I did two quick 20 question sets. 18/20 and 8/20. Cool.

that is 26/40 and that, sir, is why the bar will be a piece of cake for me. good day.

Waiting on June LSAT.. It's pretty brutal. I think I'll be on the upper end of my 169-174 PT range, but my numbers will be marred by my 3.22 ug GPA (engineering, but I don't think that helps, does it?). Is being a "splitter" (as I've heard it referred to) just a giant crapshoot? I know that Columbia/NYU is out unless I end up with a 174-175 (and even then just a shot). I want to be in a city, so that takes out Penn/Mich/UVA, so out of the bottom of the T14, I'm left with Gtown/NU before I have to start looking to USC/BU/BC/Fordham etc.

I'm reading about people being stuck on waitlists until August and I'd really like to avoid that (gf to think about, etc).

Any advice? (other than wait til I get my score to start stressing about it)

Yeah, don't worry about it so much, you'll be fine.

Any school in the top 25 will be fine, especially if you want to do IP. All you really need to do is just graduate if you want to do IP with an engineering degree.

Having an engineering undergrad degree helps admissions imo.

wat

Isn't Penn in Philly?

So it is. For some reason I was thinking College Park (Penn State).


Also, I was reading that the rankings for stuff like IP departments mean crap. Is this true? I want to use my technical background, but everything I'm reading is telling me to just go to the best ranked school that I can get into. Thoughts?

If you really think you want to do IP law, I would go to the school that gives you the most money. Like I said earlier basically, the IP programs do mean crap and your degree will be in high demand regardless of which law school you go to. They want engineers or whatever, who also happen to be lawyers. It's going to be long hours, and really boring work (at least boring for most people), but it pays extremely well (especially Pharma stuff) if you're at a big firm. You might as well get out of law school with the least amount of debt possible. One law school won't really teach technical stuff better than another I don't think, and half or 2/3 of the time you're going to be learning the standard stuff that everyone learns (first year, plus evidence etc). One law school might be "better" at IP stuff because you can take 2 more classes in technical stuff (not even IP) over your law school career.

I would even look into applying to some lower ranked schools to see if you could get a free ride. Apply to some random schools that are below what you think you should get into, just to see if they'll give you some money. Call them up and see if you can get application fees waived, and after admission to see if you can get some money from them. If they waive your application fee, there's no reason not to apply to them (I guess you still have LSAT fees, but that should be only a small consideration). I know that my law school (Suffolk in Boston) had a pretty serious focus on IP stuff (it's one of the few concentrations). If you came out of law school with no debt, to me that's worth a lot more than coming out of a big name school with lots of debt because there is much less difference between your degree and a top school than for everyone else, because of what you want to do .

Oh yeah, and you might actually be smarter than everyone else, which means you're more likely to be at the top of your class. The top 20% at my law school still got offers from the big firms just like everyone else. Being at the top of your class is almost more important than the law school you go to. Honestly I think I'd rather be top 10% at a lower end law school, than bottom 10% at Harvard.
My main point is that if you're making $100k a year with no debt, or $150k with $250k in debt, you come out a lot ahead in the first situation, while you degree name will matter much much less after you get your first job. I don't even think there will be that much salary differential between schools because of the specialty you want to do, but whatever.

I had pretty similar, though slightly higher, scores than you. (3.36/175). I applied to Gtown/NYU/Columbia/Penn right at the deadline. All intitially waitlisted me. Since then, Gtown has already admitted me. Penn has already rejected me. NYU has sent me nothing. Columbia sent me a 2nd letter telling me they have made al their decisions on the first wait list, and are now putting me on the second waitlist, whatever the **** that is.

LOL, love when this guy comes out of the woodwork to mention how little he studies.

50 page article for law review, what the **** is that? god damn i never should have agreed to this crap

ip guy, i'm doing ip thus far and from what i understand just graduate and get money. pretty simple. i only have a chem/bio background and people are still in love with me.

I think the play re: law review is to say you'll do it then interview during OCI saying you made it on then just quit.

Yeah law firms love lazy underachievers.

While you're at it, tell them that you could have went to Harvard Law but you got really drunk the night before the LSAT and barely studied for it anyways.

