Top Law Schools

Background: I am currently a legal clerk at a mid-sized firm in Chicago, and will have a little over a year of clerking experience before starting law school. I got a 171 on the LSAT, but my GPA is only a 3.2 (English/ Political science double).

I am waiting for my HS college credit to be recognized before LSAC will let me submit my apps. Here are the schools I am applying to, is this an appropriate list?

Reach School: Northwestern

Goal Schools: Washington University- STL, and University of Illinois

Safety Schools: Wake Forest, Ohio State, and U of Florida.


Is this a good list? Any advice/ experience with these schools?

Given your target schools the safeties appear to be all over the map. If you don't get into a top-14 school you need to go somewhere you'd be happy to end up working near after law school. And even if you do get into a T-14 this can be important.

I'd recommend doing some additional digging on Illinois. They just went through a major scandal where the Dean of Admissions was fired for fudging admissions data. Might be a place to stay away from for a while.

With those numbers your cycle can be unpredictable. I'd apply to most schools ranked 7-30.

I know all about the UIUC scandal, but do you really think that will affect job opportunities 3.5 years from now when I am graduating?

I grew up in St. Louis, and currently work in Chicago, and I wouldn’t mind working in either of those markets, or even Kansas City/ other midsized Midwest cities. I am going for Wake because my mother is a lobbyist for a very large healthcare system and has DC ties, and for Florida just to see how much money they can give me (who wouldn’t want to live in Florida?)

Don’t really want to work in NYC or the upper east coast, but I also don’t want to attend a school whose degree is really only good instate (Florida being the exception).

Don’t really want to work in NYC or the upper east coast, but I also don’t want to attend a school whose degree is really only good instate (Florida being the exception).[/quote]

Even with the scandal the consensus here at UIUC is that our placement in Chicago isnt going to be hurt too much. With that said though, a UIUC degree is really only good instate.

Don't bother with UF. You can get into better schools, and it's VERY hard to get a job in FL if you're not from here/have significant connections here, even if you go to the local school.

You're above UIUC's median LSAT by 8 points and you're above their future revised GPA. Move that TTT to your safety list and target a real institution.

Enjoy WU$$TL

If I were in your shoes, I'd apply lower half of the T14 through WUSTL.

Apply to NU, GULC, Michigan, and maybe Cornell. Being from the Midwest and having lived in Chicago should be enough to get you back if you get decent grades from a T14.

You should apply and consider WUSTL, IU-B, and UIUC if you get decent scholarship money. Scrap the safeties, they aren't worth the $$. You'd be better off trying to retake for a T14 or better money at your targets (if it's possible to get more money with your GPA, i'm not really sure).

Fellow Stl raised Mizzou grad here, currently at Wash U. My main bit of advice is going to be pick a place you want would MOST prefer to end up, because geography really does matter.

You are absolutely going to be in at Wash U with a decent scholarship, so If you aren't terribly concerned about geography or you're looking at Chicago/Stl I wouldn't bother with any schools further down in the rankings.

However, you do need to apply more to higher ranked schools. Being a splitter makes you more of a crapshoot, but that LSAT is still worth something. If you apply to five T-14 schools you might get into one, and it's prob worth a shot. Just check out which are the most splitter friendly.

Feel free to message me if you have any further questions about Wash U.

There is also the "ED to UVA" option, although I know little about their Chicago placement and Northwestern/Michigan would probably be better for targeting Chicago/the midwest.

OP, UIUC and WUSTL are your safeties. In addition to Northwestern, add Michigan, Cornell, GULC and UVA. If you don't get Michigan/Northwestern, consider a) re-applying next cycle, and) ED'ing Mich or UVA (depending on how the Northwestern ED shapes up for splitters this year).

If your primary goal is to live & work in Chicago or St. Louis, then Florida & WFU are not appropriate schools, in my opinion. Add Michigan to your reach list.

1) Northwestern
2) Michigan

3) WashUStL
4) Notre Dame

5) Illinois
6) Wisconsin
7) Minnesota

Iowa
9) Ohio State
10) Indiana

Consider applying to these 10 Midwestern law schools to get a mix of reaches, safeties & financial safeties.

P.S. How important or necessary is a scholarship in your situation ?

Honestly, Michigan and NU are both within the realm of possibility. But you need to get those apps out immediately. And yea, WUSTL is about as low as you should go

CanadianWolf wrote:If your primary goal is to live & work in Chicago or St. Louis, then Florida & WFU are not appropriate schools, in my opinion. Add Michigan to your reach list.

1) Northwestern
2) Michigan

3) WashUStL
4) Notre Dame

5) Illinois
6) Wisconsin
7) Minnesota

Iowa
9) Ohio State
10) Indiana

I think this is a pretty solid list.

I'd even take out the last three but with the use of fee waivers, it's only $48 more to tack on those 3 additional safeties and potentially a lot of $$ for scholarship negotiations between schools.

If you haven't gotten fee waivers yet, email every school on this list (that hasn't given you one yet) and it should be a relatively cheap cycle since a vast majority of them should give you a solicited fee waiver with a 171. Good luck!

Thank you all for the help, I really appreciate it!

I will be paying for law school myself, but have no debt from undergrad, so scholarships would be nice, but I would rather go to a much better school with little/ no money than a mediocre school with some money. (a full or near full ride is a horse by a different name, but I will cross that bridge if I get there)


I will definitely look into the schools mentioned, and if any of you currently go to a school you think would be right for my goals please feel free to message me, I would love to hear about your personal experience with the institution (bad or good).

Why dont you also consider UVA ED. I think it is easier to get to chicago from UVA than WUSTL. On top of that UVA has the NY market which WUSTL doesn't have. The NY market is the hottest legal market right now...

If I were you, I would look at overall job prospects over location.

I think you will get into NW if you have work experience.

You won't get into NU without work-experience.

Gail wrote:You won't get into NU without work-experience.

Helps to read the OP

STLMizzou wrote:Background: I am currently a legal clerk at a mid-sized firm in Chicago, and will have a little over a year of clerking experience before starting law school. I

Yeah, so far I have applied to WUSTL, NU, UIUC, ND, Vandy and Ohio State.

I am really mostly going after either WUSTL or Vandy, with ND/Ohio/ Maybe 'Bama to try and use for scholarship leverage. I got waivers from all of them, so I figured why not and see what I can get.

NU is my reach school, so I am keeping my fingers crossed they are splitter friendly this year, but from what I am hearing it is going to be hard to pay sticker at NU (+ chicago living expenses) when it looks like I could be getting 90k at WUSTL. Especially considering St. Louis/ Chicago are my target markets. Guess I will cross that bridge if it comes up. Even with my year of work experience NU is a reach, a realistic reach, but still a reach.


Thank you all for your help, and if you have any more suggestions please feel free to add them.