<p>This may sound obnoxious, but it’s helpful advice: it won’t matter how many practice tests you take if you don’t understand why you got a question wrong, if you continue to make the same mistakes over and over, if you don’t even know how to approach a certain category of questions, if you continue to refuse to rectify your ignorance, etc.</p>
<p>It’s not your attentiveness to style that concerns me, it’s those LSAT scores.</p>
<p>The average LSAT score of ND applicants is 161, n.b.</p>
<p>that doesn’t sound obnoxious at all. I definitely didn’t study for that test in the right way, and i’m almost sure that that’s the reason for my poor scores. In fact, sometimes I didn’t even look over why I got certain questions wrong.</p>
<p>I mean, I don’t know that there’s any major reason not to retake it if you’re this convinced you can improve. At worst, your score stays the same and at least you get some closure.</p>
<p>Again, though, proper advice depends on some information which you aren’t giving. That’s fine if you don’t feel comfortable on an Internet board, but realize that it limits how much we can help you. A 149 really isn’t a terrible score in some situations.</p>
<p>Oh, sorry, there were too many posts to all reply to. But what do you mean, though, bluedevil? </p>
<p>What other information were you referring to? I mean, as much as law schools like to pride themselves in the fact that they look at all candidates “holistically,” it’s a big numbers game. You gotta have a high gpa and lsat score to even get a foot in the door. It kind of sux, but its their way of evaluating everyone objectively. Then, if you’re on the borderline, they’ll look to your recs, internships, etc.</p>
<p>And a 149 is embarassing. I cringe every time someone asks me how i did</p>
<p>To be honest I think too many students out of undergrad are applying to law school without having any relative experience of what it actually consists of being a lawyer. i personally find gap years to be better choices than getting yourself into law school and then figuring out later that you hate your job or career. You would get stuck having to actually go through with becoming a lawyer after having incurred all this debt for law school.
I honestly think people should go the paralegal route before, or at least intern or take on an entry level position of a file clerk. Plus, for the original poster, if you were to take coursework at a community college, say for a paralegal trainee course, assuming you do well, won’t this help you out in raising your gpa, since law schools probably look at overall gpa from all the coursework you’ve completed?</p>
<p>Law schools are not purely numbers games; they pay a lot of information to demographic considerations. If you have one of those in your pocket, then a 149 isn’t necessarily going to hold you back.</p>
<p>Once you have one Bachelor’s Degree, your transcript is considered closed. Law schools look at all grades received before that time, but attending a CC afterwards won’t affect your GPA.</p>
<p>Yeah, taking classes at a community college won’t help very much, and as for demographic considerations…you’re definitely right. However, I am Asian. I feel like that works against me even more.</p>
<p>That does work against you. Sorry I can’t offer you better news. Bluntly, unless you’re willing to go to a school where your career prospects would be pretty iffy, even going to a 160 doesn’t help you much.</p>
<p>What is the average LSAT score?</p>
<p>Nationally among all test takers, I believe it’s about 150.</p>
<p>Wait, why would a 160 not even help me???</p>
<p>I mean, obviously it’s better than 149. But I don’t think a 3.07/160 is going to get you into the sorts of places you’re looking for.</p>
<p>(Even if it was a first time test, to say nothing of a 143/149/160.)</p>
<p>Really? Not U of I in Champaign?? Their median LSAT is 166… which is what i’m shooting for. Also, I’m hoping ill be up to almost a 3.2 by the end of this semester, and taking a year off… which hopefully works as a buffer too</p>
<p>If their median is (say) 166/3.5, and you end up at 160/3.2, that’s a REALLY long shot. 6 LSAT points and 0.3 GPA points is a lot.</p>
<p>Oh, yeah, I’d definitely have to get at LEAST in their 50 percentile range of LSAT scores to even be considered… but the GPA is so unfair. Had I known, I would have just gone to some crappy state school and gotten a much higher GPA…instead of one of the top universities in the US</p>
<p>I wouldn’t think too much about fairness and what-if’s. For one thing it’s just not necessarily a useful approach.</p>
<p>For another thing, ND appears to be barely harder than the national average. (Post #29 here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/law-school/266240-question-about-top-law-schools.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/law-school/266240-question-about-top-law-schools.html</a>.)</p>
<p>No offense, but I’m not sure how reliable those numbers are. There is definitely something to be said about the academic caliber of top universities compared to less prestigious ones though. I mean, why else are they more competitive to gain admission to? Schools would have no reason to be so selective, if their curriculum wasn’t any more difficult than a less prestigious university.</p>
<p>Well, you’ll notice that the very top universities are indeed at the top of the list – MIT, Penn, Harvard, Yale, etc.</p>
<p>Well, yes… and ND is nowhere NEAR those ivies, but it is also nowhere near average</p>