<p>I'm about to be a senior at Northwestern University, and I just decided I want to pursue law school (a little last minute, I know ). My goal is to apply to lower-tier (probably not any T14) law schools with the hope that I'll be offered a full merit scholarship. Here are my stats for reference:</p>
<p>GPA: 3.72
LSAT: Taking it in September, but I've taken a few practice tests and average around a 172-174.
OTHER: I'm also an LGBT student...I don't know if that counts for any type of URM, but I intend to include it on my application.
CONCENTRATION: I'm planning to concentrate in intellectual property within my J.D. program.</p>
<p>Right now, some of my top choices are Minnesota, GW, UC Hastings, and Wisconsin, but I also have no idea what their merit scholarship offers are like. If you have recommendations of other schools that might be a good choice for me or any other kind of info, please let me know, thanks!</p>
<p>With a 3.72 and a 170s LSAT, you should apply to the entire T14. There’s a good chance you’ll get a sizable amount of money, especially if you score in the upper end of your LSATs (or even improve). I wouldn’t recommend attending the rest of those schools generally. GW with a full ride and a decent stipulation could be worth it if you have a way to keep living costs down (DC is expensive). </p>
<p>The wide geographic spread you have in your top schools concerns me, however. Outside the T14, most schools are regional schools. For example, Wisconsin places almost all its students into Wisconsin, Hastings into California, and so on. I think a very good investment would be spending a couple hours reading about schools on [url=<a href=“http://www.lawschooltransparency.com/]LST[/url”>http://www.lawschooltransparency.com/]LST[/url</a>], especially about job placements of various schools. Focus on how many people are getting employed and where that employment is. Then rethink your application plan and come back.</p>
<p>You mention that you are “planning to concentrate in intellectual property”; I’d recommend reading the thread at the top of the column for an overview of intellectual property law. I’d also issue a bit of caution: maybe I missed it, but you’ll need a technical/scientific major to be competitive for IP. What will your graduating major be?</p>
<p>I’m majoring in Radio/Television/Film and Integrated Marketing – I’m looking to go into entertainment law and figured IP is the best path for that. As for law school choices, I revised my school list by a lot and I’m basically just planning to apply to schools in California and New York.</p>
<p>Bad choice if you are seeking scholarships. Full tuition rides are rare. For rare, you need to apply broadly to increase your chances, and negotiating leverage. So don’t skip Michigan or Duke or Virginia, for example. Or WashU or even Vandy. Of course, the latter two don’t travel as well as the T14.</p>
<p>Better yet, take a year off, rock the LSAT and wait for the money to roll in – or consider Harvard.</p>
<p>@bluebayou – I would ideally like to take a year off, but I’m not 100% sure if I’ll be able to. Also, just to clarify, so would I do better for scholarships at regionally diverse T14 schools over lesser schools (in CA and NY) like Fordham, Hastings, Yeshiva, etc.? </p>
<p>@goldtortoise: You’re not eligible to sit the patent bar without a BS. Soft IP does exist but it’s very niche and mostly handled by those handling hard IP. I’m also concerned about your desire to go into entertainment law. When you say entertainment law, what precisely do you mean?</p>
<p>You would get better scholarships at lower ranked schools, certainly, you just probably would graduate jobless. Go run your school list through LST and look at the job figures.</p>
<p>Unless you go way down the food chain, few schools give full rides, and in those cases, its only a handful of scholarships. Fordham, for example, awards ~2 Mordecai’s a year. Other than that, their max scholarship is ~$30k/yr. Indeed, many/most? law schools have a max award to which they offer to everyone over their 75ths.</p>
<p>Check out law school numbers dot com for the stats required and dollars being offered.</p>
<p>btw: Given your background, Boalt is likely, but your GPA is probably too low for Stanford. I could not recommend any other LS in the state, unless they will pay you to attend.</p>
<p>btw: Northwestern LS is a special case, since it offers $50k per year several 1-2 folks per year, and $40k to many more. Of course, you need at least a year of work experience for Northwestern.</p>
<p>And part of the job-seeking reality is that most law students are glad to get any job upon graduation. You’ll need ot attend a top law school, and do very well, in order to be able to have your pick of employers. The rest of us(me included) were happy to be offered any job. So if you can’t get a job in entertainment law, would you still want to be a lawyer?</p>
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