deleted

[313DetroitLove]

W-

[Nicholasnickynic]

Cinderella Story, 160(147) TTTT to T1

What’s good TLS? My name is Will and I’ve been a long time lurker. I wanted to post about my admissions cycle, and give some of you poor test performing future 1Ls some hope.

Stats:

160/147 LSAC 3.54 GPA 22 year old NON URM- 2 intern ships BS in BA (failed first year 1.2 GPA, 3.8-4.0 over 6 semesters. LSAC was not kind on withdraw failing on my transcripts and recalculated my GPA accordingly.
October 2011-147 LSAT, was PT-ing around 155. I was dumb and naive to say the least, wasted $2000 on a Princeton review course (2:1 staff ratio). I received my score and almost immediately was declined form WSU/MSU (I’m from Detroit Metro ps). I needed to retake, and found the post up above on self directed study. I found the power score bibles very helpful, and I drilled out of tests 19-38 pretty heavily. I took pre tests 50-60 seriously, and ran bits and pieces out of all the other prep tests. I made 3 copies of every game, and kept a running log of date, time and score. Started at day 117 (from OCT 26th release date to Feb 11th 2012 test). I didn’t even consider the DEC test, and was willing to take my chances on a late apply. While the majority of you reading this will likely be preparing for the June and October test, I strongly urge you to prepare for this test. Repetition and time investment are what truly matters on this test. I’d say ten hours a week from day 117 to day 50 is very feasible for a realistic schedule. After day 50 you really do need to get on the grind, I was running 2 prep tests out of 5 days, and reviewing heavily on the incorrect answers. REVIEW!!! I don’t care how many PT’s you take, if you’re not recognizing why you’re missing flaw questions and linear grouping games, you’re already behind the curve.
My admissions Cycle (applied March first 2012 at all the T80 Schools posted below, ran TTT/TTTT on OCT application). I have serious legal connections in Detroit MI, (I’m from here) and I would consider living in the metro region for the rest of my life. With that being said, I think I’m leaning on relocating and attending UF.
-Case Western Reserve $87K scholarship (35K total tuition cost, no GPA stip)
-FSU
-UF MADE SEAT DEPOSIT
-WSU 100% scholarship 3.25 stip
-MSU 50% no gpa Stip
-USD 1 year offer of 20K
-Penn State $67.5K about half ride, 3.0 GPA stip MADE SEAT DEPOSIT
U of DM 100% 3.0 stip
U Denver 60K half ride 3.0 stip

I made the seat deposit at PSU because it was my best offer at the time, and their dead line approaches fast. I am considering UF or Case. I like UF and I would like to get the whole campus college town feel. FL has multiple legal markets, and UF is the flagship school. I visited Case and it felt too much like Detroit. I’d rather stay here in Detroit and attend WSU for free, (under grad is from WSU) over moving to Case. Anyways, if you have any lsat prep questions let me know, I know how crappy and frustating the process can be.

W-

tl;dr, just skimmed.

Your internships, and your first lsat score have about as much importance as your favorite color.

Admissions staff and even various deans have their jobs made or broken on the result of the schools ranking in usnwr.

The two things taht USNWR takes into account regarding entering students?
-LSAC GPA
-LSAT

Also, this is not a Cinderella story. All of those schools are sub par. I would go with the one that has the best combination of being cheap and the smallest amount of competing schools in the area.

Sincerely,
Reality

[313DetroitLove]

Deleted

[dowu]

Apperciate your incite insight

FTFY. Good luck homie!

[Indifferent]

tl;dr, just skimmed.

Your internships, and your first lsat score have about as much importance as your favorite color.

Admissions staff and even various deans have their jobs made or broken on the result of the schools ranking in usnwr.

The two things taht USNWR takes into account regarding entering students?
-LSAC GPA
-LSAT

Also, this is not a Cinderella story. All of those schools are sub par. I would go with the one that has the best combination of being cheap and the smallest amount of competing schools in the area.

Sincerely,
Reality

You seem mad.

[dowu]

tl;dr, just skimmed.

Your internships, and your first lsat score have about as much importance as your favorite color.

