --shitty GPA and 171 has applied to a t6 before. You can look at graphs and infer that if anyone with your numbers got in, your softs will get you in too--but since those graphs are empty, it's hard to say. I mean, you have two options: retake and get a 174+ and then apply, or just apply. Really a coin flip. The other thing is that t6 is kinda silly. You'd have a good career from northwestern or penn also.

QuantTrader77

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Post by QuantTrader77 » Tue Apr 01, 2014 10:10 am

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BankruptMe

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Re: BlkMale-Aero PhD, EE MSc--Top 6 Law Schools?

Post by BankruptMe » Tue Apr 01, 2014 10:17 am

Apply.

Write good LOR's. Outline clearly why you want to go to law school and not what you are currently doing now.

Apply to GW also, because they have good IP from what i hear.

Profit

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A. Nony Mouse

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Re: BlkMale-Aero PhD, EE MSc--Top 6 Law Schools?

Post by A. Nony Mouse » Tue Apr 01, 2014 10:21 am

QuantTrader77 wrote:"No URM in your position --shitty GPA and 171 has applied to a t6 before"

I don't fully comprehend your comment. Is emphasis placed solely upon my UG work of over 10 years ago? Share some knowledge with me!
He's trolling about no one in your position ever having applied (though it's not a large pool). Check mylsn.info. (Someday, I will learn to read before 9 am.)

Unfortunately, UG is much much much more important in law school admissions than grad GPAs, for a variety of reasons, but the primary one being that USNWR uses UG GPA, not grad GPAs, to calculate their rankings of law schools.

That said, your graduate degrees are excellent softs and you have an excellent LSAT score and good reasons for the UG GPA. I'll defer to others with more knowledge of URM admissions, but you should have some really great options.

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Re: BlkMale-Aero PhD, EE MSc--Top 6 Law Schools?

Post by jacketyellow » Tue Apr 01, 2014 10:29 am

QuantTrader77 wrote:I posted this in a different forum, and I did not quite get the feedback I was hoping for. Thus, I am here in the appropriate forum hoping I can get some "real" responses.

I am hoping to go to a top 6 law school because I want to become a Patent Lawyer and eventually own a Patent Law firm. Here are my stats, and by the way, I am a black male:

B.Sc. Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, GPA:3.09, LSAC GPA: 2.78 (B.Sc. acquired in 2003)
M.Sc. Aerospace Engineering, University of Maryland, GPA:3.50
Ph.D. Aerospace Engineering, University of Maryland, cumm. GPA: 3.65, Ph.D. GPA: 3.79
M.Sc. Electrical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, GPA: 4.00


I chose to acquire my M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from UMD because it is highly ranked in the USNWR (12th in the nation).

LSAT: 171

I do have a fairly interesting story and here it is. I was working in high school to help my mother with the household bills, and my mother went back to Africa after I completed high school. To be frank, I grew up in a fairly impoverished household. Consequently, I had to work all throughout undergrad in order to support myself, and I often had to send money back to Africa to my mother and siblings. I would attribute my low undergraduate GPA to the stress of having to work so much.
Anyway, I found a way to make it to graduate school, and I subsequently became a U.S. citizen. I subsequently acquired a position as an Aerospace Engineer with the Department of Defense. I should state that I worked full-time with the Department of Defense through the duration of completing my Aerospace Ph.D. After completing my Ph.D., I started my own non-profit hoping to increase the exposure of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) field to inner-city and underprivileged minority youth.

I plan to blanket all the top 14 law schools, and hopefully I can get into a top 6 law school. I would certainly love to go to Harvard. What do you guys think? Harvard? Columbia?
You have great softs. Harvard likes AA males who score in the high 160s and 170s, so that may give you a fighting chance. I think you're probably in at Columbia if you just write a decent "why Columbia Law" essay. That GPA is a cause for concern, and it may hinder you at Harvard.

The lower T14 -- Northwestern, Cornell, Georgetown -- will most certainly take you, and you'll still have a great career. Good luck.

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Re: BlkMale-Aero PhD, EE MSc--Top 6 Law Schools?

