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Out of a desire to be more fiscally conservative (i.e. I'm currently broke), I'm trying to limit how much I spend on applications. Although I received fee waivers from a decent number of schools I'd consider attending, I'm having trouble prioritizing among the schools where I didn't receive waivers. My stats are somewhat middle-of-the-road (163, 3.58) and I'm pretty open minded in terms of location (CA resident FWIW). I should be un-broke by late January, but I feel it's necessary to send out at least some applications ASAP. My budget is $400, which I figure would cover 4 schools (plus another 6-7 schools with waivers). So if you were me, which 4 schools would you pay to apply out of the following:

Arizona
UC Davis
UC Hastings
Colorado
Houston
Iowa
Pepperdine
San Diego
Tulane
Wisconsin

I'll take any feedback I can get (even if it's 12 people saying "retake")

Definately Arizona. They are very generous with aid and you have the right numbers to get a decent chunk of change. On LSN, people who got there apps in relatively late (Feb) last cycle were still getting decent schollies

san diego. they have been doing a lot of acceptances already according to the thread, plus for a tier 2 i hear it places ok.

WhiteCochran wrote:Out of a desire to be more fiscally conservative (i.e. I'm currently broke), I'm trying to limit how much I spend on applications. Although I received fee waivers from a decent number of schools I'd consider attending, I'm having trouble prioritizing among the schools where I didn't receive waivers. My stats are somewhat middle-of-the-road (163, 3.58) and I'm pretty open minded in terms of location (CA resident FWIW). I should be un-broke by late January, but I feel it's necessary to send out at least some applications ASAP. My budget is $400, which I figure would cover 4 schools (plus another 6-7 schools with waivers). So if you were me, which 4 schools would you pay to apply out of the following:

Arizona
UC Davis
UC Hastings
Colorado
Houston
Iowa
Pepperdine
San Diego
Tulane
Wisconsin

I'll take any feedback I can get (even if it's 12 people saying "retake")

Seems like a no-brainer. You're from Cali, so Zona, Davis, and Hastings all make sense. Then I would pick one of Tulane or Colorado.

WhiteCochran wrote: I'll take any feedback I can get (even if it's 12 people saying "retake")

Retake

Srsly though, pick the school that's in the market you want to practice in after you graduate.

Check if you have hidden fee waiver to Houston. I asked their admissions a bunch of times, they said no, I bit the bullet and found out it was hidden. OSU too.

Email USD with this too:

Applicants interested in applying for a merit-based fee waiver are required to provide us with the following information:

Full Name:

LSAC ID:

Date of Birth:

Undergraduate Institution:

Cumulative GPA:

LSAT Score:

Please note that it may take up to two weeks to process your request. You will receive an email notification once a decision has been made.

I got one with practically your same numbers: higher LSAT, lower GPA.

Thanks for the input so far guys

patrickd139 wrote:

WhiteCochran wrote: I'll take any feedback I can get (even if it's 12 people saying "retake")

Retake

Srsly though, pick the school that's in the market you want to practice in after you graduate.

I'll admit I have a slight bias for staying in CA, but I'm really pretty open minded. I drove across country over the summer and found ways to enjoy myself just about everywhere. Any comments on whether any of those school's main placement markets are notably good/bad right now?

bartleby wrote: Check if you have hidden fee waiver to Houston. I asked their admissions a bunch of times, they said no, I bit the bullet and found out it was hidden. OSU too.

I just checked both... no dice. I'll shoot USD an email and see what happens.

WhiteCochran wrote:Thanks for the input so far guys

patrickd139 wrote:

WhiteCochran wrote: I'll take any feedback I can get (even if it's 12 people saying "retake")

Retake

Srsly though, pick the school that's in the market you want to practice in after you graduate.

I'll admit I have a slight bias for staying in CA, but I'm really pretty open minded. I drove across country over the summer and found ways to enjoy myself just about everywhere. Any comments on whether any of those school's main placement markets are notably good/bad right now?

I'd go with what Aqualibrium said above. Concentrate on schools where you're familiar going to be taken seriously during OCI. Driving through a place on a roadtrip + liking it and then going to law school there ≠ living there the rest of your life