Top Law Schools

I am a PR. Just found out i got a 170 today and not sure if I should retake or not. I really want to attend HYS or CC. My UG not exceptional in anyway and I don't have any spectacular softs which could be augmented in the time between now and the beginning of my matriculation (Fall 2011) or could retake, or could do a combination of both.

All perspectives and suggestions are appreciated

Wait. You're a Puerto Rican?

In at HYSCCN

vanwinkle wrote:Wait. You're a Puerto Rican?

In at HYSCCN

Looking at LSN it doesn't look that easy.

I have eh softs and not a particularly competitive UG

Instead of studying to retake spend that time bring up the rest of your application up to par. Make your PS and DS bulletproof and volunteer or something like that.

MichelFoucault wrote:

vanwinkle wrote:Wait. You're a Puerto Rican?

In at HYSCCN

Looking at LSN it doesn't look that easy.

I have eh softs and not a particularly competitive UG

Puerto Rican = URM = IN with those stats

You're Puerto Rican, you win at life, at least in this instance.

vanwinkle wrote:

MichelFoucault wrote:

vanwinkle wrote:Wait. You're a Puerto Rican?

In at HYSCCN

Looking at LSN it doesn't look that easy.

I have eh softs and not a particularly competitive UG

Puerto Rican = URM = IN with those stats

I guess that assertion is ultimately settled if we can either find (1) a counter-example of a PR with those stats or better who was rejected, or (2) whether it would be easier to bulletproof rest of application or score higher on retake. This is my PT history:

162 167 166 166 162 168 171 170 171 172 172 172 169 174 173 171 173 172 179 174 180 169 177 173 171 180 171 171

Are you a fan of Foucault? If so, law school seems odd.

More importantly, shoot for the stars. I think you'd be wasting your time with a retake with those numbers & your urm status.

Yimbeezy wrote:Are you a fan of Foucault? If so, law school seems odd.

More importantly, shoot for the stars. I think you'd be wasting your time with a retake with those numbers & your urm status.

I don't know if I would say I was a fan of foucault but I remember enjoying studying him. I feel his writing introduced me to unfamiliar perspectives.

But why would Foucault + Law School be odd?

MichelFoucault wrote:

vanwinkle wrote:

MichelFoucault wrote:

vanwinkle wrote:Wait. You're a Puerto Rican?

In at HYSCCN

Looking at LSN it doesn't look that easy.

I have eh softs and not a particularly competitive UG

Puerto Rican = URM = IN with those stats

I guess that assertion is ultimately settled if we can either find (1) a counter-example of a PR with those stats or better who was rejected, or (2) whether it would be easier to bulletproof rest of application or score higher on retake. This is my PT history:

162 167 166 166 162 168 171 170 171 172 172 172 169 174 173 171 173 172 179 174 180 169 177 173 171 180 171 171

Dude, find one person on this board who disagrees with me. I dare you. You're in at the top 6, probably most if not all of them. This is what a URM boost is. Search the forum for it. PRs with much worse numbers than you have gotten into H and Y before.

Not to sound offensive, but PR applicants just have, on average, the absolute worst LSAT averages, and they are in demand. You'll get in everywhere.

shadowfrost000 wrote:Not to sound offensive, but PR applicants just have, on average, the absolute worst LSAT averages, and they are in demand. You'll get in everywhere.

No offense taken. I looked up the stats myself and was a bit surprised to find out avg PR scores are the lowest in the under represented groups studied.

I still think that with no strong softs and a weak UG make HYS still unpredictable.

The question becomes whether or not to retake.....

MichelFoucault wrote:

shadowfrost000 wrote:Not to sound offensive, but PR applicants just have, on average, the absolute worst LSAT averages, and they are in demand. You'll get in everywhere.

No offense taken. I looked up the stats myself and was a bit surprised to find out avg PR scores are the lowest in the under represented groups studied.

I still think that with no strong softs and a weak UG make HYS still unpredictable.

The question becomes whether or not to retake.....

I sware to God if you retake and don't apply now because you are scared of getting in you are the biggest idiot in the history of TLS.

jawsthegreat wrote:

MichelFoucault wrote:

shadowfrost000 wrote:Not to sound offensive, but PR applicants just have, on average, the absolute worst LSAT averages, and they are in demand. You'll get in everywhere.

No offense taken. I looked up the stats myself and was a bit surprised to find out avg PR scores are the lowest in the under represented groups studied.

I still think that with no strong softs and a weak UG make HYS still unpredictable.

The question becomes whether or not to retake.....

I sware to God if you retake and don't apply now because you are scared of getting in you are the biggest idiot in the history of TLS.

