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Long story short is that I have always planned on going to law school, but something in life always seemed to get in the way. My life had a huge change of circumstances, and some injustices committed against my father in the past month that has put me on the sure path that law school is definitely the next step of where I needed to be headed. I have already registered for the June 2017 LSAT. But are my hopes of a school accepting me if I do exceptionally well on the LSAT and submitting a late application foolish? Any help, opinions, or advice would be appreciated! Thank you.

no school you could get into now would be worth going too. study over the summer, take the lsat in september then apply next year

jamiesam26 wrote:Long story short is that I have always planned on going to law school, but something in life always seemed to get in the way. My life had a huge change of circumstances, and some injustices committed against my father in the past month that has put me on the sure path that law school is definitely the next step of where I needed to be headed. I have already registered for the June 2017 LSAT. But are my hopes of a school accepting me if I do exceptionally well on the LSAT and submitting a late application foolish? Any help, opinions, or advice would be appreciated! Thank you.

Yes, it is definitely way too late to being heading to school in the Fall, especially if you haven't even taken the LSAT. Whatever those injustices may be, you certainly will not benefit by making a last minute decision to attend a very bad law school (only very bad law schools would even consider an application this late). Study hard for the LSAT, put together a good application, & apply this year with the intention of attending in 2018.

Surprisingly (actually not surprising at all it just is another myth that seems to persist), almost all schools will take a June LSAT and July application. The huge caveat is that you are above both the medians at this stage, or at least hitting some huge need they have. Two cycles ago I had someone call me who just scored a 178 on the LSAT and was talking about top 3/top 6 for the following cycle. I got him to apply for the current cycle and he was admitted to a top 3.

Think of it like this -- with all of the numerical and rankings pressures -- why wouldn't you take a buttoned up application above both your medians if you were a dean of admission. Especially as you are losing deposits over the summer.

All of THAT said, the same person with the same scores will do much better in Sept, and get more money. And there are a few schools that simply won't take a late app. But that number of schools that pull of the drawbridge ti the castle is much more small than most realize.

Despite saying you've been thinking about law for awhile, this seems rash.
Take in June or September but apply in the fall for next cycle. The early bird gets the acceptances and scholarships.

MikeSpivey wrote:Surprisingly (actually not surprising at all it just is another myth that seems to persist), almost all schools will take a June LSAT and July application. The huge caveat is that you are above both the medians at this stage, or at least hitting some huge need they have. Two cycles ago I had someone call me who just scored a 178 on the LSAT and was talking about top 3/top 6 for the following cycle. I got him to apply for the current cycle and he was admitted to a top 3.

Think of it like this -- with all of the numerical and rankings pressures -- why wouldn't you take a buttoned up application above both your medians if you were a dean of admission. Especially as you are losing deposits over the summer.

All of THAT said, the same person with the same scores will do much better in Sept, and get more money. And there are a few schools that simply won't take a late app. But that number of schools that pull of the drawbridge ti the castle is much more small than most realize.

Spivey I know you're the expert but wouldn't you advise people (not going to a solely need based aid school) to wait for better merit scholarships? Also how quickly can someone practically get together a high quality application- won't the rush hurt them?

Maybe there are a handful of people with high numbers and money to burn who should consider this, but it seems like it should be generally seen as a less than optimal choice?

OP doesn't sound like a person who knows much about the application process and also is going to school as a reaction to "injustices against his dad" being a sign he should go to law school. I think OP should wait, despite the fact some few stellar applicants wil get good outcomes.

jamiesam26 wrote:...and some injustices committed against my father in the past month that has put me on the sure path that law school is definitely the next step of where I needed to be headed.

Without weighing in on whether you're likely to find a decent school that will give you some money at that stage of the cycle, this sentiment raised some red flags for me. Is your rush to go to school due to your desire to directly help your father? If so, you need to take a step back and look at this objectively.

Npret wrote:

MikeSpivey wrote:Surprisingly (actually not surprising at all it just is another myth that seems to persist), almost all schools will take a June LSAT and July application. The huge caveat is that you are above both the medians at this stage, or at least hitting some huge need they have. Two cycles ago I had someone call me who just scored a 178 on the LSAT and was talking about top 3/top 6 for the following cycle. I got him to apply for the current cycle and he was admitted to a top 3.

