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Hello everyone
URM (African American male).
Economics degree
GPA- UG GPA 3.5 LSAC 3.48
LSAT 153
Decent softs
3 good letters of recommendation

My GPA is at median and my LSAT is 5 points under 25th percentile.


What are my chances at university of Illinois? They are my first choice, appreciate it

It's hard to say with much confidence, but of the four AA applicants in LSN in your stat range, only one was admitted and they had a 157 and 3.3.

This can feel played out on TLS, but in your case it's totally valid. Why are you sitting on a 153 LSAT? How many times have you taken the test? If it's any fewer times than 3 you have to retake. If you get to 160, you will be able to get into schools better than U of I and with really good money. The test is learnable. If you can get through college with a solid 3.5 GPA, you can definitely get at least a 160 on the LSAT.

You should retake. With a stronger LSAT score, you could be hitting up UChicago (or another T14 school) instead. Even if it means taking a year off, you should at least consider it. One year is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Regardless of what you decide, good luck to you.

I would love to apply this cycle and I was going to retake for February but I haven't studied since the day before my December test and I feel like its going to take me longer than 3-4 weeks to get back in the groove of things with my scoring.

im stuck between a rock and hard place

fliptrip wrote:It's hard to say with much confidence, but of the four AA applicants in LSN in your stat range, only one was admitted and they had a 157 and 3.3.

This can feel played out on TLS, but in your case it's totally valid. Why are you sitting on a 153 LSAT? How many times have you taken the test? If it's any fewer times than 3 you have to retake. If you get to 160, you will be able to get into schools better than U of I and with really good money. The test is learnable. If you can get through college with a solid 3.5 GPA, you can definitely get at least a 160 on the LSAT.

this is my 1st time taking the test

Definitely retake and apply next cycle. If you can break 160, it will be a game changer.

kinglew wrote:I would love to apply this cycle and I was going to retake for February but I haven't studied since the day before my December test and I feel like its going to take me longer than 3-4 weeks to get back in the groove of things with my scoring.

im stuck between a rock and hard place

Don't rush into law school. It will be there next year and the year after and so on. There is a massive difference in your career possibilities not to mention your financial future that is based on where you go to law school. As you sit now, paying something more than 50% tuition to go to U of I is probably your best outcome and not one you can count on at all. Only 30% of their most recent class ended up with a top-tier outcome (100+ firm job/clerkship)

With a retake to 160, as others have mentioned, you have an outside shot at Chicago and Northwestern and might get a little money to both. If you really commit and study and get it to a 165, then you're going to be looking at a good shot at Chicago and NW and will get some good money to boot. At Chicago, 76% of their class ended up in a top tier outcome and at NW, it was 66%.