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Hello,


My buddy has a 3.94 LSDAC GPA. He got a 168, after scoring in the low 170s on his PTs. Applied mid-January. He currently has ~40% scholly to UC Los Angeles, out of state. Waitlisted at Harvard, NYU, Virginia, Columbia. Straight denied at Yale, Stanford, and Berkeley. He's 25% Hispanic. He has no idea what he wants to do with his degree but is rather debt conscious.

Should he take the offer, wait until next year, or wait and retake?

quickquestionthanks wrote:Hello,


My buddy has a 3.94 LSDAC GPA. He got a 168, after scoring in the low 170s on his PTs. Applied mid-January. He currently has ~40% scholly to UC Los Angeles, out of state. Waitlisted at Harvard, NYU, Virginia, Columbia. Straight denied at Yale, Stanford, and Berkeley. He's 25% Hispanic. He has no idea what he wants to do with his degree but is rather debt conscious.

Should he take the offer, wait until next year, or wait and retake?

What kind of hispanic? If he's not Mexican or Puerto Rican he likely won't get a strong boost.

I would say enroll.

Low 170's on a PT isn't much better than a 168 on the real deal.

I wonder why he got straight denied at Berkeley though. They like high gpa's. There's something fishy there, you would think he would at least get a waitlist. Did he have a risky PS or something?

Edit: Checked numbers. He's over median LSAT Berkeley, and right at (.01 below) they're 75th percentile for GPA. Kind of surprising he got straight rejected there, I would have given him strong chances at getting accepted there.

he should: in my opinion
Take the lsat again going over all the questions, in detail, when reviewing.
Write one sentence for why each option is right or wrong, be specific.
Reapply early.
What about the schools in the middle of what you mentioned, like mvpnd, and texas

Maybe schools felt that his only being 1/4 Mexican didn't merit a URM boost. If that was the case, that's unlikely to change this year. Still, with those numbers even absent a boost you'd assume he'd get into T14 (not T6), but applying in mid-January probably hurt him.

I don't think deferring will hurt him in any way, but it might not help much. He's applying to schools between UCLA and Berkeley, right?

He missed a lot of schools in the middle. Duke, Cornell, Michigan, Northwestern, and Penn, for example.

bump / what are the risks of going down on a retake? say to 167

Dude should withdraw and reapply in September. If you get WL'd on a January app, that means they wanted you but had no space for you. If he got WL'd at places like Harvard, Columbia, NYU, and Virginia, then he should be able to get into one of those schools (or another school of that caliber by applying more broadly this fall).

Seriously, not waiting and reapplying is a huge enormous mistake.

Yeah, this has nothing to do with the "part" URM status -- it's the fact that he applied in mid January.

Call & see if UCLA can increase the scholarship award. Call Harvard, NYU, Columbia & Virginia to see if they will offer a spot in next year's class if he waits one year to start law school.

Reapply for sure. ASAP

Reapply for sure. ASAP

romothesavior wrote:Reapply for sure. ASAP

really running up that post counter eh romo?

Thanks for the replies guys. These latest responses are the ones I was expecting to hear a bit earlier. I was just so happy for him that he was getting money to go to UCLA, that I failed to inquire about his GPA. A 3.94 is a terrible thing to waste.

He applied late in the midst of what was easily the most competitive cycle in the history of law school admissions. Also, this:

He missed a lot of schools in the middle. Duke, Cornell, Michigan, Northwestern, and Penn, for example.

I say reapply and submit all apps on the day they become available.

dude if i had that gpa i would do all in my power to make the lsat my bitch and then go to harvard or somewhere really good for almost free

rejectmaster wrote:dude if i had that gpa i would do all in my power to make the lsat my bitch and then go to harvard or somewhere really good for almost free

If the described applicant applies in September, they can likely get into Harvard without retaking.

reapply in Sept.

/thread

He still may get off a wait list this cycle. But, I'd definitely wait.