Post by transferror » Tue Apr 01, 2014 10:31 am

You'll get $$ somewhere in the T14. Don't be prestige obsessed (I know, I know, this is TLS) with HYSCCN. If you get a full scholarship or close to it at any of the T14, go there. Patent/IP as a URM with good WE makes you extremely marketable, so you shouldn't have much trouble finding gainful employment from ANY of the T14. Your focus should be minimizing debt.

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Hipster but Athletic

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Re: BlkMale-Aero PhD, EE MSc--Top 6 Law Schools?

Post by Hipster but Athletic » Tue Apr 01, 2014 10:32 am

:lol: I'm not trolling. Check out 171/2.5-2.8 URM. It's unpredictable, but ya, Id think you have a good shot anyways. I'd love to see the debate though about virtually the strongest patent candidate imaginable taking a big scholly instead of going to Columbia. Every single engineer at my t25 (or at least, the four whom I'm aware of), none with masters, got big law for next summer.

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A. Nony Mouse

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Re: BlkMale-Aero PhD, EE MSc--Top 6 Law Schools?

Post by A. Nony Mouse » Tue Apr 01, 2014 10:35 am

Hipster but Athletic wrote::lol: I'm not trolling. Check out 171/2.5-2.8 URM. It's unpredictable, but ya, Id think you have a good shot anyways. I'd love to see the debate though about virtually the strongest patent candidate imaginable taking a big scholly instead of going to Columbia. Every single engineer at my t25 (or at least, the four whom I'm aware of), none with masters, got big law for next summer.
Oops. Sorry, lax, I used the cumulative GPA, not the LSAC GPA. You're right, that's much more a black box.

QuantTrader77

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Post by QuantTrader77 » Tue Apr 01, 2014 10:42 am

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Tanicius

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Re: BlkMale-Aero PhD, EE MSc--Top 6 Law Schools?

Post by Tanicius » Tue Apr 01, 2014 10:46 am

QuantTrader77 wrote:It seems the "consensus" is that my UG gpa will hinder any chance of getting into a school like Harvard. That's harsh, given it was over 10 years ago. Regarding LORs, in addition to my employer at the DoD, and the PhD advisor, the Dean of the College of Engineering will be writing a strong letter for me as well. I hope that holdsn some major weight with the admission folks.

I am not bent on going to Harvard, but I felt it would help a ton when the time came for me to jump ship and start my own Patent Law Firm.

I do feel that I have a unique background, and I would think most top law schools would love to snatch me up! :lol:

You actually don't even need T-14 with your background for IP biglaw. A full scholly to a T-25 would more or less guarantee that career track just the same.

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rayiner

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Re: BlkMale-Aero PhD, EE MSc--Top 6 Law Schools?

Post by rayiner » Tue Apr 01, 2014 10:50 am

Harvard on your resume won't be a big deal when it comes time to start patent practice. Your PhD will be much more important. NU will probably give you money, and loves high LSAT splitters. There's literally nothing in the patent world off the table from lower-T14. It's not like if you want to be Solicited General or something, where HYS will carry a lot of extra weight with SCOTUS feeders. The top clerkship in IP, Fed. Cir., takes a disproportionate number of students from places like GW, etc.

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Re: BlkMale-Aero PhD, EE MSc--Top 6 Law Schools?

Post by MoMettaMonk » Tue Apr 01, 2014 10:56 am

If anyone is going to get into HYS with a 2.8 LSAC GPA, it's probably going to be you. I mean, I guess you could retake the LSAT and try to get a few more points to get over the 173 median, but realistically no one has any idea what's going to happen. There are no data points for people with the combination of your ridiculous softs (and they're so ridiculous that it feels wrong calling them "softs"), numbers, AND URM status. No matter what, I hope you have a great cycle, and please report back and let us know what happens.



ETA

Please for the love of all that is holy don't let this be an April Fool's troll.

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Re: BlkMale-Aero PhD, EE MSc--Top 6 Law Schools?

Post by DportIA » Tue Apr 01, 2014 11:04 am

Oh, this probably is an April Fool's joke

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Tanicius

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Re: BlkMale-Aero PhD, EE MSc--Top 6 Law Schools?

