Top Law Schools

I graduated with a 3.26 UGPA with a huge upward trend (the last 5 semesters were all above 3.5) from a top tier university. I want to stay in the Big 10 and the schools that I am really interested in are Minnesota, Madison, Illinois (Urbana). I currently work in politics so I have good and interesting work experience that should help my application, just want to see what I should be shooting for.

Thanks!

Aim high, like for Northwestern or Michigan. That way, you're still rocking Big 10, but you've got good prestige to boot. But for the UW/UIUC/Minn tier, I'd imagine you would want a 164-168.

uwalumn11 wrote:I graduated with a 3.26 UGPA with a huge upward trend (the last 5 semesters were all above 3.5) from a top tier university. I want to stay in the Big 10 and the schools that I am really interested in are Minnesota, Madison, Illinois (Urbana). I currently work in politicsso I have good and interestingwork experience that should help my application doesn't mean shit except for NU, just want to see what I should be shooting for.

Thanks!

FTFY
LSAT is all the matters for you from here on out.
check out these below to see what you should be shooting for.
lawschoolnumbers.com
lawschoolpredictor.com

mattviphky wrote:Aim high, like for Northwestern or Michigan. That way, you're still rocking Big 10, but you've got good prestige to boot. But for the UW/UIUC/Minn tier, I'd imagine you would want a 164-168.

what is a good number to shoot at for schools like Northwestern or Michigan? mid 170's? higher?

uwalumn11 wrote:

mattviphky wrote:Aim high, like for Northwestern or Michigan. That way, you're still rocking Big 10, but you've got good prestige to boot. But for the UW/UIUC/Minn tier, I'd imagine you would want a 164-168.

what is a good number to shoot at for schools like Northwestern or Michigan? mid 170's? higher?

http://northwestern.lawschoolnumbers.com/applicants

uwalumn11 wrote:I want to stay in the Big 10

Why?

bk187 wrote:

uwalumn11 wrote:I want to stay in the Big 10

Why?

I like the midwest. you get a good bang for your buck in my mind and I like the atmosphere around here.

uwalumn11 wrote:

mattviphky wrote:Aim high, like for Northwestern or Michigan. That way, you're still rocking Big 10, but you've got good prestige to boot. But for the UW/UIUC/Minn tier, I'd imagine you would want a 164-168.

what is a good number to shoot at for schools like Northwestern or Michigan? mid 170's? higher?

170+ gives you a shot, 173+ gives you a good shot.

uwalumn11 wrote:

bk187 wrote:

uwalumn11 wrote:I want to stay in the Big 10

Why?

I like the midwest. you get a good bang for your buck in my mind and I like the atmosphere around here.

This can be a consideration, but there are more important factors on which to base your choice of law school. Like whether you'll get a job after graduating.

uwalumn11 wrote:I like the midwest. you get a good bang for your buck in my mind and I like the atmosphere around here.

Well if you want to stay in the midwest then you should consider schools there (e.g. WUSTL/ND/UChi) whether or not they in the Big 10.

you shouldn't be basing the schools you plan on applying to based on an athletic conference. 1-you won't be reliving the undergrad glory days, you'll be studying your ass off and won't have time to devote entire saturdays to football. 2-many midwestern schools that aren't in the big 10 for athletics have much better employment opportunities than law schools that are associated with universities in the big 10. i think it's safe to say (if you would like a jerb in the midwest) you'd be better off at chicago than michigan state.

you should be targeting michigan and northwestern (which do happen to be in the big 10), and you'll need 171+ to have a shot.

non-big 10 schools that you should look at too: WUSTL and ND (mentioned above) and maybe Colorado

I guess if you're gonna mention ND, then UIUC would be an option as well. They are peer schools, and the latter is in the big 10.

You can easily do well in law school without ever working on a Saturday. Just sayin'.

KMaine wrote:You can easily do well in law school without ever working on a Saturday. Just sayin'.

true, i guess i came off a little harsh. my point stands though-it takes a lot of discipline to take every saturday off, and the expectation shouldn't be that you can relive undergrad.

I should have been a bit more specific when stating about my desire to stay within the big 10 and that is entirely my fault for not doing so. What i should have said is schools within the midwest, in which ND, WUSL, and UChicago all fall within that range. Job placement is a big indicator to me, and the schools that I am looking at (UW, Minnesota for example) all have good-to very good job placements. But thanks so far for all the advice, I know this is not going to be a walk in the park. There are going to be lots of long nights probably hating myself but it will be well worth it in the long run and its what I want. So thanks again and the more input the better!

You're well below the median GPA at all of those schools, so you'll need to be above the median LSAT.