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My numbers: ~3.7 GPA from top 20 undergrad.
Softs: TFA and a competitive national scholarship
LSAT: Cold 161, month of practice on LG 168, haven't touched it in 2 years. I am looking to get to regularly PTing 174+ with 2-3 months practice.

My situation:
I have another year of TFA, and will be working full time during the summer. I plan on taking the October LSAT and see what happens.
But I don't know if I can have a great application together by November, or if I will be happy with my LSAT. I could work fulltime for a year after TFA, during which I could apply with a better application and have more time for LSAT prep.

My questions:
Could I apply in November, then retake LSAT and send that score? Would that leave me out in the cold money-wise?
I am shooting for Chicago, followed by MVP. I am crunching myself if I apply this October?
If I apply this October and don't get accepted or don't get the kind of aid I'm looking for, can I reapply the next year, or will that just hurt me?

Many thanks, and feel free to hate on my TFA.

<3

You should be able to get a good 3 months of studying in before October, so if you can discipline yourself and do the work, you should be ready to take the October LSAT. Institute (I assume you're working for TFA) will end around a month before your school year begins again, so you'll have a solid month with nothing else to do. Once you start teaching again, as a second year teacher (be smart about this, don't volunteer to lead anything, just do the job) you should have enough of a sense of what to do that you'll find you have ample time to keep studying.

If you don't feel ready for October or you don't like your October LSAT, you will have time to retake in December and stay in the cycle. Reapplying isn't the end of the world, but what you want to do is put your best foot forward the first time. That means don't apply without an LSAT score you want to stand on.

So long as you have the GPA/LSAT combination that the schools you are applying to are looking for, reapplying won't, in and of itself, hurt your chances at all. In fact, if you apply next fall but decide not to enroll and reapply the following fall with a higher LSAT score, then you most definitely will get accepted at those schools you had gotten accepted to the year before, probably with more scholarship money too.

If I were to get rejected/WLed this year, and then reapplied next year, would this year give a negative impact to my acceptances/money?