use a later score for scholarship negotiation? Forum

[Quc]

I recently applied to law schools with a low 170's lsat score. I'm debating taking the LSAT again in march as I'm fairly confident i can up my grade and perhaps use the new grade in scholarship negotiations to schools that I will have been (hopefully) accepted already.

Is that accepted? will schools take my new and hopefully better grade into account when negotiating scholarships?

I have the time now to do it so I'm wondering if its worth doing.

TIA

[cavalier1138]

It can be leverage, but it becomes less useful if the score won't come out until after the deadline for accepting your offers.

Also, depending on what "low 170s" means, you may be at the point of diminishing returns with the LSAT. For example, improving on a 173 isn't going to move the needle that much, because you're already at or over the 75th everywhere except Columbia.

[Quc]

Thanks.

Lets say for Columbia- The march LSAT scores will probably come out Mid april.

How long after getting an offer from Columbia (or other schools) do you have to commit?

From what I understand they usually don't send out replies till the end of march anyways.

TIA

[cavalier1138]

Your understanding of the timeline is off. Unless you submit your applications late, you'll get acceptances much earlier than March (you should already be getting some around now if you submitted before Thanksgiving).

By mid-April you should still be within most schools' acceptance deadlines (or able to extend them). I doubt a higher LSAT will be anywhere near as helpful as a scholarship offer from a peer school for negotiations (especially based on your response, which implied that you were around the threshold I mentioned), but if you're in the mood to retake, go for it.