159 LSAT (eh) 2.6 GPA (yikes) with good LOR and Experience for Age Forum

[stubman97]

So I'm really just testing the waters right now as I am very conflicted with between the many paths my life could go down. I have been a very poor undergraduate student, as my abysmal 2.6 gpa shows, but I did slightly above average on my LSAT with a score of 159, and I have a letter of recommendation from US Congressman Ed Perlmutter. I have had internships in government with his office, the public sector with Teach for America, and several NGOs, and I also have demographic and data analysis experience from a top political consulting and advertising firm in the country. A real saving grace of my application process, is that I am looking to go to school for Environmental Law. The schools I am applying to are: U of Colorado, Lewis & Clark, Vermont Law, Pace, U of Hawai'i, and U of Maryland. Some of these are drastic reaches, I am aware, but I just want to know if I'm wasting my time applying to these schools.

I am about to graduate with an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies, and a Certification in International Non-Governmental Organizations from Rhode Island College. I am being considered for a Field Director position for a national Environmental NGO after I graduate.

Should I stay (in the pursuit for a law degree so quickly after undergrad) or should I go (get some more work experience) now?????


Thanks

[albanach]

So I'm really just testing the waters right now as I am very conflicted with between the many paths my life could go down. I have been a very poor undergraduate student, as my abysmal 2.6 gpa shows, but I did slightly above average on my LSAT with a score of 159, and I have a letter of recommendation from US Congressman Ed Perlmutter. I have had internships in government with his office, the public sector with Teach for America, and several NGOs, and I also have demographic and data analysis experience from a top political consulting and advertising firm in the country. A real saving grace of my application process, is that I am looking to go to school for Environmental Law. The schools I am applying to are: U of Colorado, Lewis & Clark, Vermont Law, Pace, U of Hawai'i, and U of Maryland. Some of these are drastic reaches, I am aware, but I just want to know if I'm wasting my time applying to these schools.

I am about to graduate with an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies, and a Certification in International Non-Governmental Organizations from Rhode Island College. I am being considered for a Field Director position for a national Environmental NGO after I graduate.

Should I stay (in the pursuit for a law degree so quickly after undergrad) or should I go (get some more work experience) now?????


Thanks

I hate to be frank but, unless you are independently wealthy, it's going to be a struggle to find a law school worth attending that you can get admitted to with your stats.

There are some schools which are not awful that might admit you - schools at the very bottom of T1 or top of T2 (ranked between 50-70) on US news, however many will want you to attend at sticker, and their employment placement doesn't justify the cost. Please familiarize yourself with Law School Transparency if you are not already.

Even if you did get accepted to one of these schools, their employment placement tends to be regional. You really want ties, otherwise employment will be harder to secure. Large regional firms are always wary of hiring someone who has no ties to the area, training them for a couple of years and just when they become productive and valuable find the associate leaving for more money with a bigger firm.

Your best bet will be to increase your LSAT and see if you can get in to a strong regional school in an area where you have ties. Alternatively, if you can do something about your grades and haven't yet graduated, delay graduation. Take community college classes until your combined GPA is above a 3.0.

[Mr.Inference]

Keep at raising that LSAT score: the score is your bargaining chips with schools, for both money and where you can go, and ultimately it affects whether you'll be able to work as a lawyer or not (In that, the better the school the higher the likelihood of obtaining work as a lawyer). Aim for at least a 165 and try working in the real world -- it can only help your application. For real.