How and Where to Get Full Ride Forum

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Herostratus76

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Joined: Thu Jul 12, 2018 7:55 pm

How and Where to Get Full Ride

Post by Herostratus76 » Thu Jul 12, 2018 8:06 pm

Hello all.
I'm a rising sophmore at William and Mary studying government and computer science. I have a 3.65 GPA, am editor on a student publication, am a research fellow for a foreign affairs lab, president and founder of RepresentVirginia (a statewide anti-corruption advocacy group), and founder of the Last Line, an investigative journalism service covering campaign finance and corruption. I'm planning on focusing more on my grades and getting my GPA up to about 3.85-3.9. I'm focusing intensely on LSAT prep and am aiming to score 170 or higher. I have taken a mock exam and scored 168.
I don't come from means and am only attending William and Mary with scholarship. I cannot attend law school without a significant scholarship or full ride. How likely is it to get a full ride with my stats to the T13? I want to work as a AUSA or in anti-corruption law. Where else should I be looking, and how likely is it that I would get a full ride there?

capebuster

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Joined: Mon Jul 02, 2018 3:11 pm

Re: How and Where to Get Full Ride

Post by capebuster » Tue Jul 17, 2018 1:07 pm

It's impossible to predict where your stats might land you because you don't have any stats yet. Your first year undergrad GPA is not representative of what your ultimate GPA will be. Your speculations about getting your GPA up are not representative of what your ultimate GPA will be. Likewise, practice tests are helpful tools but are not representative of what your ultimate LSAT score will be.

You're putting the cart before the horse. I admire your enthusiasm and drive, but you should consider focusing on your school work for now. It's way too early to speculate on the financial prospects of law school. You need to wait until you have concrete offers from schools (or at the very least, actual LSAT and GPA numbers) before you start to evaluate financing. Worrying about this now is added stress that you don't need.

As a purely hypothetical exercise, I can tell you that a 168 LSAT and 3.8 GPA will not get you a full ride anywhere in the T13. (Again, take this with a HUGE grain of salt because you don't actually have these numbers yet). In my experience, stats like that (coupled with negotiating with admissions offices) might get full-ride offers or other solid scholarship offers from strong, regional schools.

You should also consider taking some time in between undergrad and law school to work. Real-world work experience is valuable in law school, both in terms of a resume builder and how the experiences shape your approach to school itself. Plus it never hurts to save a few dollars. Even with a full-tuition scholarship, living expenses stack up and law school is very expensive.

Best of luck! It sounds like you're involved in great programs and extracurriculars. Put your focus there and it will pay off big down the line.

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