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I am in full-fledged mental crisis mode. After taking the October LSAT and scoring well, I was ready to apply and go T14, or get great money somewhere. Now, after 2+ months of LOR hassle and my own procrastination, I'm finally ready to apply a week before the deadline only to stop and ask ... ****, is it worth it? Those decision date graphs are pretty daunting, and I'd hate to screw myself over in terms of admission or scholly's, but I'm also afraid of starting my job search late and being funemployed for a year. Here's my list, my stats and a few of my major sticking points, what do you guys say?

~3.9 GPA, 174 LSAT, decent softs, top 50 UG
HYS - H is clearly a waste at this point, Y is not anti-deadline, S I have no idea.
Boalt, Mich, VA, GULC, UCLA, USC, GW and AU WLC. A few seem like they take a decent amount of kids well after the deadline, and at American I'm enough of a shoo-in (with a good Why AU to fight YP) and they've extended the deadline on the scholly I want, but most seem like there's probably only 5 or 10 seats left.

Money is important to me - I'd be nervous paying full sticker anywhere but T6 or so. I may be answering my own question writing this, but the things I've learned on TLS have been invaluable, and helped me get my score, so hearing from you guys would be a big help. Thanks y'all.

tldr - Why didn't I find TLS a year sooner, woe is me the deadline approaches, am I screwed even with solid hards and softs?

if you don't get HYS, I would wait a year.

mattviphky wrote:if you don't get HYS, I would wait a year.

absolutely

you could apply and if you don't get the results you think you would get if you had applied earlier, wait another year and do it again early. Your LOR's stay on file and it won't be that big of a deal to apply again.

This is not something worth having a mental crisis over. Worst case scenario - you'll waste a couple hundred bucks on applications this year and apply again.

TommyK wrote:you could apply and if you don't get the results you think you would get if you had applied earlier, wait another year and do it again early. Your LOR's stay on file and it won't be that big of a deal to apply again.

This is not something worth having a mental crisis over. Worst case scenario - you'll waste a couple hundred bucks on applications this year and apply again.

That was my thinking originally, but I've been reading around the forum that getting accepted, declining, then reapplying the next cycle is inviting a ding/wl. The lower half of my schools I don't think I'd go to without decent $$$, but what are the odds of a significant scholly applying a week before the deadline?

Apply now. It'll force you to write a PS. Even though you'll have to modify it next year, the whole process will help you get things together earlier next year.

I say get a FT job, work on your PS now, and apply when apps open up in Sept/Oct. With those numbers I would want to maximize admits and scholly offers.

mattviphky wrote:if you don't get HYS, I would wait a year.

Another year of WE will only make you a better candidate (and may be a necessity at YHS, which have upwards of 70% of students not K-JD).

Thanks for the advice all. It looks like I need to start filling out some job applications. I'll be back to TLS as things get moving for the 2012-2013 cycle.