Am I completely wasting my time?

Graduate School Law School
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<p>Ok I took the Lsat and scored a 146 and my GPA from the University of MN was a 2.7 .... However, I worked 50 hours a week through college and paid for the majority of it myself. I also had family issues that contributed to my poor undergraduate performance as well (parent alcoholism, abandonment, etc.. ) </p>

<p>Obviously I am not getting into Harvard, but that is not my goal. I know that I can succeed when I am not working all the time and my head is screwed on straight. Am I wasting my time? All I want is a chance. </p>

<p>Does anyone have any advice? Schools I should try? Etc... Schools on my list are: Hamline, St. Thomas (MN), William Mitchell (All local), Schools in NY, Chicago, or the DC area... </p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

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<p>I am sure you can get into some school somewhere.............</p>

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<p>Thomas Cooley (Lansing, MI) Is really obscure I'm sure but they're known locally for accepting everybody and they have a really high rate of passing the bar.</p>

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<p>Yea, Cooley is definitely an option as I have heard the same. I will most likely apply there as there is no fee to apply so it cant hurt. Any other opinions? Do I have a prayer of getting into other schools? Hamline, STT,WM, Touro? SUNY? Baltimore? Chicago schools? Etc... </p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

5

<p>It might be in your best interest to hold off on the current application cycle, study like crazy, and then take the lsat again in August or September. </p>

<p>There are a number of law schools that will give more consideration to your latter score if you really improve (more than 6 or 7 points up). Therea re a few really great prep books out there - the Logic Games Bible and Logical Reasoning Bible books from Powerscore are great - that should help you improve quite a bit. </p>

<p>I don't know what kind of prep you did before taking the test, but with a solid month of studying (a few hours a night) I was able to improve my score by about 10 points. </p>

<p>You're sort of late on the current application cycle, so think hard about what you want before taking whatever school will pick you up at this point in the game. You're probably a long shot at the schools in Minn. A friend of mine was waitlised at St. Thomas with a similar gpa and an LSAT of 154 and pretty solid soft factors, so I don't think you'll do much better.</p>

<p>At any rate, I'd strongly suggest you try to get that LSAT up before applying. If you do, you'll have a much easier time convincing the schools you're looking at that your less-than-outstanding undergrad performance was because of the family problems instead of something else.</p>

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<p>So I am not completely out of luck? Obviously it would help to retake the test and improve but I dont know if that is really an option. In essence I just want to know if this is a pipedream to get accepted anywhere since the goal was to begin this fall somewhere. Honestly I am not that picky as to where I go as long as it is in the general geography that I am looking for (MN, Chicago, NY, DC, Baltimore)</p>

<p>If anyone has any ideas of schools I should apply to where I have a shot (besides Cooley) that would be greatly appreciated. I know that there arent that many, but any positive advice would be great. I have no problem applying everywhere I have a shot within reason. </p>

<p>I do not know if it helps any, but I live in MN so I would be an in-state student at any of the MN schools. </p>

<p>Thanks!!!</p>

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<p>St. Thomas or maybe Texas Southern or some other fourth-tier school. Even Touro is too selective for you and you have probably even less chance at Baltimore. Be sure to explain your situation in an addendum and/or the PS, but your chances are pretty bad.</p>

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<p>How to phrase this...</p>

<p>*First of all, you're wasting your time if you want to be a corporate lawyer at one of NYC's top firms. Many firms only recruit at the very best schools (or minimally at good ones). Getting into law school does not guarantee you certain jobs. Before you fill out a single application, figure out what jobs you want to do and figure out what schools (location, caliber, and types) will best help you get there.</p>

<p>*While law schools might know that working a lot will hurt your GPA, they probably won't care very much. I know it sounds cynical, but it's true. There are a couple of issues: 1) they could accept someone with higher stats and thus help their US News ranking; 2) even the third-tier law schools have a low acceptance rate, so there's plenty of other people to accept; and 3) with a low GPA and a low LSAT score, they might doubt you ability to do the work. </p>

<p>*#3 can be helped in a few ways. First of all, you really need a better LSAT score - almost every school in the country will have most of their students with higher LSATs. Get over the 150 barrier. </p>

