Taking both GRE and LSAT Forum

[jc177]

Hi all,

I was intent upon doing a Phd. in philosophy, but I'm seriously reconsidering doing so after not receiving any offers from the schools I most wanted to attend.

I always thought that law school was a possibility, but it is now my primary goal. I've already taken the GRE, but I did not take it very seriously, since I was told that it's a relatively minor part of my application. (164V/162M 4.0 AW on my 1st try; 165V/163M 4.5 AW with a bit more studying, since I was very disappointed with my first writing score.)

I know that some schools require applicants to submit ALL scores for both the GRE and LSAT. I will be focused on studying for the LSAT during the upcoming months, but I'm wondering whether my less-than-stellar GRE scores would seriously hurt my chances for admissions to schools with the aforementioned policy.

Thank you for your help!

[The Lsat Airbender]

Nah, shouldn't hurt you if you do well on the LSAT, especially since your second GRE take is respectable. ETS's calculator is probably a biased source but they say 165v/163m is about as strong as a 169 on the LSAT. If you drop a 170+ on the LSAT then that is what law schools will be assessing.

Beware that this could change in the next few years if US News changes the way they incorporate GRE scores into their rankings formula, although I think that's unlikely.

[cavalier1138]

I was intent upon doing a Phd. in philosophy, but I'm seriously reconsidering doing so after not receiving any offers from the schools I most wanted to attend.

Law school isn't exactly a good fallback option. If you didn't have a burning desire to be a lawyer before you didn't get into your preferred doctorate programs, why do you think you'd develop one now?

[jc177]

Nah, shouldn't hurt you if you do well on the LSAT, especially since your second GRE take is respectable. ETS's calculator is probably a biased source but they say 165v/163m is about as strong as a 169 on the LSAT. If you drop a 170+ on the LSAT then that is what law schools will be assessing.

Beware that this could change in the next few years if US News changes the way they incorporate GRE scores into their rankings formula, although I think that's unlikely.

Thanks! I'll probably be applying this upcoming cycle, so hopefully things will turn out fine...

Law school isn't exactly a good fallback option. If you didn't have a burning desire to be a lawyer before you didn't get into your preferred doctorate programs, why do you think you'd develop one now?

Thank you for your concern! I majored in philosophy in order to "prepare" for law school, but I found it difficult to leave the discipline.

Becoming a lawyer was a second option for me when I decided to apply to grad school, and I was always aware that it was a more practical route than academia. (As saturated as the legal market is, it has to be far better than the job market for academic philosophers.)

Do you have advice for someone who is content with being a lawyer and has a BA in philosophy?

[cavalier1138]

Do you have advice for someone who is content with being a lawyer and has a BA in philosophy?

My advice is the same as for anyone else who had "go to law school" as a backup plan when their main ideas fell through: do something you're passionate about. I know plenty of people who went to law school because they felt like they had nothing better to do, and they're mostly miserable.

Maybe you'll luck out and discover that you really love legal practice and would have ranked it above academia (or whatever else you were interested in). But three years of your life (and a fair chunk of change) is a big gamble.

[jc177]

My advice is the same as for anyone else who had "go to law school" as a backup plan when their main ideas fell through: do something you're passionate about. I know plenty of people who went to law school because they felt like they had nothing better to do, and they're mostly miserable.

Maybe you'll luck out and discover that you really love legal practice and would have ranked it above academia (or whatever else you were interested in). But three years of your life (and a fair chunk of change) is a big gamble.

Thank you so much! I'll definitely keep your advice in mind as I assess my options!