I am so lost right now. Do I keep retaking? Forum

[DaRascal]

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[thevuch]

a full ride is pretty sweet bro anyway you look at, and seton hall is not a bad law school. i know its not T14 but there are tens of thousands of kids paying 6 figures plus for law degrees from inferior institutions.

[Kevinlomax]

First of all, keep your head up. The girl situation doesent matter, there are plenty of girls in Law school. Next, you have a 160 and a full ride. That should give you confidence going into the next exam!

yes, retake...if you are dead set on T-14

Seton Hall Full-ride isnt a bad deal...esp if you do not mind living in New Jersey...

[georgej]

Probably the number 1 short term thing you should try to do (although its easier said than done) is try to get a better job than working retail. A) this will give you more money right away and therefore lessen the burden of your loan repayments and generally increase your standard of living/happiness; and B) "substantive" work experience could help you as a decent soft when you next apply to schools.

Re: retaking the LSAT again.. sounds good, but I think your analysis of how your breakup effected your December performance is spot on. Try meditating, doing some yoga, running, and drinking kale smoothies. This was my recipe for success, anyway. I went up from a 163 in October of '08 to a 175 this time around, and I really think my present peace of mind made most of the difference.

Re: the girl issue... same thing happened to me once upon a time. I told her that I really like her, and she bolted. Long story short, it turned out that chick was crazy as hell in the end. She put rock salt on ice-pack and gave herself gnarly frost burns all over her face and then left the country.

In short, keep your chin up. It took me five years from my first LSAT to get a score I'm happy with, but I got it. The same could happen for you.

[zhenders]

So you have loads in student loans and don't make much?

I know this sounds a little crazy, but you'd be surprised: give your loan company a call, explain your income situation, and tell them how much you can actually afford pay every month. Insist that there is no way you can pay more, and that you need them to please find a way to adjust it, or else there's a strong possibility you will not be able to continue to pay them, regardless of the consequences.

A seriously ridiculous number of people just plain don't pay their loans -- which puts companies in the position of usually giving in when someone requests a premium adjustment as opposed to a deferral (or just pretending they don't exist).

Really, you have nothing to lose in trying; it's definitely worth it.

Further, if that doesn't help for some reason (though I feel confident it will), look into the recent loan repayment program that is now federal law; you may find some serious relief there -- it's literally a different world from a year ago.

Best of luck! And +1 that a free ride is a motherfucking free ride. And you could certainly do worse schools-wise. I personally would hold out for another retake and T14, but your current offer is definitely not worth tossing aside lightly.

[NYstate]

What exactly is your question? You know which schools are good to attend. You sound very flustered so you need to calm down before you do anything. Can you qualify for PAYE? or any other program?

It sounds like you need to find a job and then worry about the LSAT - are you thinking of retaking in February?

Was something else wrong with your applications? More than just over reaching? You should have someone look at everything and see if there is a way to polish your applications further, because your cycle is a little weird.

Yes, you should retake if you think you can do better. (if that is your question)

[NYstate]

a full ride is pretty sweet bro anyway you look at, and seton hall is not a bad law school. i know its not T14 but there are tens of thousands of kids paying 6 figures plus for law degrees from inferior institutions.

This is bad advice in my opinon. Seton Hall is a terrible school with a terrible reputation. You may not get any job from there. Plus you know it isn't free because you will have living expenses and it sounds like you will have to borrow those. Don't panic and go to a bad school if you can do better.

Just calm down. And, like I said, recheck your application and see where it can be made stronger. If you aren't sure what might be wrong (outside of your numbers), ask questions in the Spivey thread. They are always helpful.

[DaRascal]

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[BigZuck]

I'm going to buck conventional wisdom here and say that Seton Hall would be a bad deal for you. You'll end up over 70K in the hole and be lucky to get a job paying 50ishk. You and I both know you're going to blow through every cent of your student loan money one way or another.

Don't go to law school now, work for a few years, pay off the student loan debt, acquire maturity, and revisit the idea of law school once all your ducks are in a row.

For people who are angry for me saying that, just read his posting history.

Eta: scooped by NY

[DaRascal]

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[JCougar]

Seton Hall for free isn't necessarily a good idea these days. Think of all the living expenses you'll have to borrow. And when you graduate, you'll most likely be working as a Barista at the local Starbucks. Is that worth three long years of mindless busywork and $50-70K of living expenses debt?

[BigZuck]

Haha where did you get the 70k figure from, Zuck?

Roughly 20K a year in cost of living loans plus interest. I plugged 20K into the Georgetown calculator, which is actually rounding down because it looks like they will let you take out about 21K a year.