I wasn't planning on applying this cycle even if I got a 180. I am not in a rush and would like to take the time to really make the appropriate decision about my career goals and what is the best way to meet them. I am not ruling out that this might entail retaking, taking a year or two to do something to significantly bolster my resume for beyond Law School, or doing a combination of both.

However I agree if my goal was simply big law asap then I ought to apply asap and goto the best school I get in to.

MichelFoucault wrote:I wasn't planning on applying this cycle even if I got a 180. I am not in a rush and would like to take the time to really make the appropriate decision about my career goals and what is the best way to meet them. I am not ruling out that this might entail retaking, taking a year or two to do something to significantly bolster my resume for beyond Law School, or doing a combination of both.

However I agree if my goal was simply big law asap then I ought to apply asap and go to the best school I get in to.

Maybe I'm reading into this too much, but you come across as someone who's not 100 percent sold on attending law school. If I had your stats, I'd have walked the app to Cambridge and wherever else I wanted to go and back by now. No hesitation whatsoever. Whether my career goals included big law, small law, or whatever law.

The best way to bolster your resume for what comes beyond law school is to go to the best law school you can, and crush it -- if you truly want to go to law school to begin with. If you're not really feeling it, though, don't go.

MichelFoucault wrote:

shadowfrost000 wrote:Not to sound offensive, but PR applicants just have, on average, the absolute worst LSAT averages, and they are in demand. You'll get in everywhere.

No offense taken. I looked up the stats myself and was a bit surprised to find out avg PR scores are the lowest in the under represented groups studied.

I still think that with no strong softs and a weak UG make HYS still unpredictable.

The question becomes whether or not to retake.....

Why do the low scores surprise you?

M20009 wrote:

MichelFoucault wrote:

shadowfrost000 wrote:Not to sound offensive, but PR applicants just have, on average, the absolute worst LSAT averages, and they are in demand. You'll get in everywhere.

No offense taken. I looked up the stats myself and was a bit surprised to find out avg PR scores are the lowest in the under represented groups studied.

I still think that with no strong softs and a weak UG make HYS still unpredictable.

The question becomes whether or not to retake.....

Why do the low scores surprise you?

The low scores didn't surprise me but the fact that they were not insignificantly lower than all other URM groups.

MichelFoucault wrote:

M20009 wrote:

MichelFoucault wrote:

shadowfrost000 wrote:Not to sound offensive, but PR applicants just have, on average, the absolute worst LSAT averages, and they are in demand. You'll get in everywhere.

No offense taken. I looked up the stats myself and was a bit surprised to find out avg PR scores are the lowest in the under represented groups studied.

I still think that with no strong softs and a weak UG make HYS still unpredictable.

The question becomes whether or not to retake.....

Why do the low scores surprise you?

The low scores didn't surprise me but the fact that they were not insignificantly lower than all other URM groups.

Well now that I think about it that difference could be explained by the fact that many PR test takers are probably from Puerto Rico and are not american puerto ricans and therefore might have less facility with the english language.

M20009 wrote:

MichelFoucault wrote:

shadowfrost000 wrote:Not to sound offensive, but PR applicants just have, on average, the absolute worst LSAT averages, and they are in demand. You'll get in everywhere.

No offense taken. I looked up the stats myself and was a bit surprised to find out avg PR scores are the lowest in the under represented groups studied.

I still think that with no strong softs and a weak UG make HYS still unpredictable.

The question becomes whether or not to retake.....

Why do the low scores surprise you?

MichelFoucault wrote:
I wasn't planning on applying this cycle even if I got a 180. I am not in a rush and would like to take the time to really make the appropriate decision about my career goals and what is the best way to meet them. I am not ruling out that this might entail retaking, taking a year or two to do something to significantly bolster my resume for beyond Law School, or doing a combination of both.

However I agree if my goal was simply big law asap then I ought to apply asap and goto the best school I get in to.

i agree with the general consensus that retaking makes no sense for you. to clear up what seems to be the misconception of some posters, one is not branded "URM" and treated the same as all other URM's in terms of application consideration. African Americans receive a different boost from Native Americans, Native Americans a different boost from Mexican Americans, etc. Suffice to say that as a Puerto Rican applicant, you are likely to receive a larger boost than that of any other URM, and that retaking the LSAT is unlikely to significantly affect your already near-certain chance of admittance to the the T5.

You seem unsure about what you want to do. Law is of course an option, and with a JD from the caliber of school to which you'll likely be accepted in mind, you have the opportunity to lead a very successful and fulfilling career in law. If you're on the fence, it may be a good idea to take the plunge and apply. Worst case scenario: you graduate from an amazing school with a JD and end up using it to get a job in any number of other fields which welcome JD holders. If law is really not something in which you're interested, though, you really shouldn't do it.

Alternatively, it may be a good idea to take a year or two off before applying and explore your options. The extra work experience will only bolster your application further.

Good luck!