Retake and Sit Out? Forum

[RoryC]

Though I have a pretty good idea of what the consensus will be, I want to verify that I'm doing the right thing. Here's my situation:

3.8 from a top private school, 159 LSAT on only attempt. Full disclosure, I didn't study really at all but I thought I could be content with this score.

I applied this cycle and am looking at the following offers:

$50,000/yr Cardozo (could live rent free so COA ~$30000)
$41,000/yr CWRU w/ $3000 additional 1L ( could live rent free so COA ~$45000)

I also got $20,000/yr at W&L, $5,000/yr at CUNY, and in at Arizona. Haven't heard from Fordham, ND, Temple, OSU.

I graduated in 2015 and only wanted to take one year off but the more I thought about it the more I think I'm selling myself short. I registered for June and plan to actually really study this time and hope for the best. Could I potentially negotiate $$ if I do, or should I wait another year and reapply? I know that depends a lot on my score, but I genuinely don't think I could do worse than 159 as it was a pretty poor showing.

Thank you!

[fliptrip]

The only thing you should do is concentrate on studying for your retake. You should get an LSAT that matches you GPA and see what happens in the next cycle.

[TLSDookie]

FWIW I got a 158 on my diagnostic LSAT (effectively after studying as much as you did), and pulled that up to a 173 with ~4 months of non-exhaustive studying largely through an online course. Given your GPA, if you pulled your 159 up, I think you could easily score 168-170.

The real world difference that would translate to would be a significant amount of money at a top 14 school. Or you could handicap your career, throw away any meaning working for that 3.8 will ever have, and pay 30K to attend a school with just OK (and many very bad) outcomes. It's totally your decision how much you don't want to actually study for the LSAT for a couple months though.

If you don't want to re-take the LSAT, I can't imagine any situation in which it would be rational to attend Cardozo costing you 3 years and 30K instead of choosing a different career path coming out of undergrad with a 3.8.

[Mikey]

Don't let that GPA go to waste, sit out and kick ass in June!