<p>*Take extra courses. Consider a master's. Search for Jamimom's posts on the subject - she did a very tough undergrad study, got a low GPA, did a master's, and went to law school around age 30. The master's won't change the GPA that LSDAS calculates, but it will show that you are capable of graduate level work; also, if you get stellar grades, it shows that you are capable of buckling down and getting the grades. </p>

<p>*Be aware that legal employers place an unholy emphasis on grades. Do not plan on working in law school!</p>

<p>*Don't think you have to go to law school immediately. Really - what's the rush? It is completely, completely worth it to wait and do it right - make sure that you're going to the best school you can get into and that, when you arrive, you are ready to work. Unless someone else is paying (which probably isn't your situation), you'll have to take out loans. That means that, from the time you start law school until the time you retire, you aren't going to get a chance to relax.</p>

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<p>Some suggestions:</p>

<p>CUNY-Queens College
North Carolina Central U.</p>

<p>Also this site will help you: <a href="http://www.studentdoc.com/lsat-score.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.studentdoc.com/lsat-score.html&lt;/a>
You can enter your GPA and LSAT and it will compare your scores to others that have been accepted. I know that a previous poster said that Touro was out of reach but according to the site it isn't. Another site allows you to compare to your stats with other applicants who have applied to the same schools and been accepted, rejected, waitlisted, etc. Lawschoolnumbers.com.</p>

<p>Also, you could consider being an undergrad one more year or even semester and applying in the next cycle.<br>
Good Luck</p>

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<p>^That site is almost completely uselss. All it seems to be doing is telling you the 25th percentile numbers for each school (certainly not the "lowest scores" they'll accept, though far lower than what you'd need to be competitive), and it's not even up-to-date. You'd get much more information out of the LSAC site. Even for Touro's part-time program, the 25th percentile score is a 148.</p>

<p>For CUNY Queens applicants with between a 2.5 and 2.74 GPA and between a 145 and 149 LSAT, there were only 6 acceptances from 91 applicants last cycle.</p>

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<p>I suggest you look at the "official" stats at </p>

<p><a href="http://officialguide.lsac.org/UGPASearch/Search3.aspx%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://officialguide.lsac.org/UGPASearch/Search3.aspx&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Choose LSAC Data Search</p>

<p>If the link doesn't work, go to <a href="http://www.lsac.org%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.lsac.org&lt;/a>. and figure it out. </p>

<p>Using that site, there are a few schools at which you have better than 25% odds of being admitted. Unfortunately, some of them are schools at which instruction is in Spanish. </p>

<p>That said, your best odds are at (in descending order):</p>

<p>Inter-American
Pontifical Catholic
Cooley
Appalacian
Barry
St. Thomas
Southern
Oklahoma City
Puerto Rico </p>

<p>My advice..I don't mean to sound rude, but...someone with your stats should forget about geographic preferences. If you can get into Cooley, Barry, or Appalacian GO. </p>

<p>I second the advice to retake the LSAT. If you could go up 10 points, your average would be above 150 which would increase your odds quite a bit. </p>

<p>Do look at the LSAC site--data is better than personal opinions.</p>

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<p>It was just meant to help find some schools that he didn't initially consider.
It doesn't seem smart to write off a school as out of reach without even applying it's not like we're talking about Harvard or Yale.
I have a friend that applied to law school late last year at a school that was out of reach by the numbers and he happened to get in. I don't know why maybe a fluke, divine intervention, the obscure timing of his application but if he had listened to his advisor who told him not to waste his money on the application fee he'd probably be at a lesser school looking to transfer up.
All I'm saying is that it couldn't hurt to try especially because he seems to have extenuating circumstances which I empathize with because my father passed during my sophomore year as an undergrad and it had a huge effect on me academically and financially.</p>

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<p>With a 2.7/146, any school may as well be Harvard or Yale. Certainly, his best strategy is just to apply to the whole fourth tier and hope to get lucky. But when you're hoping for a massive stroke of luck to get into Touro, it's probably not a bad idea to reconsider the whole thing.</p>

<p>The Puerto Rican schools (Pontifical Catholic, Inter-American and UPR) are out of the question, unless the OP thinks he can take the separate, Spanish-language entrance exam they all require.</p>

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<p>there are some law schools that will accept the higher LSAT no matter what as long as there is a significant difference. I forgot what website I saw it on, but it had the schools that accept the higher ones as long as the difference warrants it (i.e. +5,+7, depends on the school). </p>

<p>Dont give up.</p>