I'm five years past undergrad, but I'm going to Indiana-Bloomington on a partial scholarship with a 2.3/165. I got accepted to Wake Forest (no scholarship offer, nor could I get one out of them) also.

So, there's hope, but I don't think the time spent working and separating myself from my GPA is any small thing, it probably did a lot for my chances. At the same time, I mostly got waitlisted all over the place, and got flat-out rejected by some lower-ranked schools like U of Denver, Pepperdine, etc. Those IU-B and Wake decisions made a cycle that would've been pretty crappy come out fantastic.

Take the LSAT, and if you do a good job on it, apply to a ton of schools. Your results will be all over the place, but you may be able to convince a good school to take a chance on you.

Yeah just curious because I think I'll be getting around 200 back at the end of all this. Thats what one of my friends said (theres a deposit), but I'm not sure.

My firm reimburses for moving expenses. Moving company gave me a receipt that shows a price that is higher than what I actually paid (They gave me a discount because they messed some stuff up and I had to switch pickup, etc.). I feel like my firm is setting up some sort of ethical challenge as to whether I will submit receipt as-is or for what I actually am due.

Just got my reimbursement check for bar application expenses and I realize I didn't include the cost of the money order! Bah!

So BarBri was supposed to start today, but because of Harvard's graduation, they did two classes yesterday and two classes today, then W,T,F off. I didn't go yesterday because I was moving, which was planned months before the BarBri schedule switch.

My options now are:

1- Go today, makeup first two classes online
2-Go today, W, T, F to another location and just makeup the first class I missed
3-Don't go today, thereby skipping the first four classes, try and makeup them and do the "preview" in the next 5-6 days.

I think I'm going with Option 3 so that I can finish unpacking. Also, today is Prof. Resp. and start of Property. I can handle these on my own. I want to get apartment all set so I don't have to juggle both at once.

PS- Going from studio to 2br, crappy 27 inch to 50 inch plasma, crappy old bed from home w/ potential little brother urine stains on mattress to new queen serta, and street parking to assigned spot has been pretty awesome so far.

Neighborhood?

Watch the lectures online? That's the idea

Graduated from law school last week.

/law school.

congrats

I just took the practice LSAT Eyedea posted in either this or the other long law school thread. I got a 158, meh, was fairly distracted during 2 sections. I finished every section besides logic games with 5-6 minutes to spare, I think I rushed through it due to reading about how time is what hurts most people, so I should be able to pace myself better in the future and I'd imagine that will make a little difference. On the logic games section, I only finished the first 17 questions but I got 16/17 right, so hopefully once I learn the strategies and work on speed I'll be able to ace that section.

I'll be a junior in the fall, so I have a whole year to prepare. Any guesstimates as to what I could probably top out at with a lot of preparation?

Also, with the following stats can anyone guess what I'd need to get on the LSAT to get into a decent number of T14s?

-3.4-3.5 GPA as finance major at a top 15-20 undergrad b-school (with significant upward grade trend)
-President or VP of my fraternity after being academic chair before that
-Member of school's finance association
-Adopt-a-School volunteer

Anything else I should be doing to strengthen my applications other than getting good grades and preparing for the LSAT? Would interning or doing some work in a law firm the summer after my junior year mean much at all?

Top 14 is gonna be tough with anything below a 165. Not saying you can't do it, just stating facts. Also I didn't look at that specific practice lsat, but the older the test, the easier they tend to be. Consider taking another one, under timed conditions without distractions to get a real indicator (and see if the other one was a fluke). In my experience its hard to increase LSAT scores, except for the logic game stuff, in general scores tend to be remarkably consistent. Definitely take Princeton review (or something like it) because it may help you improve your score, or you might be one of those people that can improve a lot. One point on that test can mean A TON, so dropping the $1000 or whatever could be seriously worth it, especially if some school throws money at you. The LSAT is really tightly grouped (unlike the SAT), so that a 158 and a 161 is A HUGE difference. The LSAT also matters more for getting in.

I don't think the goodness of the b school matters as much as the university, I could be wrong.