Admissions staff and even various deans have their jobs made or broken on the result of the schools ranking in usnwr.

The two things taht USNWR takes into account regarding entering students?
-LSAC GPA
-LSAT

Also, this is not a Cinderella story. All of those schools are sub par. I would go with the one that has the best combination of being cheap and the smallest amount of competing schools in the area.

Sincerely,
Reality

You seem mad.

[romothesavior]

I hate to say it, but NicholasNYC is right. It is great that you improved your LSAT, but these still aren't very good options. That's not a knock on you; a 160 is a solid score, but most law schools are pretty bad investments right now.

Your current list is basically a compilation of random, mediocre-to-okay schools in three of the most parochial, oversaturated, and battered legal markets in the country (FL, OH, MI). I would be hesitant about going into debt for any of them. Because of your ties and the scholarship, I think Wayne State is the only one that makes sense. What is the curve like there? Because a 3.25 stip seems pretty rough.

[313DetroitLove]

Deleted

[313DetroitLove]

Deleted

[Clearly]

romothesavior,

I met with someone high up in the admissions office today and left feeling very uneasy about WSU. As of last semester, the GPA curve was 2.75. With this, approx 40% or so students have been offed Dean's Scholarships 50-100%, and only the top 30% of the class will be able to stay on scholarship. The representative I spoke to said she estimates that 1/3 of the kids with money lose the scholarship; though, she could not verify that figure. I like to play towards averages, and I am assuming that my class rank at any university I attend will be near class median. If the scholarship is lost after the first year, one would have to wait until 2L going into 3L to be eligible again. When I calculate it out, I have a 70% chance of having to pay $26,000 per the 2L and 3L year. That would be $50K + COL to attend WSU. I am not putting WSU down in any regard (I am graduating May 7th from WSU undergrad) but, for an additional $30,000 I can attend UF. This is figuring one year out of state at $40,000 and two years at $20,000.

an additional $30,000 or $10,000 a year would buy me the following:
-Attractive Coeds & Big university / college town feel (this is important to me)
-Getting out of Detroit (I'm looking forward to not having to worry about my car being broken into) or being intimidated by aggressive panhandlers
-T50 education
-Sunny Florida with multiple legal markets (more so then MI at least)
-Seemingly better job prospects- even if only marginally so

To be honest with you, I have wasted a ton of money over these last couple years on women, nights out on the town, and living a very very comfy life style. I have probably wasted close to $15,000 on stuff I blatantly did not need. I see the additional $30K over WSU as just another pay to play opportunity, and at least I'll get a degree instead of a hangover out of it. I am not particularly debt adverse, I have personal credit score of 711 and have under $10,000 total debt to my name including obtaining my BS in BA. I've ran the numbers, and I believe that I can attend UF for $110,000 total. This is accruing with an 8% interest rate from day one, and I believe over 10 years the total amount to be repaid will edge out $150-160,000. I'm not sure how economically feasible this figure actually is, and it truly scares me. I'm not particularly inclined to retake, but I have been tutoring a friend for the JUNE LSAT for the last two months and was thinking about trying my hand one last time at it. Worst comes to worst I'll still attend in the fall, and if I improve I'll delay a year.

I'm very open to opinions and I'm not hesitant to talk about my situation. I welcome all opinions- yes, even the T14 trolls that will state reTTTTake or BusTTTT

Thanks TLS

W

Retake, seriously. You've already jumped 13 points, you can surely jump more. Theres still a lot of wrong answers to get right from 160, and the implications of those answers could ease a lot of the burden you discussed above.

[071816]

I hear it's so cold in the D. Can you confirm or deny this?

[313DetroitLove]

Deleted

[313DetroitLove]

I hear it's so cold in the D. Can you confirm or deny this?

first time I watched that on you tube my friends insisted that we go find the location that it was filmed at. Needless to say, I've never wondered around on the east side since

[Clearly]

Apperciate your incite insight

FTFY. Good luck homie!

An insight is something you have: an understanding of something, a bright idea about something.

To incite is to do something: to stimulate some action or other to be taken.

I was referring to his moving advice of retaking....

Incite is a verb

[03152016]

.

[Clearly]

Incite is a verb

I appreciate your clarify.

