W&M vs. Wake vs. Lewis & Clark vs. Retake Forum

[Prometheus214]

These threads seem to be popular so I thought that I would start one of my own to help figure out my life. To give you some background I'm from the Pacific Northwest and I would like to eventually come back here and practice after law school, but I am totally fine with going to another part of the country and living for awhile as well. I'm not sure what kind of law that I want to get into either. My stats are 3.93 GPA/161 LSAT with decent softs (leadership experience, volunteered at public interest law firm, etc.) I applied early but my applications weren't processed until rather late (January) for a lot of schools because I took the October LSAT and then retook in December and scored a few points higher. I am not opposed to taking on a little debt, but of course I want to keep loans as low as possible. However, I've heard that sometimes applying earlier in the cycle with the same #'s could net more scholarship money, so that's something to consider for reapplying next year. So here are my options:

William & Mary with $10,000 per year scholarship (about top 50% stipulation): I haven't been able to visit the school but my family has visited Williamsburg a few times and I loved the town and I think that the school would be a great fit for me. I am just a little apprehensive about finding employment on the West Coast however. That being said, it's a great school and they offered me a nice scholarship.

Lewis and Clark with $14,000 per year scholarship (top 50% stipulation). I visited and I liked it a lot, and I could see myself living in Portland. Also a possibility that I could get more scholarship money later in the summer.

Wake Forest with $15,000 per year scholarship (top 66% stipulation). I haven't visited, but from what I have heard and read, it seems like it would be a really good fit for me.
Coming back to practice in the Northwest might be tricky though. Also a chance that I might get a little more scholarship money but I won't know until June for sure.

Wait a year and retake/reapply next year: I wouldn't mind terribly taking a year off, but I don't have a job lined up and I'm not sure how much retaking would help. Before the December LSAT I was testing between 161-164 on my practice tests (logic games killed me, even after working through the bible) and I scored a 161 so I'm not sure how much I could raise it by.

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and advice!

[thexfactor]

You NEEED to retake. With that kind of gpa you should be looking at UVA ED. Someone on this forum got in with a 3.9 and 162 i think. NON URM Get a couple extra points and ED at UVA.

UVA will offer you 3x better placement than the schools you mentioned above.

[crit_racer]

If you get a few more points on the LSAT, you could snag UW. They love high GPAs. If you could get in the upper 160s, you have a shot at Berkeley.

Retake, seriously. It's worth a shot. Especially since you have trouble with games, which is a learnable section. Just keep drililng and find a system that works for you! Seriously, tho, you're only a few points away from an entirely different set of opportunities.

[snapdragon]

Retake if it's an option. With that GPA, you should get in at UW at least, which trumps W&M or Wake for west coast placement.

Wake and W&M will most likely not get you to the west coast. It's possible, but I would think very difficult. It's a bummer, because they're both solid schools, and you may be happy there for three years, but if you're not comfortable working in the southeast/mid-Atlantic, I would recommend retake (I turned down Wake w/ $$ because I was worried about their placement in New England, and I think their New England placement is probably stronger than their west coast placement).

Good luck!

[Prometheus214]

Thanks for the advice. Retake is an option and I think that I could improve by a few points, probably to somewhere in the 164-165 range. UW is indeed a top choice, but I'm currently waitlisted and I haven't anything from them about getting moved off of the waitlist. Is there anything to be said for a school like William & Mary being ranked higher than many schools in the Pacific Northwest? I know that rankings certainly aren't all important, but would it help me to get a job back home having gone to a higher ranked school in another part of the country?