Go to GW or RETAKE? Forum

[W$RKliveWELL]

Could use an unbias opinion
3.78/149 LSAT. URM female and gay. Good resume pre law program, internships, early grad, legal assistant job.
Accepted at GW this cycle little to no money waitlisted at Columbia everything else way out of top 20 lots of top 20 declines!
Considering how I scored Im lucky to have got in but feel I could do better with that score all you can go is up. Better oppportunities of employment graduating from top 14? Being to ambitious?..idk. Should I be happy with top 20 and go to GW or retake Oct 2013. Guess my biggest concern is not doing significantly better and ending up not even getting back into GW. Planned to retake for this June so I could know without declining GW offer but that wont happen ill need to pass up their offer. ANY Advice?

[cinephile]

GW without serious $ is not a good idea. It doesn't place well (just look and see how many of their own students they have to hire!), so unless you have a guaranteed job and have family paying for your tuition, you're going to struggle after law school.

[DaRascal]

Retake if you want but you should be proud because you outperformed your numbers and got into GW with a 149!

[Balthy]

GW close to sticker is a bad idea and, frankly, it would be a huge waste of your URM status and GPA. Retake!

[thefuturenow]

How long did you study for the LSAT? What prep materials did you use?

[dawyzest1]

Your 149 needs more context for you to get the best advice. If you didn't dedicate yourself to intensive study for an extended period of time, there's no way you should sit on that score and take a very poor bet on GW at sticker. If your 149 was the outcome of maximum effort and at least one retake, then I'd still be very careful about going to GW, but that's not a terrible outcome with your stats.

I think that declining GW's offer (though at this point I would imagine you've already deposited) and retaking the LSAT and trying again next cycle is the best choice by far. You need 11 points to meet the 160 barrier, which with the way the applicant pool is moving might be closer to 158-159, which will make you competitive for the T14 and get you more $$ from schools outside the T14.

If you gain at least 6 more points on the LSAT heres what happens (this includes URMs with weaker boosts, so your chances are better than what's indicated):



If you get yourself above 160, more fun begins:

[W$RKliveWELL]

Thank you everyone for responding. Especially dawyzest1 for the chart. The 149 was with princeton review and about 3 months of studying. I scored lower than what I had been avg on practice test low to mid 150s. GW is a great school but I dont think I can be one and done with an exam as important as this one. I plan to dedicate myself to atleast 5 months of studying until Oct exm I have every book you could imagine just need to stick to a structured study schedule since Im working full time.

I only see the benefits of retaking with the situation Im in but im open to all opinions.

[dawyzest1]

Sounds to me like you've got the level headed approach to this. Your GPA is very good, don't forget that for a minute. I think that around 70% of retakers do better and by an average of like 3 points or so (don't quote me on that). There are a ton of resources on TLS around the LSAT and there are better courses than PR for sure. The test is learnable and the key seems to be finding the right approach and just killing it with obsessive practice.

If you are still lagging on the LSAT after October, your softs and application content itself can be places to salvage your chances. Work on the PS, DS, and get the very best recommendations you can. The adcomms are already inclined to discount your LSAT score, so give them more reasons to want to take you. That's a strategy URMs have been using for a long time to great success.

Good luck!

[W$RKliveWELL]

Thanks again dawyzest1. It was easy for me to realize that the weakest part of my application is my LSAT score. After considering that in the fact that most law schools Id be interested in attending wont consider you with a sub 150 score a retake seems like the right approach. I'll admit Im concerned about not doing significantly better and losing out on GW's offer all together but again I feel like with my score you can only go up especially since im terrible at games. Also am i under the right impression that from research law schools take the highest score now?

My final question would be does anyone have experience with finding ways to implement LSAT studying into everyday life. I work so it would be nice to listen to like audio questions or commentary on the exam?

All the best to everyone and thanks for the help

[cinephile]

Even if you did worse and didn't get into GW again, you'd still be better off with the retake. This is because GW is not a school that's worth sticker price. If you're paying with loans, you have a 2/3 chance of never being able to repay your loans (and having to rely on IBR/PAYE). Maybe that's okay with you, but in general it's a bad idea to borrow for something when you know ahead of time that you'll never be able to pay off the loan. The choices become either go to GW for a lower cost or go to a better school. If you can't do either, you'd be better off avoiding law school altogether.

[dawyzest1]

Thanks again dawyzest1. It was easy for me to realize that the weakest part of my application is my LSAT score. After considering that in the fact that most law schools Id be interested in attending wont consider you with a sub 150 score a retake seems like the right approach. I'll admit Im concerned about not doing significantly better and losing out on GW's offer all together but again I feel like with my score you can only go up especially since im terrible at games. Also am i under the right impression that from research law schools take the highest score now?

My final question would be does anyone have experience with finding ways to implement LSAT studying into everyday life. I work so it would be nice to listen to like audio questions or commentary on the exam?

All the best to everyone and thanks for the help

This gives me even greater hope for your retake. Games respond the best to good studying. Sign up for Velocity LSAT. He teaches a very practical method to attacking games that doesn't require you to divine a ton of insights from the game constraints. There are folks on here who credit their dramatic improvements almost solely to Velocity.

[W$RKliveWELL]

thanks cinephile! Quick question where are you getting alot of your informaiton from? Ive been reading any article I can get my hands on in regards to GW graduates career prospects as well as speaking to current and past students. I hear you get a great legal education there and most people caution me that you will incur debt at whatever professional degree you go after. Still so many mixed reviews.

Overall this decision is one I've thought about for a long time after a while you just have to make a decision based in faith, trust yourself and get to work on what you want.

@daweyzest1 Im going to pm would love to get some info on velocity

Again all opinions are appreciated

[cinephile]

http://www.lstscorereports.com/?school=gw

Their large firm score + clerkships don't quite add up to 1/3 of the class. But those are the only students who can afford to attend GW.

[W$RKliveWELL]

thanks cinephile definitely something to consider.

[El Principe]

I know I'm late, but I'd really retake, because GW isn't a good investment at sticker.