CS grad looking to get into law in 1-2 years

Graduate School Law School
1

<p>I graduated from a LAC with a BA in Computer Science a few years ago. I'm currently finishing up a MS degree in the same field from a large public research university. I've always had people tell me I should consider doing law (ever since I was in high school), but I thought all lawyers were greedy, unscrupulous ogres and never considered it.</p>

<p>However, after starting on my MSCS, I realized that my liberal arts background (and interests) just doesn't seem to mesh very well with such a narrowly focused technical/scientific discipline (maybe it just feels that way to me?). In fact, the graduate program has pretty much made me lose all interest in the field, and consequently, I spent a lot of time in grad school taking undergraduate social science courses.</p>

<p>Needless to say, I've been evaluating what it is that I really want to do. I took some surveys designed to measure interest and fit with particular majors and careers, talked to career counselors at my school's career center, talked to my social science professors (some of whom have JDs), and had some conversations with friends of mine who were thinking of law school, attending law school, and those who've already graduated from law school. The consensus seems to be that I would be much happier studying and practicing law than programming computers for the rest of my life, and that I might have some aptitude in it as well.</p>

<p>I'm thinking of working in the IT industry for 1-2 years before going off to law school (hopefully save a little money). I'm wondering what kind of schools I should be looking at, and what kind of (realistic) target LSAT score I should be aiming for. I'm also clueless as to how competitive an applicant I would be. My interests in the field of law include Intellectual Property, Patent, International Law, and Immigration Law. My interest in the former two stems from my training as a computer scientist, while the latter two stem from the fact that I have lived abroad of my native country for most of my life (hence I am not a U.S. citizen).</p>

<p>I graduated from a LAC that ranks anywhere between 10~15 by USNWR with a 3.7 GPA, BA in CS.</p>

<p>I'm getting my MS from a public research university (ranked somewhere around 50th in CS by USNWR, which isn't great), and I'm expecting a GPA of 3.7 with 3 research publications in my field (no journals, just conferences and workshops, although that's quite common in my field).</p>

<p>I've taken a few practice LSATs and score between 165 ~ 175. Having taken tons of courses that require theorem proving seems to have developed my aptitude for the games section.</p>

<p>Any advice would be greatly appreciated! :D</p>

2

<p>Grad school is of little value. It is impossible to assess chances until you have actually taken the LSAT. Often the actual score does not reflect what people say they score on practice exams. A 3.7 will not hold you back from most top schools.</p>

3

<p>Do not go for it, you will knock me off if we apply for the same school! Just kidding. You are a good writer.</p>

4

<p>
[QUOTE]
Grad school is of little value. It is impossible to assess chances until you have actually taken the LSAT. Often the actual score does not reflect what people say they score on practice exams. A 3.7 will not hold you back from most top schools.

[/QUOTE]

Oh well, that's ok. I didn't pay for it anyways, since I worked my way through as a TA/RA.</p>

<p>So a 3.7 won't hold me back from "most" top schools? Which top schools will it hold me back from?</p>

<p>I hear a lot about top 3, top 5, top 14, top 20. To get into these prestigious law schools, what kind of LSAT score should I aim for with a GPA of 3.7?</p>

<p>Also, are letters of recommendation and the personal statement important, and if so, how much? I've heard a lot of people tell me that they don't matter as long as they're not horrible. Is this true?</p>

5

<p><a href="http://www.lawschoolnumbers.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.lawschoolnumbers.com&lt;/a>, gives you a good idea of what law schools are expecting GPA and LSAT wise.</p>

6

<p>why dont people divulge the schools they attended/are attending??</p>

7

<p>So how hard is it to score a 175 or above?</p>

8

<p>About 450 people made it last year and you can only miss about 4 points out of a 100.</p>

9

<p>This is why the LSAT is so important. THere are many students with high GPA's but do not do well on the LSAT. To even get to 170 you need major game on the LSAT. This is why it doesn't make sense to "give opinions" on accepatance chances without a true LSAT score. I know of people who claimed to be scoring 178's on practice exams and I latter learn that they never even applied to law school because they bombed the LSAT.</p>