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I have a 3.73 and just got a 170 in the Oct. LSAT. Im a Puerto Rican/South American immigrant. The only thing that has me worried is the fact that I'm applying right before thanksgiving at the earliest due to waiting for letters of rec. I also have an application pending at Teach for America, which I have good chances for. My main question is how much does it affect me to be applying that late in the cycle?

PS. Stanford/NYU are my top choices.

It shouldn't be a big deal; if you get your apps in by the end of Nov., that is still considered "semi-early." I suggest making sure you have everything ready so that when you receive your LORs, you can just send your apps right away. Btw, with your numbers and probable URM status, you would be out of your mind not to apply to all of the top 5, unless there's something you're not telling us.

MW

You're in at your top choices. Yes, definitely get the apps in by Thanksgiving.

lookingglass3 wrote:I have a 3.73 and just got a 170 in the Oct. LSAT. Im a Puerto Rican/South American immigrant. The only thing that has me worried is the fact that I'm applying right before thanksgiving at the earliest due to waiting for letters of rec. I also have an application pending at Teach for America, which I have good chances for. My main question is how much does it affect me to be applying that late in the cycle?

PS. Stanford/NYU are my top choices.

urm and those #'s i'd push for harvard. a 170 urm is better than a 180 non-urm to schools that have an LSAT median of a 169 or lower. you're helping their ranking on multiple fronts, and not just one. i would still bet on you getting in to 170 plus medians like nyu and stanford....especially as a first generation immigrant. i know that doesn't matter for most law schools, but it makes your #'s all the more impressive as you actually had a real struggle to learn English and thrive as you have (unless you came here when you were 6 weeks old or something.)

Thank you guys very much for your replies. Unfortunately my undergraduate degree (Finance), here at the University of Florida makes it very difficult to build a relationship with professors. Most core classes are online due to 500+ students enrolled, and you never see professors teach more than one course. I hope I get my LORs with enough time to apply before thanksgiving, but it is really out of my hands at this point. I also have applied to TFA, where I have very good chances as far as I can see from the meetings I've had with their recruiters. I might also retake, because although a 170 is a great score, I bombed the LG section on my test, and LG is by far my best section. Sorry for the rambling, but this is such an important decision that I just want to have as much input as I possibly can.

@sharpnsmooth I came here when I was 10 when Venezuela went through it's decline. I was very fortunate that my dad was Puerto Rican so we could come to this country to escape Chavez.

Certainly not a Chavez defender, but your response implies that things were better during Carlos Perez and those before him. Which is true, if you're pretty damn well to do. Otherwise, probably not as much.