Maybe it's because all his exams were open book and he never actually had to memorize before, and law school didn't teach what the law is, but what it "should" (might) be.

OK I wanna know from people that have been through this before, if I'm getting the target scores on the barbri practice multiple choice, am I way ahead, just passing, or not good enough for the real thing?

I have no idea, and I tend to assume that barbri just scares everyone with everything evaluation related to make you work harder. The study schedule is insane, and the essay grading is way hard.

1. The paced program is like a Bataan Death March.

2. If you're getting target scores you're ahead of where you need to be at this point, but where you need to be in the end. Everyone is also so cool that the "any point over passing is a point wasted" but I'd just keep doing what you're doing.

I haven't done a ton of outside studying, but I'm def. all set with some subjects (consistently getting 80%+ of torts/criminal, but I'm doing bad in property and others.

I'm in MA w/ 85% overall and 95% for my school passage rate, so I'm not worried, but I definitely plan on cracking down come July.

FYP?

I'm doing more or less the same as you in a lot of this, the only thing I really do bad at is property, and by that I mean we had the last lecture today and I did one set to see where I was at with no studying and got 6/18 (target is 10 I think). Incidentally, I thought Paula was awesome generally, except she moves WAY too fast, and we got done WAY early too. She's been doing this 18 years, hasn't anyone told her? Or is it part of her plan to go so fast?

Also, even though I'm excited that there's no Civ Pro on the multistate in general because I hate Civ Pro, I wish I could do multiple choice on it to see where I'm at. It's kinda weird to study for imo.

I didn't realize MA's pass rate was that low, my school's pass rate (Suffolk) is 94% so I guess I should feel the same as you but just like first year, I think the worst part of all this is the uncertainty. Maryland's overall pass rate is 88% so I guess that should make me feel a little better.

And this, sir, is why the bar will be a challenge for you.

I shouldn't really respond to this but...

There's like 50 different inferences I could draw from your statement. All Noah was trying to say was he was getting inconsistent results on his practice for no apparent reason. There's not really an "lol variance" element to bar studying I don't think. I've had that happen too. Just a general throwaway comment. It happens to us all, just like athletes go through slumps and hitting streaks.

Heh, and all us poker players know that trying to make any sort of extrapolation of how you're going to do on the bar based on 2 practice sets is pretty bad, lol samplesizeaments (among other huge factors).

I meant quit after you get a summer gig lined up.

I was just trying to say I'm going to do well b/c I can add 20+20 and 18+8 successfully.

And then when they decide which 50% they're keeping after the summer program, and ask for updated resumes, they see you dropped it?

Or if you don't like the firm or decide to apply for a clerkship or .....

Also, I'm like 100% sure that either the EIC or someone would drop a dime on anyone who gamed the system like that.

I am taking lsats in sep. and starting my search for schools.

Anyone here go to USD? Seems like an easy school to get into. Since its the only halfway decent law school in san diego then getting a job after graduation would be easy no?

oh and san diego is the shiit

You have a choice:

Go to a strong regional school ranked in the 70s

or

Go to a strong regional/somewhat national school ranked in the 25-35 range for 60-65k/more total cost.

Which do you pick?

Also note that the atmosphere and town of the 70s ranked school is far preferable to you than the 25-35 ranked school.

Really depends a lot on the kind of law you want to do. If you wanna be a public defender/prosecutor/public interest generally, go to the school for free (I assume the 70s school is free). Those positions don't pay much (although right now there's a program where after 10 years whats left of your debt is forgiven). You may want to inquire with the 25-35 ranked school if the SCHOOL has loan forgiveness programs, as I know at least Georgetown is really good about that.


Also if you have an engineering or science background and want to pursue that or IP law. Basically any situation where you're just getting a law degree to advance your existing career.

If you want to do Big Firm, work 90 hour weeks doing work you hate, and have a big peen, go to the 25-35 school. You can pay off the 60k in 1-2 years at those places. I'm not trying to bad talk Big Law, some people like the prestige that goes with those places, and generally you can write your ticket to whatever you want to do after 3 years there.

Small sidenote- Sometimes the scholarships are based on grades. A lot of people come in with scholarships, but lose them because they aren't top 20% after first year.