U Iowa, Boston College, U Colorado, or Tulane with $$? Forum

[bbrown90]

Really?? I thought I had to commit by April. Maybe I'll take another practice test tonight and see how it goes... thanks for all the responses, guys!

[Rigo]

Really?? I thought I had to commit by April. Maybe I'll take another practice test tonight and see how it goes... thanks for all the responses, guys!

You have to send in your seat deposit by April. That's different than promising to attend that school.

[ilikebaseball]

Really?? I thought I had to commit by April. Maybe I'll take another practice test tonight and see how it goes... thanks for all the responses, guys!

still havent said how many LG's you've missed? I mean, if you've missed like 10 LG questions on the last test, you could literally perfect that in less than a month and get a 166 almost no problem

[bbrown90]

It was around 10. I'll have to look over it again. I got totally screwed in that section

[TheSpanishMain]

Where are you from and where do you want to practice? these schools are all over the place.

In order to receive the best feedback in this forum, please provide as much of the following information in your original post as possible:

-The schools you are considering
-The total Cost of Attendance (COA) of each. COA = cost of tuition + fees + books + cost of living (COL) + accumulated interest - scholarships.
-How you will be financing your COA, i.e. loans, family, or savings
-Where you are from and where you want to work, and other places where you have significant ties (if any)
-Your general career goals
-Your LSAT/GPA numbers
-How many times you have taken the LSAT

From Atlanta. 160 LSAT, 3.9 GPA. Took the LSAT once.

Considering Tulane, U of Colorado- Boulder, U of Iowa, Boston College. I haven't heard back from Cornell yet, which is of course a reach but just took a shot.

The lion's share of law school will be financed by loans, and I want to go into criminal and family law.

I want to get out of the south. New Orleans is a special place though with a great culture, so that's why I looked at Tulane. I have some family in Colorado, Iowa's legal writing is outstanding and my short visit in Iowa City was great. Boston, in terms of location, is I think the best, but Iowa is ranked higher.

Honestly, I am pretty open. I wouldn't consider all of these to be 'regional' schools, either. They are all tier 1 schools...?

Tiers mean next to nothing. They're all for sure regional schools, and you shouldn't do T14 at sticker price, let alone a regional school in a region you don't have strong ties to. I don't think you should consider Iowa's writing program (specialty rankings like that are also pretty meaningless) or it's USNWR rank (definitely meaningless.) in making your decision.

So yeah, definitely retake.

[ilikebaseball]

It was around 10. I'll have to look over it again. I got totally screwed in that section

watch 7sage videos. start right now. don't stop. don't ever stop.

[Rigo]

How to Drill Logic Games
Buy this Cambridge LG Book.
Make multiple copies of each game.
Do a game.
Watch the 7 Sage Explanation for that game.
Get a fresh copy of that game and do it again, incorporating what you learned.
Watch the video again if needed.
Move onto the next game and repeat the process.
Do the games you did again the next day and see if you remember how to set them up and solve them. If not, watch the video again.
It's a tedious process, but you're guaranteed to improve by drilling like this. Similar inferences can be made across all games and you are able to make them correctly and quickly the more experience you get.

[Pumpkin-Duke of Pie]

It was around 10. I'll have to look over it again. I got totally screwed in that section

Yeeeeah, practice those logic games. They are seriously learnable. If that's the reason you got a 160, I've got to insist that you retake. Don't waste that GPA on anything less than a strong regional, full ride @ a school in the region you want to practice. Preferably you should shoot for a T-14, but, unless they're offering you money, that might not be the best option.

[NonTradLawHopeful]

Where are you from and where do you want to practice? these schools are all over the place.

In order to receive the best feedback in this forum, please provide as much of the following information in your original post as possible:

-The schools you are considering
-The total Cost of Attendance (COA) of each. COA = cost of tuition + fees + books + cost of living (COL) + accumulated interest - scholarships.
-How you will be financing your COA, i.e. loans, family, or savings
-Where you are from and where you want to work, and other places where you have significant ties (if any)
-Your general career goals
-Your LSAT/GPA numbers
-How many times you have taken the LSAT

From Atlanta. 160 LSAT, 3.9 GPA. Took the LSAT once.

Considering Tulane, U of Colorado- Boulder, U of Iowa, Boston College. I haven't heard back from Cornell yet, which is of course a reach but just took a shot.

The lion's share of law school will be financed by loans, and I want to go into criminal and family law.

I want to get out of the south. New Orleans is a special place though with a great culture, so that's why I looked at Tulane. I have some family in Colorado, Iowa's legal writing is outstanding and my short visit in Iowa City was great. Boston, in terms of location, is I think the best, but Iowa is ranked higher.

Honestly, I am pretty open. I wouldn't consider all of these to be 'regional' schools, either. They are all tier 1 schools...?

Tiers mean next to nothing. They're all for sure regional schools, and you shouldn't do T14 at sticker price, let alone a regional school in a region you don't have strong ties to. I don't think you should consider Iowa's writing program (specialty rankings like that are also pretty meaningless) or it's USNWR rank (definitely meaningless.) in making your decision.

So yeah, definitely retake.

As an oblivious noob, this may be a stupid question, but how are Iowa, BC, and Colorado regional schools? Those all seem to be really good schools. Also, you call USNWR rankings meaningless (which I agree), but you refer to T14 schools...didn't the term T14 come from the USNWR rankings in the first place?

