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Considering. T14 plus the regional state school I attend now (T25)

COA. I expect a full ride plus a stipend

I am from the Caribbean but have lived in the South for over two decades. I have strong ties in the South but I and my wife would like to work internationally if possible. Let's say I would like to address the basic needs of indigenous peoples (land rights, discrimination, etc.). NGOs, UN human rights council, conservation groups, etc. would be my ideal job.

I will only be able to work 15-20 years due to age and I know I will not make much money but we don't need much.

3.94\crappy lsat but that will be fixed on retake - let's use 171 as an imaginary score.

What would be the best approach?

Edit: removed the word torture. Drew too much attention

You should go in knowing that the practice area you are describing is the number one unicorn in this profession. About 1 in 2 0Ls want one, but only about 1 in 45,000 get one.

How do you plan to help these people as a lawyer? By suing the torturers? I'm being serious. If you really want to help indigenous peoples I'm sure there are plenty of organizations that would love your help now, and I doubt wasting three years in law school will get you any further. If you really want to go to law school, go crush that retake and I'm sure you'll have good options, but you really shouldn't go unless you'd be content with some other legal outcomes.

Also, I'm not sure any T-14's provide stipends. Outside the T-14, I think GW might with their ED app but then you get into the whole issue of "job prospects." Just understand that full ride + stipend is incredibly hard to come by.

Go to a T13 and network/take classes/intern during the summers. Hope for the best. Eventually realize that there are no jobs with "NGOs, UN human rights council, conservation groups" and take a biglaw job to pay off your debt.

Your best bet would be a retake, hope to score in the mid 170s, and go to YSH. That is the only path I could see that would offer even a 10% chance of fighting genociders and torturers.

Assuming you reach your hypothetical LSAT (you should really get the score and then pose the hypo), your best bet might be gunning for the IILJ scholarship at NYU. It goes up to full tuition and matches your interests (now that the Ruby is gone from UChi, I don't know of any tuition+stipend options in the T14)

tuition+stipend

NU ED is pretty close, and if OP can actually pull off a 171, that's very doable. If your wife can work while you're in school, you'd be totally fine.

Do you have language skills? Experience in the field? Are you independently wealthy?

There are SOME jobs in the int'l human rights field. The problem is getting an entry level paying job is incredibly difficult. I would only suggest going to a school that has post-graduate fellowships in order to let people get experience and eventually get a job. That limits you to the T10, possibly even T6, and I think there are a couple of lower ranked schools like Fordham that also have them.

These jobs are also really about who you know. If you already have connections, you will have a much easier time.

Do you have substantial, long-term experience in and connections from human rights work? If so, go YHS and hope against hope for the best, but be prepared to end up doing something else. If not, then forget about working in "international human rights law" altogether. For your purposes, this field does not exist.