Long time lurker, posting since I'll finally be applying this fall. As stated, 3.7, with a 169/174. 1 year out of school now, and have another year to go. Looking into taking the GMAT for a possible combined JD/MBA. I also have one more year to gain some work experience, which leads me to the following questions (answer any or all).


1. odds at t-14? FWIW, want to practice in SF/LA markets. Want to stay in California, but realize I may need to go out of state for LS. Have done lots of googling but with all the fudged numbers, I can't really tell which schools are placing well in these markets.

2. Wtf should I do for the next year? I'm looking into:
-Americorps (can save $ by living at home, get to volunteer and help out with something I'm genuinely passionate about
-have an interview with Testmasters (not sure about this, but the $$$...)
-office jobs. I'd love to get experience in a law firm, but everywhere I've seen has a prereq of 3-5 years experience in a law firm already. Which I don't have. Which of these will help make me more competitive for admission to B-school (if any...?).

3. who's taken the GMAT? looking at the test, it seems easier overall than the LSAT but with some math thrown in.

Thanks for playing, tlsers.

Good shot at Berkeley. Reject from Stanford. You'll probably get into at least one CCN. You're fine for MVPB.


Go with doing what your passionate about, unless you gotta get that dough real hard before law school.

Thanks for the insight. I'd love to go to Berkeley since I'm a Bay Area native...should I even bother applying to USC/UCLA? never been to NYC so not sure if that's the place for me.

I've got enough to cover a semester of law school in the bank currently, so while I definitely need money, it's not do-or-die. I think I'd rather have the volunteer experience on the resume, anyway.

3.7 what? Your cycle will hinge on whether that's a 3.70 or a 3.79.

Apply for the scholarship money they might throw at you. I would blanket the T14, minus any schools you don't want to go to. You're a T14 lock. Then it will be a question of scholarship money and how well the school gets you back to California (if you don't get into Berkeley).


You have your answer.

3.70. God, I would have loved to have a 3.79, but nope, my school was notorious for low grades. A+'s didn't exist. From a t20 UG if that matters at all.

Thanks for all your help! With the Americorps gig I will have some free time to surf, travel, etc. and have some fun before LS. Funny how quickly that clarified my thoughts.

Any idea on which T-14s would help me get back to CA? If CCN throws $ at me, that would be tempting over Berkeley ...but it's a question of whether or not I'd be able to get back into the markets here.

Then my prediction would be HYS-ding/WL, CCN-sticker (maybe Chi 15-30k/the small NYU scholly), MVPB-45-60k or YP WL, DNC-90k+

I would tailor your Berkeley application heavily since that's probably your number one choice, but apply widely because you'll probably need to do a lot of scholarship negotiation to maximize your offers.

Yea, Nelson is spot on here.


You can definitely get back to California from CCN. You can also get back to California from MVP with the requisite grades.