Top Law Schools

Curious as to where I should apply. Have a 166, 3.7. Already hit Berk, UW, CU, UChi, UT, Duke, USC (kinda random list, ones that sent me fee waivers). Anywhere else you think I'd be competitive? Interested in environmental law/litigation.

get ready for all of the "Retake" responses

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connordalto wrote:Curious as to where I should apply. Have a 166, 3.7. Already hit Berk, UW, CU, UChi, UT, Duke, USC (kinda random list, ones that sent me fee waivers). Anywhere else you think I'd be competitive? Interested in environmental law/litigation.

Northwestern, GULC, UT, UCLA, Vandy, GW

Where do you want to work?

mm2368 wrote:get ready for all of the "Retake" responses

haha yup yup, distinct possibility depending on how this cycle goes. 166 is the worst because im ok for regional schools but bottom of the barrel for t14. We shall see how the ls gods favor me this cycle.

Nebby wrote:

connordalto wrote:Curious as to where I should apply. Have a 166, 3.7. Already hit Berk, UW, CU, UChi, UT, Duke, USC (kinda random list, ones that sent me fee waivers). Anywhere else you think I'd be competitive? Interested in environmental law/litigation.

Northwestern, GULC, UT, UCLA, Vandy, GW

Where do you want to work?

Mountain west/bay area to pacific northwest. Honestly think the list right now is the best im gonna get for placement in those regions, but wanted to see if anybody else had any ideas. Will probably send an app into GULC and UCLA even tho they didnt give me fee waivers.

connordalto wrote:

mm2368 wrote:get ready for all of the "Retake" responses

haha yup yup, distinct possibility depending on how this cycle goes. 166 is the worst because im ok for regional schools but bottom of the barrel for t14. We shall see how the ls gods favor me this cycle.

it's a great score. please be happy about it; I wish I had scored a 166. Make it work, write some solid essays and get top notch LORs. I pulled off Georgetown and UVA with a much lower score. stay positive

mm2368 wrote:

connordalto wrote:

mm2368 wrote:get ready for all of the "Retake" responses

haha yup yup, distinct possibility depending on how this cycle goes. 166 is the worst because im ok for regional schools but bottom of the barrel for t14. We shall see how the ls gods favor me this cycle.

it's a great score. please be happy about it; I wish I had scored a 166. Make it work, write some solid essays and get top notch LORs. I pulled off Georgetown and UVA with a much lower score. stay positive

Your right, very true. Ya I put a lot of work in my PS and wrote all the optional essays, got good LORs. Fingers crossed!

UVA/gulc is awesome, congrats. did you matriculate?

mm2368 wrote:

connordalto wrote:

mm2368 wrote:get ready for all of the "Retake" responses

haha yup yup, distinct possibility depending on how this cycle goes. 166 is the worst because im ok for regional schools but bottom of the barrel for t14. We shall see how the ls gods favor me this cycle.

it's a great score. please be happy about it; I wish I had scored a 166. Make it work, write some solid essays and get top notch LORs. I pulled off Georgetown and UVA with a much lower score. stay positive

With a "much lower" score, I'm betting you're a URM or don't use the same definition of "much" as the rest of the planet. Great LORs don't make up for dragging down a school's median.

OP: Assuming that you're financing all of this through loans, I would focus on where you can get decent scholarship money. A full scholarship at UW would be fine if you want to stay in the region, whereas going to a school like UT for sticker wouldn't be as helpful for your career goals.

cavalier1138 wrote:With a "much lower" score, I'm betting you're a URM or don't use the same definition of "much" as the rest of the planet. Great LORs don't make up for dragging down a school's median.

it honestly isn't that deep for me, sis. peace & blessings to you, and no - I'm not a URM.

To clarify for the person who reported, although it doesn't always come across very well, references to URMs and lower scores here are generally just a recognition that, statistically, URMs get admitted to law schools with lower LSAT scores than non-URMs, and therefore advice for URMs and non-URMs can vary. It's generally not intended to imply "URMs can't get higher scores" or "URMs are getting in where they shouldn't"; it's just trying to give people accurate information. So if someone says "I got into school X with a much lower LSAT" it's not surprising to have someone ask if they're a URM to be able to assess whether that person's situation is comparable to whatever's being asked about. So while I get that this can come across uncomfortably, and it can be couched more or less diplomatically, it's part of the discussion here, since law school admissions are so heavily numbers-focused.

(Also mm2368 may well have had a higher GPA to create a different circumstance. 166 is a perfectly great score. It may not enable a given applicant to meet their goals, though, depending what those are.)

I think you need to acquire more geographic and career focus here. Lots of those schools don't really make sense based on what you stated (UT for instance)

BigZuck wrote:I think you need to acquire more geographic and career focus here. Lots of those schools don't really make sense based on what you stated (UT for instance)

Well my market is Denver/Front range area of Colorado, Bay area, or PNW(Seattle/Portland, around there). I'm anticipating that biglaw is relatively insular in all of the above markets, which is something I would probably do for a couple years but don't have too. Ideally: would be doing PI natural resources/env litigation for a PI firm.

For placement into Denver, Ive heard CU/DU and UT are good bets, obviously also t14. Same with Seattle/Portland, although Ive heard that for what little biglaw there is, UW grads are pretty much on par with T14. Berkeley is my top choice right now, and I will prolly attend if I get in. That would probably mean biglaw or LRAP financing for a couple years, but thats fine with me.

So in conclusion: will attend Berkeley if I get in, otherwise hit CU/UW to get the regional market with some scholly money hopefully. Mainly just wanted to ask to see if anybody else had any ideas for good feeder schools into these markets.

UCI doesn't have an application fee if you're trying to apply to places for free.

Seattle and Denver are small, insular, disparate, and desireable markets. That's part of what I mean about geographic focus. There's probably very few people on this earth who would have a good shot at getting desireable legal jobs in those markets. Especially big law.

Want to do big law but also PI is also confirming the career focus thing for me too. What exactly do you mean by environmental law? What do you want to do? Do you want to save the environment? Do you want to help large corporations avoid environmental liability?

LRAP financing for only a couple of years? What do you mean by that?

I graduated from UT. Why do you think it would be a good bet for Denver?