Post by Tanicius » Tue Apr 01, 2014 11:07 am

DportIA wrote:Oh, this probably is an April Fool's joke
Well, then it ain't a very good one. It would be like if CNN published a story on April 1st about the discovery of some oil in a shale off the coast somewhere. Wow we sure fell for that realistic story!

QuantTrader77

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Re: BlkMale-Aero PhD, EE MSc--Top 6 Law Schools?

Post by QuantTrader77 » Tue Apr 01, 2014 11:11 am

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J-e-L-L-o

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Re: BlkMale-Aero PhD, EE MSc--Top 6 Law Schools?

Post by J-e-L-L-o » Thu Apr 10, 2014 7:00 pm

I would be shocked if you didn't get MO MONEY from Berk. I would take that over T6 any day.

09042014

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Re: BlkMale-Aero PhD, EE MSc--Top 6 Law Schools?

Post by 09042014 » Thu Apr 10, 2014 8:18 pm

Nobody is going know until you apply.

Typically URMs splitters do pretty shitty.

But you have a 4.0 in MSEE from an okay school, and a PhD in Aerospace.

The mix of total shit and great creds is impossible to predict.

I'd recommend that you go to whatever school gives you the most money. You'll get a job no matter what, so go as cheap as possible.

QuantTrader77

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Post by QuantTrader77 » Fri Apr 11, 2014 2:37 pm

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09042014

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Re: BlkMale-Aero PhD, EE MSc--Top 6 Law Schools?

Post by 09042014 » Fri Apr 11, 2014 3:20 pm

QuantTrader77 wrote:But you have a 4.0 in MSEE from an okay school, and a PhD in Aerospace.


Interesting feedback. I do not mean to debate the quality or pedigree of the schools I acquired my advanced degrees from, but, I must say, it is funny that you say "from an okay school". Given that I did not attend MIT, Stanford, CalTech, Berkeley, or Michigan, which are all elite Engineering programs, UMD and JHU are great schools for engineering, and are ranked just outside the top 10. It is funny, you speak as if I attended University of Idaho. Anyway, all in fun.

Cheers,
QT
I was just teasing. I got my BSEE from Illinois but live in DC surrounded by UMD and JHU grads.

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J-e-L-L-o

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Re: BlkMale-Aero PhD, EE MSc--Top 6 Law Schools?

Post by J-e-L-L-o » Sun Apr 13, 2014 10:47 am

thought I seen something relevant...OP could turn out like this:

3.0ish, URM, engineering degree
http://lawschoolnumbers.com/IamBlessed7

Just apply, wait for scholly offers, and go to the cheapest T14.

QuantTrader77

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Post by QuantTrader77 » Mon Apr 14, 2014 11:50 am

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QuantTrader77

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Post by QuantTrader77 » Tue Apr 22, 2014 1:45 pm

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Tanicius

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Re: BlkMale-Aero PhD, EE MSc--Top 6 Law Schools?

Post by Tanicius » Tue Apr 22, 2014 5:39 pm

QuantTrader77 wrote:As opposed to applying to law school for the Fall 2015, I have decided to defer to Fall 2016. I am planning to acquire a position with the USPTO, and hopefully, I will work there for approximately ~2 years prior to law school. I hope the USPTO experience on my resume/application will further enhance my chances at the law school of my dream. I plan to retake the LSAT as well, and I am shooting for a perfect mark of 180. I've got time ample time to study now. What do you guys think?
Well, okay, but honestly I think your background is about as strong as it can look. The LSAT is the more determinative factor at this point.

09042014

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Re: BlkMale-Aero PhD, EE MSc--Top 6 Law Schools?

Post by 09042014 » Tue Apr 22, 2014 5:41 pm

QuantTrader77 wrote:As opposed to applying to law school for the Fall 2015, I have decided to defer to Fall 2016. I am planning to acquire a position with the USPTO, and hopefully, I will work there for approximately ~2 years prior to law school. I hope the USPTO experience on my resume/application will further enhance my chances at the law school of my dream. I plan to retake the LSAT as well, and I am shooting for a perfect mark of 180. I've got time ample time to study now. What do you guys think?
It won't help your get into a better school, but it'll solidify your already good employment chances.

Does Gtown or Gwash give fullrides to partime students? That would be ideal. Work while going to school free.

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