UC Hastings, Santa Clara, McGeorge Forum

[bessmarvin89]

Hello CLASS OF 2015 ! Just looking for people to stress with GPA 3.9/ biology LSAT: 156, Immigrant, Minority, Female. I finished ALL my applications (yay all files complete) here are the schools I've applied to:
Santa Clara (Early decision)
U of Pacific McGeorge
UC Hastings (LEOP)
UC San Diego
UC Berkeley (expecting a nice rejection letter lol)
Loyola Law School
Tulane
Washington and Lee
U of Miami

Let me know where you've applied

[apollo2015]

I applied to a lot of the California schools you mentioned. I still need to apply to UC Davis and University of Washington, and then I'll take a break for a month to see if I get into any of my first round picks.

Best of luck to my application peers!

[bessmarvin89]

Good plan! What were your stats like? And I HATE waiting! I considered applying to Washington but I hate the snow and cold weather so I'm Really banking on the west coast and these schools. Goodluck to you too

[North]

GPA 3.9/ biology LSAT: 156, Immigrant, Minority

What you need to do is withdraw all of those applications. Take a year off and study HARD to add 12 or 13 points to your LSAT. If you do that, you could be at Harvard a year from now. If you only add 6, you're still probably in at Cornell or Georgetown. That's not a lot of work to drastically change the course of the rest of your life. You sound like a very nice person, so please don't waste your GPA and minority status on any (excluding Berkeley, of course) of the schools you've applied to. I would kill for that GPA, please don't waste it.

[North]

Don’t believe me? Here are some examples from last cycle:

http://lawschoolnumbers.com/quetzalbird
http://lawschoolnumbers.com/txcyn
http://lawschoolnumbers.com/jravae

Try plugging your GPA and different LSAT scores (be sure to check URM) into here and see how rosy things look with a few more points:

http://www.lawschoolpredictor.com/wp-co ... ograms.htm

[bessmarvin89]

North,

I appreciate your input. Been there considered exactly that, I graduated an year early, cum laude. Since I was 20 when I graduated college, I got a job I studied for an year for my LSATs, I took three courses Kaplan, Princeton and Testmasters, I solved EVERY question ever released by the LSAC. Heres the truth: I suck at English. My gramma sucks except for conversational purposes. I guess I'm just stupid. Timing kills me especially reading comprehension. I'm not Havard material, dude I started with a 129 diagnostic am year go, it's taken so much to get to the mid 150's. I'm drained. I know even studying another year I'll be lucky if I get a 160. I'll be lucky if I get into any of the above schools. Why about you? Where are you applying? Again thanks for your feedback.

[North]

I understand. If I knew you personally, though, I'm not sure that I'd let you off the hook even with that. As for me, I'm finishing up my senior year and taking the advice you took: I'm taking next year off to learn how to blow out the LSAT. Applications are a ways off for me. If I get my 17X, I'm shooting for lower T-14.

Why no UC Davis, Los Angeles, or USC? You have a shot at all of them.

[Worker and Parasite]

UC Berkeley (expecting a nice rejection letter lol)

Why would you expect to be rejected? Plenty of people within your range have made it into Boalt with those numbers. Add on your URM bonus and you're pretty competitive

[apollo2015]

Am I correct in assuming that the OP is not a URM-type minority? (URM being black, native american, or hispanic. Asians are pretty much considered to be white in terms of admissions.)

[picklebarrel]

I would also apply to USC and UCLA. USC is expensive, but pretty generous with scholarships (with no stipulations). You have a shot at both schools.

[89vision]

Am I correct in assuming that the OP is not a URM-type minority? (URM being black, native american, or hispanic. Asians are pretty much considered to be white in terms of admissions.)

At least for undegrad, Asian status hurts you, according to a study by a Princeton Professor. Dings you about 50 points, if I remember correctly.

[bessmarvin89]

I understand. If I knew you personally, though, I'm not sure that I'd let you off the hook even with that. As for me, I'm finishing up my senior year and taking the advice you took: I'm taking next year off to learn how to blow out the LSAT. Applications are a ways off for me. If I get my 17X, I'm shooting for lower T-14.

Why no UC Davis, Los Angeles, or USC? You have a shot at all of them.

North,

I had a perfect on the Logic games, it was reading comp and verbal, to be honest, it's not about not trying, I've tried, I just am not good at it. I have an Eidetic memory, its a blessing and a curse. Show me 100 pages, Ill memorize them easy, this boosted my undergrad career. Tell me to do LSAT questions, I'm shaky, add time constraints, I'm lost. YES STUDY like hell for your LSATs I'm sure you'll do great.

Davis's 25th percentile is 162-165 range, I dont stand a chance, same with LA and USC.

[bessmarvin89]

Am I correct in assuming that the OP is not a URM-type minority? (URM being black, native american, or hispanic. Asians are pretty much considered to be white in terms of admissions.)

At least for undegrad, Asian status hurts you, according to a study by a Princeton Professor. Dings you about 50 points, if I remember correctly.

Guys, This varies according to school, like Tulane for example has a low Asian pacific student % and they do consider Asians minority. It all depends on school. Being a female helps and being broke really helps !

[bessmarvin89]

I would also apply to USC and UCLA. USC is expensive, but pretty generous with scholarships (with no stipulations). You have a shot at both schools.

You really think so? I'm not in their 25th percentiles and it worries the hell out of me. Where are you applying?