LMAO, that was the funniest thing I've read on TLS in a while!

[Davidbentley]

FTFY. Good luck homie!

An insight is something you have: an understanding of something, a bright idea about something.

To incite is to do something: to stimulate some action or other to be taken.

I was referring to his moving advice of retaking....

Incite is a verb

I appreciate your clarify.

180

[bmore]

Apperciate your incite

hahaha

[mattviphky]

Retake. Seriously, if you can retake a 3rd time, then do it. You could have all those things you like about UF, but much closer to home if you go to Michigan. Just study hard, and knock this lsat out of the park. But if you sincerely want to go to UF. Just defer matriculating, move there, and work and establish residency for a year before you attend.

[313DetroitLove]

Deleted

[romothesavior]

I am not particularly debt adverse, I have personal credit score of 711 and have under $10,000 total debt to my name including obtaining my BS in BA. I've ran the numbers, and I believe that I can attend UF for $110,000 total. This is accruing with an 8% interest rate from day one, and I believe over 10 years the total amount to be repaid will edge out $150-160,000. I'm not sure how economically feasible this figure actually is, and it truly scares me. I'm not particularly inclined to retake, but I have been tutoring a friend for the JUNE LSAT for the last two months and was thinking about trying my hand one last time at it. Worst comes to worst I'll still attend in the fall, and if I improve I'll delay a year.

I would definitely think about that June LSAT. Sounds like you are still fresh since you've been helping your friend, so it wouldn't be hard to just switch back over into study mode.

I'm very open to opinions and I'm not hesitant to talk about my situation. I welcome all opinions- yes, even the T14 trolls that will state reTTTTake or BusTTTT

I know this can get a little annoying to hear after a while, but it really is said with people's best interests in mind. It is easy to write it off as trolling, but there is something to it. The market is just so bad right now. It isn't really a T14 vs. "other" thing; there are times where going to a local school for cheap is totally advisable. If it were up to me and all the other people on here, there would be jobs aplenty and schools like WSU and Case and everyone else would have no problem getting jobs that pay the bills. But unfortunately there aren't, so you have to maximize your opportunities pre-law school.

BTW my legal connections to metro Detroit are family members, and it has been inferred to me that it does not matter where I attend. With that being said, this will be an entry level position starting 40-50K probably doing something like doc review and DUI defense. Like most of you here, I'm not holding my breath for this option I would much rather try my own hand in the FL market, and if I fail miserably worst comes to worst I can fall back on this. If I went to Case Western, I could easily find 1L/2L/3L paid summer employment in MI through my family ties. If I attend UF I will likely be staying down there seeking summer employment on my own merits and networking abilities. I'm making the seat deposit at WSU and Case tonight, and will be flying down to FL in two weeks to check out the campus and surrounding area. My dad's work attorney (think big 3 auto here in Detroit) is a UF grad, and she has arranged for me to meet some of her old colleagues in Miami from like 30 years ago.

Sounds like your best ties are to Detroit, so if you are set on going next year and can negotiate away the stips, I'd probably go to WSU. You have to consider the fact that your most likely outcome is a job in the 40-50k range; it will take stellar grades to land something above that. Given your likely outcome, you should be going for cheap.

Wherever you go, keep up with the networking. That is very important, and it sounds like you are doing a good job of it now. Good luck.

[Micdiddy]

Incite is a verb

I appreciate your clarify.

A: Very funny!!!

B: I thought OP was being clever, using a play on words to denote that he meant to say "insight" but with the connotative meaning that he felt the response was an attempt to provoke an aggressive confrontation, hence to "incite [something]."

[mattviphky]

seriously, michigan

http://lawschoolnumbers.com/cjl2009/jd


get on velocity lsat, raise your score!

[buck]

I think you guys are forgetting the huge oppertunity FL presents- its only 90 miles north of cuba. If it's looking like I can't pay back my loans, I can always invest in some Rosetta stone and a small raft to forfill my dreams of becoming a migrant worker

as for the incite insight- i no like read eiTTTher brospehous

Is this for real?

[rglifberg]

you gotta re-take man, 179+.... 99.99 percentile or bust