Chances? Forum

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239840

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Chances?

Post by 239840 » Thu Dec 13, 2018 2:49 pm

I have a 3.6x GPA, 160 LSAT, and am white/NA with tribal membership. GPA scales upward with a 3.9-4.0 average for 4+ semesters at the end. I don't have strong cultural ties to my tribe, and will not be writing a diversity statement most likely (to be fair to NAs with stronger ties), so I'm not sure how beneficial my NA heritage will be. The 160 LSAT was below what I expected based on PTs, and I will be retaking in January. Cornell, Duke, Michigan, and Berkeley are the schools I like the most, and I've already applied to them. My assumption is that HYS and CCN are not realistic.

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cavalier1138

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Re: Chances?

Post by cavalier1138 » Thu Dec 13, 2018 3:05 pm

If you marked yourself as NA on your applications, then you should be treated as NA. I don't think there's any requirement that you write a diversity statement to confirm your Native American-ness, although you shouldn't base your decision to write one on whether other people are "more Native American" than you either.

But assuming you're treated as a URM, It looks like you have a decent shot as-is at the lower T14, and even CCN isn't out of the question. Even if you're out of the running for HYS right now, you should still get apps together. Schools will see that you're registered for the January LSAT, and they'll likely hold your application until you get that score. If you raise your score a few points, the whole T13 is open to you.

239840

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Re: Chances?

Post by 239840 » Fri Feb 15, 2019 12:31 pm

My score went down slightly on the January LSAT. I hope that this won't kill any chances of a T20 acceptance. I don't know what to expect or do now.

QContinuum

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Re: Chances?

Post by QContinuum » Fri Feb 15, 2019 2:03 pm

239840 wrote:My score went down slightly on the January LSAT. I hope that this won't kill any chances of a T20 acceptance. I don't know what to expect or do now.
Your lower January LSAT won't impact you adversely. Schools will still evaluate you based on your 160. See how this cycle shakes out, and if you don't get the outcome you wanted, you should be open to retaking the LSAT and reapplying next cycle (schools won't penalize you for reapplying). Go on over to the LSAT forum - you'll see that, especially for someone who was able to achieve a 3.9-4.0 GPA, it should be very feasible to squeeze a few extra points out of the LSAT with proper studying.

239840

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Re: Chances?

Post by 239840 » Fri Feb 15, 2019 5:34 pm

QContinuum wrote:
239840 wrote:My score went down slightly on the January LSAT. I hope that this won't kill any chances of a T20 acceptance. I don't know what to expect or do now.
Your lower January LSAT won't impact you adversely. Schools will still evaluate you based on your 160. See how this cycle shakes out, and if you don't get the outcome you wanted, you should be open to retaking the LSAT and reapplying next cycle (schools won't penalize you for reapplying). Go on over to the LSAT forum - you'll see that, especially for someone who was able to achieve a 3.9-4.0 GPA, it should be very feasible to squeeze a few extra points out of the LSAT with proper studying.
Thank you. I'm going to look into taking the June LSAT.

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239840

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Re: Chances?

Post by 239840 » Fri Aug 23, 2019 2:02 pm

I improved to a 165 on the July LSAT! I'm just bumping this to try to get some feedback on what to do with my new score. I would still like to try to get up to a 167 or higher so that I'm around some lower T13 medians, and just signed up for the October LSAT, but I'm really unsure of how I should approach my applications. Should I apply to the T13 (minus Yale) after an October retake? Or should I go ahead and apply soon and just include that test date as part of my application? Or just apply to some "safeties" early/soon and then the T13 later on after retaking? I'm worried about minimizing debt, so I'd like to go with the approach that will maximize my chances of getting scholarships.

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Re: Chances?

Post by QContinuum » Fri Aug 23, 2019 7:19 pm

First, congrats on your LSAT improvement!

Law school isn't college. Unlike college, it generally doesn't make sense to apply to "safeties" in the law school context. Rather, you should only attend a school that gives you a solid chance at achieving your goals. If your goals require attending a T13, then you shouldn't "settle" for attending a T1 "safety" school.

239840

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Re: Chances?

Post by 239840 » Sat Aug 24, 2019 2:33 pm

QContinuum wrote:First, congrats on your LSAT improvement!

Law school isn't college. Unlike college, it generally doesn't make sense to apply to "safeties" in the law school context. Rather, you should only attend a school that gives you a solid chance at achieving your goals. If your goals require attending a T13, then you shouldn't "settle" for attending a T1 "safety" school.
Thanks. I'd prefer a T13 since I want Big Law, but I might settle for a full-ride at a regional school in an area in which I'd want to live long term. Perhaps I'm underestimating how disappointing it'd be not to get a job in Big Law even if I were to graduate without much debt, though. I guess I will wait and apply once I get my score from the October LSAT.

239840

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Re: Chances?

Post by 239840 » Wed Oct 09, 2019 3:19 am

I decided on the November administration, so I'm leaning towards putting some essays together (my understanding is you don't want to re-use the same personal statement?), getting feedback on them, and then going ahead and submitting my applications here in the next few weeks or so with the November test in the application as pending/upcoming. I don't want to wait until early-mid December to apply and go into the November test with the sense that a ton is riding on the outcome of that test. I'm wanting to apply this cycle either way. I hope I will be competitive for T13-20 schools as-is, but I will try to get up 2-4 more points in November just because it seems prudent given the competitiveness of it all. I've hit 166 on a PT by now, so I think there's a decent chance I'll be able to hit 167 in November - we'll see. But again, I like the idea of applying now and just putting a note that I'll be taking it then, and if schools want to go ahead and evaluate my application without the November score that's fine with me. I'd appreciate any feedback, though, or advice for how to navigate this approach without having the pending score negatively affect things. As far as schools, I figure I'll just apply to CCN and down - I doubt I'd have any shot at HYS with several takes under my belt and a 3.6x GPA. I also went to a pretty undistinguished undergrad, and it seems a lot of the people with a similar profile to me who got into top schools with money went to top undergrads (granted, could be a self-selecting sample) - another reason I'm retaking.

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nixy

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Re: Chances?

Post by nixy » Wed Oct 09, 2019 6:53 am

FWIW, if you tell schools you’re taking a later exam, they won’t evaluate your app until they get that score.

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Re: Chances?

Post by 239840 » Wed Oct 09, 2019 11:53 am

nixy wrote:FWIW, if you tell schools you’re taking a later exam, they won’t evaluate your app until they get that score.
I did come across a post from Spivey Consulting in which he said his experience over a 20-year career in admissions has been that applying later with even a small score increase is better than applying earlier, so I may wait. I just worry a bit about waiting - I guess seeing other applicants on social media getting accepted etc. probably adds to the pressure to apply now. Of course, if my score were to stay the same it'd be better to apply now than later. Maybe I should apply now to some "safeties" and then apply later to higher-ranked schools with the hope that I'll have a higher score at that point. :?

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