3.77/167
If you had to ED one school where would you with these stats
Thank you in advance!
Unless your family is wealthy, it’s almost always a bad idea to ED to LS. Depending on your goals, the common response is to retake so you can attend a higher-ranked LS or earn some merit money…
I mean my question wasnt should I ED, it was where would you ED with these stats. Thank you for the feedback anyway
Where do you want to practice? What type of law do you think you want to practice? There is a lot more to the equation.
If I was going to ED, I would focus on schools that were best for my career from a locational and practice perspective and then from that list, pick the one where my stats had a reasonable chance of acceptance.
Yeah, I got that, but you are asking the wrong question, IMO. ED can be an extremely costly mistake. (Again, unless your family is wealthy.)
Law school admissions is a simple numbers-game. The correct question is ‘how/where might I apply to earn some merit money’.
@hillaryduffelbag: Are you asking: To which top 14 law school should I apply based on my numbers of 3.77 GPA & 167 LSAT ?
If so, then the questions are whether or not you need a merit scholarship, do you want biglaw, or, if no to biglaw, in which location do you want to practice.
If asking to which T-14 law schools you should apply to with a 3.77 GPA & a 167 LSAT, then you can eliminate the T-6 law schools.
If you have post undergraduate work experience, then you should consider applying ED to Northwestern University School of Law since all ED admits are awarded a substantial merit scholarship.
Otherwise, consider any of the remaining T-14 law schools minus the T-6.
Vanderbilt is another to consider even though a non-T-14 since you are likely to be offered merit money.
In any event, probably not wise to ED to any law school not in the US News T-40 unless located in a geographic area where you are certain that you want to practice.
@publisher Daughter has 4.0 and 168. Applying out of college. Doesn’t have a particular location she want to live but thinking she might like to be in a more urban area. Also looking to see what kind of merit she can get if not top 14. I have been advising her apply broadly
What do you think of this list. UMich, UVA, UTAustin, Vandy, Minnesota, GW, ASU, UF, UNC, UGA, UW, Richmond and Villinova
Georgetown offers merit awards and is in an urban location. Georgetown law grads are employed nationwide.
Michigan & Virginia place well across the country.
Vanderbilt, Minnesota, and GWU attract students and employers from several regions of the US.
The remaining schools are all well respected law schools with mostly regional recruiting.
Thank you
Has your daughter considered applying ED to Northwestern University School of Law ?
Very upscale urban location in Chicago & all ED admits are awarded substantial merit scholarships. Grads are employed throughout the nation.
Northwestern Law prefers, but does not require, post-undergrad employment experience.
P.S. Does your daughter prefer to practice in any specific area of law ?
Is the primary goal in the admissions process acceptance, merit scholarship, or national versus regional employment opportunities ?
This. The focus on ‘where can I get in?’ is overshadowing the ‘what do you want to do after LS?’.
Regionality: a while ago I linked to a twitter thread by a big wheel in the Texas law world, who emphasized that in many parts of the US a school in the region is a better bet, because of the contacts and networking (Texas being a prime example).
Funding: law school is expensive so unless you have the $$ to graduate debt free, the trade-off is between how much debt and what you will have to do to retire that debt. Even generous schools like NU, Georgetown & UPenn can leave you with $100k+ in debt (+ any existing undergrad debt). That can leave you either paying student loans for years, or drive you to Big Law. If Big Law is what you want- fine. But if you are doing it just to get the kind of salary that will knock out debt pretty fast it can be miserable. And, ofc, Big Law is very status conscious, so if you aren’t in a T-14 that may not even be a choice.
For some reason she did not want to apply to NW.
She is interested in maybe a clerkship upon graduation then maybe something in HHS doing Title 9 work.
Although when I went to law school a long time ago I swore I would never go work for a big firm after an appellate court clerkship I ended up at a big firm for a few years. For the last 25 years I have been doing Plaintiff’s medical malpractice. So you never know where your career path leads.
She is looking for a combinations of the above. If she would get into UVA or UMich without merit she would have to weigh against a Vandy or GW with some merit and/or Minnesota or UF with possibly an even cheaper price tag.
ED for law school is not used the way it is in undergrad. Rather than a way for a qualified applicant to get into their top choice school, it is usually a way for the well-qualified – that is, comfortably over median on LSAT/gpa – to get guaranteed merit money and forego applying to a broader range of schools.
There are lots of sites which run predictors and calculators, and you can see results for students with the same stats as you, and what kind of merit that applicant received. Sorry to say, a 167/3.77 is probably not getting into T14 unless they are URM or have some exceptional backstory (not just good ECs, but extraordinary). The usual calculus is, if a student is over the median for LSAT and gpa, they have a shot at acceptance but if either stat is below median, chances go way down, unless the other stat is in the top 75% of that category.
I ran the numbers at 7sage, one of the common predictors. 167 and 3.77 has a 24% chance acceptance at Michigan RD and 32% ED. Georgetown, 42% change acceptance RD and 51% ED. I
GW, BU, Fordham, ND are solid chances. Vandy might work out, though could go either way.
And my apologies, I edited once for grammar, and then realized the new site doesn’t limit editing to the first 15 minutes after posting, so kept adding info on predictors etc.