[bessmarvin89]

UC Berkeley (expecting a nice rejection letter lol)

Why would you expect to be rejected? Plenty of people within your range have made it into Boalt with those numbers. Add on your URM bonus and you're pretty competitive

Because I'm like 12 points off their 25th percentiles and because I don't like to have expectations only to be crushed down. Berkeley is my DREAM school. I worked so hard on my personal statement for Berkeley, I idenitified a specific program at Berkeley which identifies people like me. I hope they atleast consider me. Thanks for your encouragement. My file is currently under review since Nov 10th, I'll keep you posted. Where have you applied?

[bessmarvin89]

Guys,

I'm overwhelmed by your replies and participation. I really appreciate your feedback. I wish you all the best of luck

[Worker and Parasite]

UC Berkeley (expecting a nice rejection letter lol)

Why would you expect to be rejected? Plenty of people within your range have made it into Boalt with those numbers. Add on your URM bonus and you're pretty competitive

Because I'm like 12 points off their 25th percentiles and because I don't like to have expectations only to be crushed down. Berkeley is my DREAM school. I worked so hard on my personal statement for Berkeley, I idenitified a specific program at Berkeley which identifies people like me. I hope they atleast consider me. Thanks for your encouragement. My file is currently under review since Nov 10th, I'll keep you posted. Where have you applied?

Your GPA kills it and UCB is big into GPA and little into LSAT. I think the Dean wrote a post regarding their dismay of the LSAT and how they didn't like how one test would be an indicator of success. I wouldn't look at simply medians, check the graphs on LSN for their trends.

I'm the reverse, low GPA/decent-ish LSAT but I applied to all of the UC's and selections from T35 and up.

I don't want to give you false hope but your chances at Boalt aren't laughable. Best of luck!

[89vision]

Am I correct in assuming that the OP is not a URM-type minority? (URM being black, native american, or hispanic. Asians are pretty much considered to be white in terms of admissions.)

At least for undegrad, Asian status hurts you, according to a study by a Princeton Professor. Dings you about 50 points, if I remember correctly.

Guys, This varies according to school, like Tulane for example has a low Asian pacific student % and they do consider Asians minority. It all depends on school. Being a female helps and being broke really helps !

Here's a reference to the study. You can find the actual study online as well.

"To have the same chances of gaining admission as a black student with an SAT score of 1100, an Hispanic student otherwise equally matched in background characteristics would have to have a 1230, a white student a 1410, and an Asian student a 1550. Here the Espenshade/Radford results are consistent with other studies, including those of William Bowen and Derek Bok in their book The Shape of the River, though they go beyond this influential study in showing both the substantial Hispanic admissions advantage and the huge admissions penalty suffered by Asian applicants. "

--LinkRemoved--

*I am not endorsing the argument of the article, I was just looking for the study.

[bobbyh1919]

UC Berkeley (expecting a nice rejection letter lol)

Why would you expect to be rejected? Plenty of people within your range have made it into Boalt with those numbers. Add on your URM bonus and you're pretty competitive

The lowest LSAT I saw on TLS Stats was a 163. Not to be a buzzkill or anything lol, but I think OP has more reasonably assessed his odds.

Best of luck to you.

[dreakol]

what was your UG?

top 10? top 20? top 50? you get the point.

[Worker and Parasite]

UC Berkeley (expecting a nice rejection letter lol)

Why would you expect to be rejected? Plenty of people within your range have made it into Boalt with those numbers. Add on your URM bonus and you're pretty competitive

The lowest LSAT I saw on TLS Stats was a 163. Not to be a buzzkill or anything lol, but I think OP has more reasonably assessed his odds.

Best of luck to you.

?

http://lawschoolnumbers.com/Dream2011/jd
http://lawschoolnumbers.com/iamthewalrus/jd
http://lawschoolnumbers.com/adidas989/jd

These are all URM folk though. I agree that it's hard but not unreasonable.

[bobbyh1919]

UC Berkeley (expecting a nice rejection letter lol)

Why would you expect to be rejected? Plenty of people within your range have made it into Boalt with those numbers. Add on your URM bonus and you're pretty competitive

The lowest LSAT I saw on TLS Stats was a 163. Not to be a buzzkill or anything lol, but I think OP has more reasonably assessed his odds.

Best of luck to you.

?

http://lawschoolnumbers.com/Dream2011/jd
http://lawschoolnumbers.com/iamthewalrus/jd
http://lawschoolnumbers.com/adidas989/jd

These are all URM folk though. I agree that it's hard but not unreasonable.

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/s ... c-berkeley

I was going by that. I just use TLS Stats because the graphs give you a very good idea of how people in your stat range are doing.

[picklebarrel]

I would also apply to USC and UCLA. USC is expensive, but pretty generous with scholarships (with no stipulations). You have a shot at both schools.

You really think so? I'm not in their 25th percentiles and it worries the hell out of me. Where are you applying?

I'm a 1L who should be studying, but I definitely outperformed my numbers last year. I had a 3.9/160 and I'm not a URM, so I don't think you should let the 25th percentiles get to you. Your GPA is really good and some schools may be looking for higher GPAs.

[North]

Because I'm like 12 points off their 25th percentiles and because I don't like to have expectations only to be crushed down.

You are a URM with a 3.9 GPA. With a little luck and a thoughtful application, UCLA or USC might bite. You look pretty good at Davis if you submit quickly. Please, send them applications while it's still early-ish in the cycle.

Really, just do it. It's worth the money for the chance that they'll bite. Disappointment is a lot easier to deal with than a lifetime of the what-if game.

[bessmarvin89]

what was your UG?

top 10? top 20? top 50? you get the point.

Top 15 and I graduated an year early cum laude. Not showing off since I already admitted I was stupid considering my lsat score but just saying so you can help me reassess my odds.