[Nova]

just read his posting history.

I have a highlight reel laying around somewhere....

[DaRascal]

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[A. Nony Mouse]

Don't go to law school now, work for a few years, pay off the student loan debt, acquire maturity, and revisit the idea of law school once all your ducks are in a row.

[NYstate]

"I'M CALM!!" (Anger Management reference lol)

You know what, screw the T14. That's a lot of debt even if I get into Cornell. I think Seton Hall is a better option for me because I can commute there and even though it's not a great school I'm going to bust my ass like never before!

I'm glad I didn't take the full ride last year because I needed to retake the LSAT again and find out who I really was. Even if I were to bump my LSAT score up a lot, I think it'd be an anomaly given my past scores.


I know we're on "Top Law Schools" but does anyone else think this would be a wise decision on my part? I'll still get a full ride to SH right? My GPA dropped and my application still isn't complete because of the December LSAT but then again their LSAT median dropped to 157 I believe. Also their class size just got cut too so I'm thinking SH might be the place for me.

Please do more research on Seton Hall. It isn't a good school at all. There are a number of sketchy things about it including some stuff about one of the Deans. I remember her thinking that the NY attorney general creating unpaid jobs for grads was a great opportunity. I know there is more about that school that makes it a bad place to go if you want a decent (and I don't mean biglaw only) job. Read whatever ATL, Campos (insidethelawschoolscam) and LST have to say about it. I know there are a number of unhappy grads.

[DaRascal]

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[BigZuck]

"I'M CALM!!" (Anger Management reference lol)

You know what, screw the T14. That's a lot of debt even if I get into Cornell. I think Seton Hall is a better option for me because I can commute there and even though it's not a great school I'm going to bust my ass like never before!

I'm glad I didn't take the full ride last year because I needed to retake the LSAT again and find out who I really was. Even if I were to bump my LSAT score up a lot, I think it'd be an anomaly given my past scores.


I know we're on "Top Law Schools" but does anyone else think this would be a wise decision on my part? I'll still get a full ride to SH right? My GPA dropped and my application still isn't complete because of the December LSAT but then again their LSAT median dropped to 157 I believe. Also their class size just got cut too so I'm thinking SH might be the place for me.

Please do more research on Seton Hall. It isn't a good school at all. There are a number of sketchy things about it including some stuff about one of the Deans. I remember her thinking that the NY attorney general creating unpaid jobs for grads was a great opportunity. I know there is more about that school that makes it a bad place to go if you want a decent (and I don't mean biglaw only) job. Read whatever ATL, Campos (insidethelawschoolscam) and LST have to say about it. I know there are a number of unhappy grads.

I'm not saying its great, nor am I saying you're wrong, but just looking at LST they have a 60ish percent LTFT law job score and a 10ish percent biglaw+clerkship score. Seems ok just on paper, it's no Cooley or Hastings or anything like those other festering TTTTs.

[inlovewithpiper]

Please do more research on Seton Hall. It isn't a good school at all.

Don't hate on the hall. It's a good regional school. The best in my home state. I've read all the TLS hate about it and I think the only reason those internet blogs exist is because a lot of people made a mistake and took out loans to go to SH. From what I can tell, Seton Hall does damage in NJ!

Yes. But not the good kind.

[BigZuck]

I should add that on paper it doesn't look objectively "good," just kind of average. I always assumed it was a total dump but on LST it actually looks like an ok regional. Must be something that I'm missing.

[DaRascal]

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[NYstate]

What a bunch of haters!


Hey, Dean Hobbs, if you're reading this, please give me a full ride again! I was a naïve kid who needed to find himself last year. I swear if you give me a full ride again I'll withdraw these fugazy apps to these other schools and come to Seton Hall in the fall.


Sincerely Yours,
DaRascal

So why the fuck did you ask for advice?? Lol.

Just tell me- what kind of job are you expecting to get? How likely are you to get that job in this economy? Do the local New Jersey and philly firms hire given the large number of schools in this market? And how much debt will you have- including expenses and tuition and fees increases?

[DaRascal]

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[indo]

Hmmmm well I'm not really thinking about a job yet. I just want to learn a lot and study really hard to get good grades. Then I'll be open to biglaw if my grades are good enough or I would like to clerk for a superior court judge.

you are dreamer.

[unodostres]

You won't get big law from seton hall. You will be median if anything. You will have 70k as zuck said. Be wise about what you do, it could be bad if you don't find a job with +70k. And lol at open to big law. The only thing open will be a position at McDonald's with a jd from seton hall.

Edit: do you have stips on your scholarship?