Top Law Schools

Someone please give me an idea of where to apply. I have no clue what my chances are with these numbers. Especially looking for input from 1ls with similar stats.

Look for splitter friendly schools. Being gay probably won't help you all that much.

The sub 3 is going to turn a lot of places off, but some schools are willing to dig that low (WUSTL/GW/NU if you have work experience/etc).

Take a look at http://www.lawschoolnumbers.com and see the graphs of schools who are most willing to accept people below a 3.0 and that should give you a general idea of where to apply in the first tier. Generally second tier schools and lower will take you just because you are a URM with a 165 LSAT without even a second glance at your GPA.

Thanks! That's really helpful. I also went to GW as an undergrad. My top choice is Tulane but Law School Predictor gives me only a weak consider there. I'm an international affairs major which is one of my school's most prestigious majors and I also doubled in Fine Art. Will a statement explaining a poor academic record help if my grades were consistently poor? Thanks again!

What is NA, Native American? if so apply everywhere, with your LSAT you will get in a lot of places.

cornbread wrote:Thanks! That's really helpful. I also went to GW as an undergrad. My top choice is Tulane but Law School Predictor gives me only a weak consider there. I'm an international affairs major which is one of my school's most prestigious majors and I also doubled in Fine Art. Will a statement explaining a poor academic record help if my grades were consistently poor? Thanks again!

LSP is bad at predicting splitters. Looking at Tulane's graph for the past few years (last year is http://tulane.lawschoolnumbers.com/stat ... Cycle=1011), it seems like they don't really mind a low GPA assuming high enough LSAT. Heck a non-URM 165/2.6 got in so I think you have a decent chance at Tulane.

Your major and your double major won't help you at all. An addendum regarding your academic record is really only justified if you had some reason for always getting bad grades (i.e. you were working 40+ hour weeks to feed your family while going to school full time). If you don't then it just comes off as whiny and saying "well my grades have always been bad." Don't focus on your grades, let your LSAT make up for them (and it will in many cases).

cornbread wrote:Thanks! That's really helpful. I also went to GW as an undergrad. My top choice is Tulane but Law School Predictor gives me only a weak consider there. I'm an international affairs major which is one of my school's most prestigious majors and I also doubled in Fine Art. Will a statement explaining a poor academic record help if my grades were consistently poor? Thanks again!

I talked to someone about this who used to be on an undergrad admissions committee, she said not to draw more attention to it.

Well, I actually was commuting home (4 hours) every weekend for a while to support my parents' business during the tougher times of the recession. I also had mono one semester (major grade slip). Also, I was wondering if at any institutions law students are allowed to take a limited number of courses outside of the law school? I decided to go to law school over getting an MFA and I would love to be able to continue making art while in school.

cornbread wrote:Well, I actually was commuting home (4 hours) every weekend for a while to support my parents' business during the tougher times of the recession. I also had mono one semester (major grade slip). Also, I was wondering if at any institutions law students are allowed to take a limited number of courses outside of the law school? I decided to go to law school over getting an MFA and I would love to be able to continue making art while in school.

Unless there is a drastic difference between that commute time and all the other time (i.e. straight A's without the commute, straight C's during the commute) then I would say don't even bother with an addendum. Even with it, I think that the above person's advice is credited, don't bother to bring more attention to it.

If you really want to do art while in school, just do it on your own time? Some schools let you take classes from other grad schools, iirc, but this is atypical for most law students. Though I don't see a need for classes if it's just something you want to continue doing while in school.

Well I work in photography so access to chemicals, printers, darkrooms is kind of necessary to continuing my work. But, in any case, the art aspect is the least of my worries and I'm mostly interested in getting into the best law school I can.

My preliminary list looks like this:

Tulane
Fordham (impossible?)
WUSTL (impossible)
William and Mary (I'm from Virginia, still impossible?)

Miami
Brooklyn

Howard
Loyola New Orleans
Maine

Is it even worth applying to my impossible schools?

Based on LSN:

Tulane - 50/50 chance of waitlist/accept
Fordham - very high chance of waitlist
WUSTL - good chance of acceptance
William and Mary - good chance of acceptance

Miami - 50/50 chance of waitlist/reject
Brooklyn - probably waitlist (but my personal experience says decent chance of acceptance)


I wouldn't really bother with Howard/Miami/Loyola-LA (or for that matter Brooklyn or Miami).