low LSAT score and low GPA...any advice?

Graduate School Law School
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<p>If you like NYC, also consider Chicago and San Fran; both cities have a "feeling" about them that is very similar to New York. You can break into the Chicago market (ask Hanna or Drusba for more info, don't take my word as gospel) from a strong T2 school. </p>

<p>Boston is a very crowded legal market; Harvard churns out 550 grads per year, many of whom elect to stay in Boston. (I think Jonri once mentioned that Harvard does slightly favour applicants with ties to Boston or a desire to stay there... again, I'll refer you to another poster.) Beyond that, BU and BC are very strong law schools and do, in a tight legal market, not leave much more than slim pickings for other grads.</p>

<p>DC has a great job market with all the gov't work, if you are at all interested. Smaller cities are very much unlike NYC but can give you great opportunities from a T3 - URichmond in Richmond comes to mind.</p>

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<p>Hey Cali:</p>

<p>I have three degrees- two of my degrees are from top national programs, amazing experiences (relating to law and government) all around the world and at home (including research, internships, volunteer work, study abroad, and extensive travel), I speak four languages fluently, and a much higher GPA and LSAT than you mentioned, great LORs, and a great personal statement (I stressed over that thing for ages). </p>

<p>I applied to seven law schools last year and didn't get in a single one. About half were Top 20 schools whereas the other half were ranked about 40 to 70 in TX, NY, and DC. I applied really late- January, just as your plan if you retook the LSAT: huge mistake! </p>

<p>I am now unexpectedly taking a year off and reapplying. Just want to tell you that it is very competitive for T1 schools and the best thing is to apply as early as possible. I am friends with a ton of folks that did get accepted into law schools without the same experiences/language/travel, etc. that I have, (half of them just talked about working with their frat brothers for their personal statement). The reason why they got in and I didn't is b/c they have great GPA/LSAT and they APPLIED EARLY. </p>

<p>Also, I don't know if you're allowed to do this, but I recommend registering for a prep course for Kaplan, getting their books, and then withdrawing and getting all your money back (except what you paid for the books). I took a prep course with them and it was really slow paced and did not work for me at all. Everything I learned was from working on problems in their big orange book and their practice test library. Also, if you're going to work on it a lot, I recommend buying even more books, b/c I finished the Kaplan books in about 3 weeks and then went on to the practice test booklets. </p>

<p>Also, make sure not to burn yourself out. I took about 10 practice tests and scored less than a 167 only twice maybe, and comparatively I did much worse on the test. Part of it was that I have test anxiety problems/traditionally a low scorer, but the other part is that you usually always score at least 5 points less than what your normal score is in a prep class, and I just really burnt myself out. </p>

<p>Good luck!!! Hopefully we'll both get our acceptance letters soon!</p>

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<p>You can from a local T3 or T4 if it comes to that, but you need to do very well. IMHO, that's a sucker bet unless (1) they offer you a big merit scholarship or (2) you have concrete, objective reasons to believe that you have much, much stronger academic abilities than your classmates at that school. In my observation, 90% of the class at a typical T3/4 starts 1L believing she'll be in the top 10%.</p>