The extra curricular are fine, but honestly won't matter much, unless it's something really special. Like saving starving children in India.

Grades are key, do the best you can there. The breakdown is probably something like 50% LSAT, 40% grades (with consideration of the undergrad rep), 10% other.

Working in a law firm won't help at all. It makes you MORE like everyone else actually, which is bad. Do it because you want to see what a law firm/legal career is like, not to strengthen your application.

I tell everyone to take at least a year off before law school. 26 is the average age in law school, you won't be behind. Save up some money, have some fun, get some real world experience. It will help you have perspective during law school too. If you do something really cool, it might even help you stand out as an applicant more.

a 158 cold first diagnostic is actually really good -- if you prepare correctly you should be able to manage 170 imo (I started at 157 and ended with a 169).

a 3.4X/170 is very borderline for cracking the t14...maybe waitlist --> in at Gtown/Cornell

don't worry about extra-curriculars...1 point on the LSAT or .05 on your GPA >>>>> president of xxx, member of xxx, 10" penis, etc.

with a 3.5 id say youve got a good shot for t14 if you can get to 168+. i had a 3.3 and got into georgetown with a VERY late app and a 175.

as far as practice goes, def learn all the logic games strategies. theres no reason that an intelligent person shouldnt get nearly a perfect score on that section. i dont know how easy it is to improve on your score though. I got a 174 on my first practice, and ended up with a 175, but at the end of studying (I only did it for 1 month) i scored a few 178+ incl. 1 180.

Crazy that is exactly what I got the first time I took it cold. My last three practice tests have all been 170. Hopefully I don't lose to many points on the real thing.

welp, just took lsat #2. last three practice tests i took were 179, 180, 178.

yet today, i got my face jizzed on by colorful dinosaurs. most brutal LG i've ever run into and sunk my LG section into epic awfulness. it's decision time wrt canceling vs not

could anybody in the know tell me what looks worse: 173, cancel vs 173, 170

imo canceling is really silly, especially since most schools only look at the highest score anymore

everyone always thinks they did terrible right after the test

i was 100 % sure i had scored below a 160 after I took it, and I scored a 163ish. Now my practice tests were around the low 170s, but I chalk that up to test day nerves, and I didn't think that would get any better on a retake.

Well, if based on your past PT's you were expecting a ~179 and you felt the only difference was 1 tough LG (6 questions usually)...say you missed ~3/6?...what's a 179 -3 questions...174-175?

So I just wrote a 17 page case note for the law review.

I did it just so I could say I did, since I had no desire at all to actually be on law review.

Turns out, I kind of enjoyed it- even the bluebooking. Now I'm wishing I tried a little harder (like, didn't wait until the last minute) because I kind of want to do law review now. I can always grade on, but that's a crapshoot (since I have no idea what my grades are for the year) and writing on seemed like a better idea.

This sucks. I took something I didn't want to do. Invested a good chunk of time. And now am afraid I won't get it. Even though I didn't want it in the first place, I kind of do now, and will be a little disappointed if I don't make it

Never should have done it in the first place!

problem is that the one dinosaur LG sunk my whole LG section i think. gave me less time for other sections than i would have liked/needed. i wouldn't be too surprised to have missed 6 LG. in that case, even if i did as well as i thought i did on other sections i'd still prob be looking at 170ish

if you are sure you aren't beating your original score I say cancel.

eff colorful dinosaurs IMO

yeah srsly, wtf. i've done 25 practice tests and never run into a game as tough as that.

word I actually think I did good on that game but it took me so long that I had to really rush all the games after. ughhh waiting for a score is gonna suck.

yeah. i don't know of any particular reason why they can't make it like the GRE, computerize it, and give you an instant score.

i think the MCAT and the GMAT are both computerized now too, though i don't know if they do instant scores.

MCAT you have to wait for the verbal/writing stuff to be hand-scored...DAT is instant, however.

gmats give instant scores

lolasthma did you get horrible grades in undergrad or something? Why are you so terrified that a 173 won't be good enough to get into top schools?