<p>I go to Stanford so I guess it is pretty decent undergraduate.
My GPA is 3.97, and I haven't taken lsat but I guess it will be at least 173.
(I am junior but don;t know how much I can improve my score from that)
My major problem is that I don't have a US citizenship. I moved to US when I was in high school but have not even acquired a right to permanent residence.
I am obviously from a low-income family and a college first generation. I hope that helps.
I worked in some small patent law firm (patent law is my wanna-be specialty) and a private lawyer's office as a secretary. I also did a legal research with a professor and got published (although it is not like a big, famous journal). I did a lot of part time jobs to pay for my
personal expense, and stanford pays me the rest (tuition, room and board...). I speak Korean and Chinese, so I took advantage of it by doing a lot of tour guide works, translation, and tutoring. I am planning to apply for an internship in some big firms this summer but it seems like all legal internships are non-paid, and this I can't afford. </p>
<p>After listing these, I realized that my stats are pretty mediocre. I have a year left for application. Is there any way that I can significantly improve it?</p>
<p>Harvard is notorious for only giving a **** about numbers. Soft factors are pretty irrelevant when it comes to harvard, but more relevant if you are interested in yale or stanford.If you really get a 173, you’ll have a pretty good chance. But of course, a lot of people say they think they will get a certain score and then underperform on test day.</p>
<p>I am getting steady 175ish score (mock lsat practice) and it’s still december. I have two chances left in feb and june so I think it won’t be much of a problem to get over 173.
So my non-permanent resident status wouldn’t be so much of a disadvantage?
If I raise my gpa to over 4.0, will it significantly change my chances?
I mean, that might be possible if I try to, but that would require a lot of sacrifices.
I must take only unchallenging courses to A+, avoid any high-level, and take only a few units a quarter… would that worth it?</p>
<p>I know someone who was getting steady 178-180 scores on PT, got a 171 on test day. I also know someone who was averaging 168 and got a 155 on test day and then cancelled the second time they took it. I personally scored two points below my PT average and 6 below the PT I took two days before the test. You see my point. </p>
<p>Anyways, the difference in a 3.97 and a 4.1 is negligible at best. It won’t matter, you are over median anyways. Your not permanent residence status won’t hurt you, i’m not sure if someone told you that or what, but i’ve never seen it or heard of it happening. Put it this way, if you are at or above both medians, you are usually always in at any school that just cares about numbers. Harvard is one of those schools. Sure, you may or may not get into yale or stanford, but you’d have to really screw up your application and/or interview to get rejected from Harvard with a 3.97, 173+.</p>
<p>patriot, is it really true about Harvard that they mainly look at numbers? I hope what you are saying is really true. I see alot of people stating this but I just cant imagine because I really expect many many top students getting 3.9+ with 175+. Does that mean that most get in to harvard(personal essays and application, rec, and few softs all being equal )? I want to get in to HLS too…:)</p>
<p>Almost everyone I know did worse on the actual LSAT than they did on their average practice tests. I took a practice test junior year, scored a 175, and when I actually took it months later got a 173…and my drop was much smaller than many of my friends’. I know people who did 8-10 points worse on the actual thing. For some reason, the practice tests are all significantly easier than the real exam.</p>