@publisher Fortunately no substantial undergraduate student loan. I haven’t yet and will probably not consider a regional law school.
Thank you @Publisher @bluebayou for helping put me in the right place! 
The bottom line is I get that my stats are not strong for admission to T6 or substantial scholarship money for other T14 (looking at NW ED now…). So I need “a strategy” to make the most out of this less than ideal situation. I am set to retake LSAT, and at the same time trying to decide what should be the strategy for the early round…
@evergreen101: The only strategy that you need is to apply ED to NU law school.
Otherwise, you need to blanket the lower T-14 in addition to setting a law school budget.
If admitted to a T-14 without any merit money, do you understand that three years of law school at a T-14 can cost about $270,000 to as much as $300,000 ?
So you may not be considering schools outside of the T-14 at this time, but you may when you examine your financial options.
With great essay and recs, you probably have a decent shot at one of the T6, but it would be full pay.
Even if you ED to Northwestern, you should apply to all of the T14 (from T4 down), and if not accepted to Northwestern early, try to negotiate scholarships against each other. Of course, NYU ain’t gonna match the merit $ that you might get from Cornell, but Duke might. (just examples)
Also consider top regionals in areas that you would like to live: UT Austin, UCLA, WashU, Vandy, George Washington…
??
@bluebayou Like “they” said, I wish I could’ve redone my undergraduate years. I will try to get a higher LSAT score at my second try. Just don’t know if it’s too little too later anyway.
Sure, a point or two extra would be yuuuuggge, particularly for merit money. A 173 might even garner a phone interview with HLS. But, IMO, with excellent essays you can apply now. for those where you are over the LSAT median, its unlikely that you will be rejected early (absent any auto dings like a sexual assault in college). At worse, they hold you app for review later. Then, if you do get a higher score, you can add it to your application.
Or, if you are already accepted, you can use the higher score to see if ‘you might be eligible for any merit money’…
D is applying this fall to law schools with a 3.9 gpa and 172 lsat. Google each schools 509 report as it will clearly show you how much is given in merit aid. 171 is an exceptional score and competitive everywhere except Yale and Harvard. Your gpa is stronger than you might think. Top Law Schools website has useful admissions data