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Most of the people that attend law school are below either the GPA or LSAT median. Schools save the biggest scholarships for students at or above both medians.

You should consider a June retake. With the right strategy (which we can help you with), you could be matriculating with a fully at USC this fall.

But waiting until next cycle to apply, with a good retake, is advisable if you have decent job prospects for a gap year.

Would your parents pay your COL for USC or was that only if you stayed in San Diego?

Ron Don Volante wrote:You should consider a June retake. With the right strategy (which we can help you with), you could be matriculating with a fully at USC this fall.

But waiting until next cycle to apply, with a good retake, is advisable if you have decent job prospects for a gap year.

That's a concern of mine too, actually. I would need to find a job worth working for an entire year with my hard-to-market English degree.

Dirigo wrote:Would your parents pay your COL for USC or was that only if you stayed in San Diego?

They will pay COL regardless of where I go to school. Although, if I were to get a really good scholarship offer, I would probably take out a loan for COL. I don't think I would feel right taking my parents money for COL if I had a full tuition scholarship, that seems greedy to me.

kbuckley177 wrote:

Dirigo wrote:Would your parents pay your COL for USC or was that only if you stayed in San Diego?

They will pay COL regardless of where I go to school. Although, if I were to get a really good scholarship offer, I would probably take out a loan for COL. I don't think I would feel right taking my parents money for COL if I had a full tuition scholarship, that seems greedy to me.

Quickly eliminating SD high schools based on your lack of selfishness. (You didn't go to my HS)

But anyways, if you accept your parents' generosity, you can probably get your tuition loans at USC down around $35-50k in total. That's a very manageable debt load.

Dirigo wrote:

kbuckley177 wrote:

Dirigo wrote:Would your parents pay your COL for USC or was that only if you stayed in San Diego?

They will pay COL regardless of where I go to school. Although, if I were to get a really good scholarship offer, I would probably take out a loan for COL. I don't think I would feel right taking my parents money for COL if I had a full tuition scholarship, that seems greedy to me.

Quickly eliminating SD high schools based on your lack of selfishness. (You didn't go to my HS)

But anyways, if you accept your parents generosity, you can probably get your tuition loans at USC down around $40-50k in total. That's a very manageable debt load.

Hah! I went to high school in a very not SD-ish area of San Diego County. Here's to hoping for some decent offers this year. If not, I suppose taking a year off to retake the LSAT wouldn't be so bad.

kbuckley177 wrote: Hah! I went to high school in a very not SD-ish area of San Diego County. Here's to hoping for some decent offers this year. If not, I suppose taking a year off to retake the LSAT wouldn't be so bad.

Yeah it's good to keep your options open. You seem refreshingly reasonable.
But yeah USD probably isn't a good idea since you'll have much better options.

I was in the same situation as you, kbuckley, except I was deciding between USD on fully scholly (plus a free MacBook Pro, randomly) and Berkeley at $140K. I'm a SD native as well and was briefly tempted by the prospect of living at home near friends/my favorite taco shop, but after a bit of researching it became glaringly apparent that there are a million reasons why I shouldn't pass up Berkeley and only one real reason why I should (money). Long story short, I'm going to Berkeley in the fall.

Also, for reference, you have slightly better stats than me (165/3.63 at a top undergrad), so the impossible can happen!! Use your next year wisely and I'm sure you'll clean up next cycle.

Good luck!!

boop.boop wrote:I was in the same situation as you, kbuckley, except I was deciding between USD on fully scholly (plus a free MacBook Pro, randomly) and Berkeley at $140K. I'm a SD native as well and was briefly tempted by the prospect of living at home near friends/my favorite taco shop, but after a bit of researching it became glaringly apparent that there are a million reasons why I shouldn't pass up Berkeley and only one real reason why I should (money). Long story short, I'm going to Berkeley in the fall.

Also, for reference, you have slightly better stats than me (165/3.63 at a top undergrad), so the impossible can happen!! Use your next year wisely and I'm sure you'll clean up next cycle.

Good luck!!

Thanks for the advice I actually ended up doing pretty well this cycle and I'm deciding between a full ride at USC or 50/year at Notre Dame. Not a bad situation to be in, but I'm sure I will still miss SD quite a lot no matter where I end up.

That's so great! Congrats! Yes, I'll miss it too...thank god we can at least still come back to visit family here.

kbuckley177 wrote:['m deciding between a full ride at USC or 50/year at Notre Dame.

Full ride at USC, duh.

yeah OP there's no reason you should be considering notre dame here

congrats on the USC offer; glad that worked out for you

zombie mcavoy wrote:yeah OP there's no reason you should be considering notre dame here

congrats on the USC offer; glad that worked out for you

I actually just got engaged a few weekends ago and and my SO has been offered a really great job near South Bend (he is from Indiana). I agree that USC would be the superior choice in most scenarios, but I've got some personal stuff to consider too!

kbuckley177 wrote:

zombie mcavoy wrote:yeah OP there's no reason you should be considering notre dame here

congrats on the USC offer; glad that worked out for you

I actually just got engaged a few weekends ago and and my SO has been offered a really great job near South Bend (he is from Indiana). I agree that USC would be the superior choice in most scenarios, but I've got some personal stuff to consider too!

well congrats on that, too! Sounds like you'll be in a great position either way; best of luck.

Yeah congrats all around.

Tiago Splitter wrote: I was going to go there with my 166 before I decided to retake and I'm certainly glad I stayed away.

Damn man I remember you saying you had a lower score at first but 166 to 178 is extreme. Have you posted anything in depth about this and honestly did you prep all that hard the first time?

r1tlv50 wrote:

Tiago Splitter wrote: I was going to go there with my 166 before I decided to retake and I'm certainly glad I stayed away.

Damn man I remember you saying you had a lower score at first but 166 to 178 is extreme. Have you posted anything in depth about this and honestly did you prep all that hard the first time?

I didn't prep very hard. I did a bunch of practice questions but that first LSAT was the first time I took an actual test.