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by Richie Tenenbaum » Sun Apr 28, 2013 9:27 pm
Please don't quote this in case I ever decide to delete this, since there are a decent amount of personal details in this.
I wasn't 100% sure what to do after graduating and applying to law school was always in the back of my mind, so I signed up for a powerscore class for the August/Sept. test in 2009. Diagnostic was 155 and I was able to get in the 160s by the end of the class, though I was putting in half-effort (I was basically doing the bare minimum of "homework" and only a couple of practice tests outside of the six that were proctored for the class). I ended up with a 163 on the Aug/Sept test, which I was pretty okay with. Around that time I found TLS and started to think that I should maybe retake.
Wavered on the decision a little, but took the LSAT again in December after some self-study, using the powerscore materials. I had gotten my average in the high 160s, and ended up with a 166 on the December test. Once again, I was pretty happy with that score at the time and thought it was good enough to get me into UT, which was my goal school from the very start. I ended up getting WL'd at UT, which was a bummer, but I was pretty happy to have the option of Notre Dame with $.
After the December test, I tried to find a part-time job to do before law school next fall (I had finished classes in January, so I had extra time on my hands). I got lucky and got a job with a test prep company, even with the mediocre score, and was essentially paid to study more for the LSAT. I didn't even actually think of taking the LSAT for the third time until sometime in May, when I realized I should probably take a PT and see if I could improve on the 166. I got a 170 on it, first time I cracked 170, and with more work on timing (teaching the LSAT doesn't necessarily help you with the timing as much), I was able to get my PT average in the mid-170s. Took it in June and got a 174. Got off UT and Vanderbilt's WL and offered a decent amount of money at each. I was really close to choosing UT, but I really wanted to see what my options would be if I had the 174 at the beginning of my cycle and had applied to most of the T14. So decided to wait and reapply. The reapplying was actually pretty stressful--I got into UT EA, but didn't get offered any money initially, I got WL'd at Columbia, Chicago, NYU, and Michigan. I got deferred at Penn, I didn't write a LOCI, which I think helped lead to the rejection. Got into NU and UVA, but didn't know if I would get any money for awhile. I ended up getting 20K/yr offer from UVA sometime in the summer, which UT matched (which made UT substantially cheaper, since I had instate tuition). It was a hard decision, but ended up choosing UT. Waiting that year probably only resulted in a total of ~20K saved for all three years because of the higher scholarship (and this is trying to account for the slight increase in tuition), so arguably I should have chosen UT the year before, without reapplying. But I think the extra year was extremely valuable for me. It allowed me to make sure I really wanted to go to law school, and also never wonder "what if?", which would happen if I never reapplied. And I think it helped me be even happier with my decision to attend UT, since I was able to fully weigh my options. The decision to retake in June was absolutely huge. If I hadn't retaken I would have incurred a lot more debt at Notre Dame and would have had a much harder time making my way back to Texas.
TL;DR: Took three times: 163 (Aug./Sept.), 166 (Dec.), 174 (June). Got off WL at UT with money with the 174. Ended up sitting out the year and reapplying with the 174 and ended up at UT with even more money. Without taking a third time, I would have been at Notre Dame with 12K/yr (IIRC) scholarship compared to what happened, UT at instate tuition + 20K/yr scholarship.
Once again, please don't quote this in case I ever decide to delete this, since there are a decent amount of personal details in this.
Last edited by
Richie Tenenbaum on Sun Apr 28, 2013 11:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.