Top Law Schools

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!

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.

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.

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!

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?