Think of it like this -- with all of the numerical and rankings pressures -- why wouldn't you take a buttoned up application above both your medians if you were a dean of admission. Especially as you are losing deposits over the summer.

All of THAT said, the same person with the same scores will do much better in Sept, and get more money. And there are a few schools that simply won't take a late app. But that number of schools that pull of the drawbridge ti the castle is much more small than most realize.

Spivey I know you're the expert but wouldn't you advise people (not going to a solely need based aid school) to wait for better merit scholarships? Also how quickly can someone practically get together a high quality application- won't the rush hurt them?

Maybe there are a handful of people with high numbers and money to burn who should consider this, but it seems like it should be generally seen as a less than optimal choice?

OP doesn't sound like a person who knows much about the application process and also is going to school as a reaction to "injustices against his dad" being a sign he should go to law school. I think OP should wait, despite the fact some few stellar applicants wil get good outcomes.

I agree that this isn't a great strategy for the masses. Not even close. But just to answer the person's OP, you certainly can apply this cycle.

In the example I gave, the person had a t3 dream school (like so many) and was able to apply in June and get admitted in July. No different than if he had applied in Sept because of the no merit scholarship at that school. So he saved himself the time value of money, i.e. will graduate and start making money a year earlier.

I suspect if I had a 4.0 and was consistently scoring 175+, I could apply in June, be putting together a killer application now and after taking the June LSAT, and still get a lot of money from top 6-10 schools, albeit not from as many as if I applied in Sept.

I'll try not to read too much into this person's situation because no functional information was given, but in 95% of cases this is just a really bad plan (allowing for Spivey's example where the person would get extensive need-based aid from HYS, but even then I'd recommend waiting to see what other kinds of scholarship offers you'd have if you're in that territory). Law schools have been around for hundreds of years: they aren't going anywhere. And they cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Doing everything in your power to limit the amount of money you have to pay to achieve your professional goals matters so much more than going right now. Time value of money is valid, but so rarely is the time value of money so demonstrable to be worth potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars saved a year from now. The return on going right now would have to be astronomically high, and that's just incredibly rarely the case (when viewing this as a financial investment in your future career and not some whimsical indulgence in pursuit of prestige or other non-relevant nonsense).

UVA2B wrote:I'll try not to read too much into this person's situation because no functional information was given, but in 95% of cases this is just a really bad plan (allowing for Spivey's example where the person would get extensive need-based aid from HYS, but even then I'd recommend waiting to see what other kinds of scholarship offers you'd have if you're in that territory). Law schools have been around for hundreds of years: they aren't going anywhere. And they cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Doing everything in your power to limit the amount of money you have to pay to achieve your professional goals matters so much more than going right now. Time value of money is valid, but so rarely is the time value of money so demonstrable to be worth potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars saved a year from now. The return on going right now would have to be astronomically high, and that's just incredibly rarely the case (when viewing this as a financial investment in your future career and not some whimsical indulgence in pursuit of prestige or other non-relevant nonsense).

Yep I agree with this 100%. In fact I agree with everything including (me personally at least other people can do whatever they want) trying not read into motivations for going to law school. Really my only point is for strong applicants, deadlines are very rarely deadlines even for most of the elite schools, almost up to orientation, and this is a fact that I think most people understandably aren't aware of.

jamiesam26 wrote:Long story short is that I have always planned on going to law school, but something in life always seemed to get in the way. My life had a huge change of circumstances, and some injustices committed against my father in the past month that has put me on the sure path that law school is definitely the next step of where I needed to be headed. I have already registered for the June 2017 LSAT. But are my hopes of a school accepting me if I do exceptionally well on the LSAT and submitting a late application foolish? Any help, opinions, or advice would be appreciated! Thank you.

One year is a very small wait in the grand scheme of things. Ace the LSAT, and improve your chances by doing the right internship, job or volunteering. Talk to lawyers in schools you want to go to