Looking for some help Forum

[Bcsmith4]

I've been accepted to W&M with a decent scholarship, and I am debating whether or not to attend. I'm currently a junior in undergrad, my degree is complete, and I see no reason to stay here a fourth year and pay tuition/room and board for little to no gain. My options are as follows:

1) Stay here for my senior year, write a thesis, retake the LSAT (I got a 164), and reapply next cycle

2) Graduate, work for a year, and retake/reapply

3) Go to W&M and transfer

4) Go to W&M, love it, and stay


I'm not sure what the best option here is. Is there one? Before you ask, I really have no interest in biglaw, and I would be fine working in Va.

Thank you in advance to serious respondents for help, and to trolls for the lolz

[bk1]

If you have no interest in biglaw, what do you want to do?

You should probably do either 1/2. 3 is obviously not a good idea. 4 isn't a good idea when doing 1/2 could net you more in scholarship money (or better acceptances) than you would lose by waiting a year.

[Bcsmith4]

Gov't work would be great, assuming a job can be found.

[quiver]

3) Go to W&M and transfer

This is not a viable option. Given how you said the extra year will be for "little to no gain," I would go with option 2 or 4. That way you can retake while making money (instead of losing it) with option 2 or just move on to law school with option 4. It seems like a toss up between those two options based on the info you gave.

[BlueDiamond]

Spend a year working in the city you eventually want to practice in and retake the LSAT

[Bcsmith4]

3) Go to W&M and transfer

This is not a viable option. Given how you said the extra year will be for "little to no gain," I would go with option 2 or 4. That way you can retake while making money (instead of losing it) with option 2 or just move on to law school with option 4. It seems like a toss up between those two options based on the info you gave.

I'm considering 1/2/4 the strongest. As for working or staying at school, I pay next to nothing, so the question becomes would a thesis or one year of work experience look better on an application?

Don't get me wrong, I think W&M is a great school, I'm just not sure it's the best I can do, and given my age I see no reason to rush into this.

[keg411]

I like 1/2. I doubt either will make a difference on your apps -- just depends on whether you want to make some money and take some time off before you go to law school (which I would recommend).

[Doorkeeper]

1. If it is not a financial hardship to you or your family, you can use the extra year to increase your GPA, which is very, very important to almost all law schools.

2. If it is not a financial hardship to your or your family, you can also use the extra year to study for and re-take the LSATs. A 164 is good, but if you can get a 169 or above then most law schools will only look at the higher score. This would put you in a much better category of schools than W&M, depending on your GPA (See 1).

3. I would not take W&M, unless it is on a huge scholarship, unless you want to practice in the Southern Virginia area. From what I've seen around DC, the school is not well represented here, and I can imagine this is similar at other schools on the East Coast (Unless a particular firm has a partner who went to W&M and they recruit there).

[Bcsmith4]

1. If it is not a financial hardship to you or your family, you can use the extra year to increase your GPA, which is very, very important to almost all law schools.

2. If it is not a financial hardship to your or your family, you can also use the extra year to study for and re-take the LSATs. A 164 is good, but if you can get a 169 or above then most law schools will only look at the higher score. This would put you in a much better category of schools than W&M, depending on your GPA (See 1).

3. I would not take W&M, unless it is on a huge scholarship, unless you want to practice in the Southern Virginia area. From what I've seen around DC, the school is not well represented here, and I can imagine this is similar at other schools on the East Coast (Unless a particular firm has a partner who went to W&M and they recruit there).

My GPA is a 3.84. I'm going to look into it and see how hard it would be to bring it to a 3.9. I'm thinking about taking kaplan prep classes and retaking in June. From a money aspect staying here another year is almost painless - I am at a state school and have a pretty nice scholarship.

To everyone, thank you for your help. I was thinking about this almost all day yesterday, and had pretty much settled on option 1 (with 2 and 4 being a close second). I am still weighing option 2, and plan on seeing what paralegal-ish work I can find in/around DC/Va and weighing that more if I can find something I like.

Please continue to share any insight you may have, and thanks again.

[ClutchCity24]

I would go with either option 1 or 2. If you chose option 1 just make sure that your GPA does not suffer at the very least and hopefully you could find a way to bump it up to the 3.9. I wrote a Senior Thesis but did not see any help from it during my cycle. Writing the thesis was a great experience and one that has helped me in my first year of law school. Definitely take some time to study for the LSAT and retake. Best of luck with your decision.

[Doorkeeper]

1. If it is not a financial hardship to you or your family, you can use the extra year to increase your GPA, which is very, very important to almost all law schools.

2. If it is not a financial hardship to your or your family, you can also use the extra year to study for and re-take the LSATs. A 164 is good, but if you can get a 169 or above then most law schools will only look at the higher score. This would put you in a much better category of schools than W&M, depending on your GPA (See 1).

3. I would not take W&M, unless it is on a huge scholarship, unless you want to practice in the Southern Virginia area. From what I've seen around DC, the school is not well represented here, and I can imagine this is similar at other schools on the East Coast (Unless a particular firm has a partner who went to W&M and they recruit there).

My GPA is a 3.84. I'm going to look into it and see how hard it would be to bring it to a 3.9. I'm thinking about taking kaplan prep classes and retaking in June. From a money aspect staying here another year is almost painless - I am at a state school and have a pretty nice scholarship.

To everyone, thank you for your help. I was thinking about this almost all day yesterday, and had pretty much settled on option 1 (with 2 and 4 being a close second). I am still weighing option 2, and plan on seeing what paralegal-ish work I can find in/around DC/Va and weighing that more if I can find something I like.

Please continue to share any insight you may have, and thanks again.

3.84 GPA is a very good GPA that can easily get you into a T10 school. That 164 then is the big issue. If you can bump that 164 to a 169 -172, you have a great shot at a Georgetown/Northwestern/Duke/Berkeley/Michigan, or maybe even NYU/Chicago, which would allow you to practice basically anywhere in the nation. Considering that staying another year would be financially painless for you, I would definitely suggest staying in school and taking an easy courseload over the next semester or two. While you're doing this, you can practice your LSAT to re-take either in June/Sept/Dec. You really shouldn't waste that really, really good GPA on W&M.