[Rigo]

As an oblivious noob, this may be a stupid question, but how are Iowa, BC, and Colorado regional schools? Those all seem to be really good schools. Also, you call USNWR rankings meaningless (which I agree), but you refer to T14 schools...didn't the term T14 come from the USNWR rankings in the first place?

They're regional because the law degrees aren't really portable. Their alumni network is all very regional/local to where the school is.
So don't go to Iowa if you want to practice in California, for instance. It just makes no sense and you'd be a fool if you went in with those expectations.

Isn't 14 such an arbitrary number? It's 14 because those are the only non-regional schools. Theoretically, the alumni networks are so spread out and you could practice anywhere with a T14 degree. A lot of it is a self-fulfilling prestige=jobs loop.

[NonTradLawHopeful]

Ah ok, thank you. Maybe I misunderstood, but it seems like this forum thinks of regional as a negative term towards a law school. I would think Iowa would pull a lot of weight in most of the midwest (Chicago, Minneapolis, Saint Louis, etc.) if you know that's where you want to study.

[Rigo]

Ah ok, thank you. Maybe I misunderstood, but it seems like this forum thinks of regional as a negative term towards a law school. I would think Iowa would pull a lot of weight in most of the midwest (Chicago, Minneapolis, Saint Louis, etc.) if you know that's where you want to study.

This forum generally endorses going to a regional school in the region you have ties and wish to work for a full ride or near a full-ride, so long as you have modest goals (NOT fed clerk or biglaw).

Threads like this that list a lot of regional schools all across the country from one another are unfortunately all too common, so it's appropriate to ask posters their goals and really scrutinize the decision to matriculate if that decision would put them in a lot of debt.
At the end of the day, it's about informing posters so they make sound decisions that have the least chance of coming back to bite them in a few years or for the rest of their life.

[A. Nony Mouse]

Ah ok, thank you. Maybe I misunderstood, but it seems like this forum thinks of regional as a negative term towards a law school. I would think Iowa would pull a lot of weight in most of the midwest (Chicago, Minneapolis, Saint Louis, etc.) if you know that's where you want to study.

Yes and no. The problem is that if you go to Iowa, once you're outside of Iowa, you're competing with students from other regional schools who are more local to those markets - so if you want to work in Mpls you're competing with U of MN students (plus students from the other MN schools), if you want to be in Milwaukee you're competing with U of Wis students (and Marquette), if you want to go to St. Louis you're competing with Wash U students (and SLU students). You're not going to have an edge over those students by virtue of going to Iowa, at least barring some kind of really strong ties to that city. Of course, this is leaving aside competing with local kids who went T14 for school - so if you want Chicago from Iowa, you're competing with NU, U of C, as well as UIUC and the local Chicago schools.

I'm not saying it's impossible to get a job in a regional school's broader region - some Iowa grads *do* end up in Chicago, some Colorado grads *do* end up in Salt Lake City, etc. I'm a little less stressed about ties/the possibility of mobility than most people here. And going from Iowa to Chicago is likely going to be easier than going from Iowa to Boston. But perhaps not as much easier as you might think, and both will require quite a lot of focused initiative from the start of your law school career.

[TheSpanishMain]

As an oblivious noob, this may be a stupid question, but how are Iowa, BC, and Colorado regional schools? Those all seem to be really good schools. Also, you call USNWR rankings meaningless (which I agree), but you refer to T14 schools...didn't the term T14 come from the USNWR rankings in the first place?

Regional doesn't mean "bad." It just means, you know, regional. I'm sure Iowa is a fine school for a Iowan looking to stay in Iowa going on a big scholarship.

[Ron Don Volante]

with the information you have given us every option you have given us can very easily -- and is quite likely to -- ruin your life.

you want to go to a regional school and practice criminal and family law? I would take no more than 60K in debt to do this from a non-T14. You're looking at two to three times that. You're setting yourself up for an incredible world of hurt.

retake or find another career path.

[iguazu]

Do yourself, your family, and your future family a favor and retake. I increased nine points on retake and it's opening up a lot of doors for me that would've been laughable just a couple months ago.

[storpappa]

Today was last day to retake

Did you sign up?

If you don't have the 8-10 hours a day to study now to get that higher score, how are you go to handle law school itself in the Fall?

[storpappa]

Do yourself, your family, and your future family a favor and retake. I increased nine points on retake and it's opening up a lot of doors for me that would've been laughable just a couple months ago.

Grats - I picked up 10 points from a cold first take
Its worth doing, and certainly gets you back into the full time school mindset putting in the time commitment to study every day

[Lord Randolph McDuff]

Iowa and Colorado are pretty welcoming states, especially Colorado. The state is full of transplants. You seem to have some ties to the south and Tulane at a discount might be cool.

Still you have to retake though. Just got five points higher and get huge money at all these schools.

You said you were financing everything on loans. Not retaking would be a tragic decision. If done responsibly, it will save you like sixty thousand dollars. Maybe even more with some luck.

Move to one of these areas and get a job, any job. Retake LSAT. And enjoy your life before your career starts.

[timbs4339]

Random variation in test results, without any substantive improvement in skills, could be worth thousands of dollars in scholly money to you. It's insane not to retake. I'd recommend waiting the full year- you have a CCN GPA.