'18-'19 Cycle Applicant, Looking for Geographic Mobility Forum

[juicetrain76]

Hey guys,

I'm a rising college senior beginning the application process and taking the LSAT in September. Since I don't have a score yet, I know this is going to be a little imprecise, but I'm aiming to make a list of schools to visit & apply to and feel like certain aspects of my application are a little unpredictable.

Again, no score yet, but it looks like I'm going to be a splitter - LSAC gpa calculator puts my LSDAS gpa at about a 2.62 (strong upward trend, multiple 4.0s after switching majors) and my diagnostic practice LSAT score was a 168 (obviously hoping to improve on this). I'm not a URM, have pretty average softs - I'm hoping to sneak into some T1 schools.

Geographic mobility is one of the most important factors for me out of a school, but I understand that T1s are for the most part regional - my career goals are to work for the federal government (particularly, DoL, NLRB, EEOC, but that could be subject to change) or to be a PD. I'm curious how transferable work experience is in terms of geography - that is, could I leverage federal government experience/PD experience to move states after 6-8 years of work? Whether that be from Fed govt -> state govt, or one PD office to another isn't too big of a consideration for me.

I have very strong ties throughout the state of California (born in SoCal, grew up in NorCal, family in every major region of the state) but have been attending college in the DC area because of family work in the federal government. Additionally, I'm completing an undergraduate internship this summer at a small L+E firm in Silicon Valley that has broached the topic of my future employment there (nothing concrete however). My family is looking to stay here for a few years and then move back out to California - I'd like to follow this trajectory as well.

So, to cut to the chase: I'm hoping to sneak into GWU or GMU with money because I could save tremendously by living with my family, making these schools much more affordable. Throwing a hail mary app to GTown, but not holding my breath there. How far should I expand my geographic search? I'm planning on applying to schools throughout Virginia, Florida & Arizona as well for reasons of reasonable cost, but am not sure how well those would work for the purposes of an eventual move back to California. I also know that California schools are both tremendously expensive and love a good GPA, so not too sure if those should be under consideration for me. Is it possible to aim for fed/PD work, and then leverage experience to move regions?

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you all!