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Hey everyone, I had a quick question on when It is wise to take my risks with RD over ED. I held out on submitting my GPA in order to allow this semester to boost my grades. With that said, At worse, I have calculated I will have a 3.13 LSDAS GPA. That obviously is not great, but it is what I have to deal with. I have a wide range of schools I plan on applying too, and one of my top choices is UVA. My question is, with my status as an AA male, what LSAT score would be wise to go for RD instead of ED? (ex: 165?, 167?)

I ask this question because my fiance lives in California(and i have grown up there) and If I had a scholarship offer at a school like USC/UCLA(even UCI due to proximity of my home to the school and ties to the area) I would be willing to take it over UVA. I assume the low GPA kicks me out of the running for any California schools in the top 25, and due to UCLA being a public university in california my AA status has no value, but I would like others opinions on the matter and what score would be wise to take my chances on RD.

If you're asking if a AA URM male with a 3.1 and a 165 should ED to UVA, I would say no. You might loose out on much better offers. It seems like you have a lot of hypotheticals though. Do you have an LSAT score, or are you guessing what your December score will be?

It's not necessarily true that California schools don't go for affirmative action. USC at the very least isn't a state school, and thus your URM boost should be worth something. Keep in mind though that many schools outside the T14 are a lot less concerned about URM status than within the T14. On LSN, I see any number of students get into UVA or Penn and get dinged at GWU or Notre Dame.

State schools do AA. They're just allowed to call it "rounding the class" whereas they can't do that for UG.

If you get 165, you honestly have a chance at NYU, Penn and UVA RD, so I'd hold off.

DON'T ED. Get a 166-170 and blanket the T14.

wbrother wrote:If you're asking if a AA URM male with a 3.1 and a 165 should ED to UVA, I would say no. You might loose out on much better offers. It seems like you have a lot of hypotheticals though. Do you have an LSAT score, or are you guessing what your December score will be?

Yeah, I am waiting on my December score. My grades won't be processed to be shipped to LSAC until the 20th(I put them on hold until final grades were submitted), and I understand it takes a while for that to reach LSAC and etc. Anyways, I Just did not want to ED, wait 15 days for a response, and then decide to drop the rest of my money on the remaining apps if I were dinged since it would be late January by then.

To the others, I understand USC isn't a state school, but I had understood it as the likes of UC Davis and UCLA could not outwardly state they boost for URMs. I know retake is the correct choice, and I will decide on that after my scores arrive. Thanks for the input though everyone.