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Help me calm myself down: What are my chances?

Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 9:40 pm
by Zeeguy91
Hey, everyone. I'm new to these forums. I've been coming to this site for years to check out rankings and profiles, but never registered until now. So, first off, hi. Second, my main reason for registering was that I wanted to talk to people, who have likely been through the process of applying to law schools or are going through it right now, about something, over which I have been freaking out.

So, as I've indicated, I am in the middle of the application process. If you wanna know my stats, here they are:
  • I graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park with a degree in Government & Politics;
  • My cumulative undergraduate GPA was a 3.502. I'm not entirely sure what my major GPA was, but I got mostly As and Bs in my GVPT classes, with more As than Bs;
  • My LSAT score was a 167, placing me in the 94th percentile, and lastly;
  • I am waiting on recommendations from three professors and another from my old supervisor
Just to be clear, I've already submitted my applications, so you don't have to tell me about meeting any deadlines. However, the question that is on my mind is: now that I've submitted my applications, what are the chances of me actually getting into the schools I've applied to?

I've applied to a lot of schools. A whopping 22 in total. Some top-tier, some lower tier, some in the middle. But instead of by rank, I'm gonna break them down by my personal preference. You ready? Okay.....

My first choices that I might have a shot of getting into, God willing:
  • Berkeley
  • UCLA
  • Northwestern
  • Vanderbilt
  • UT Austin
  • UVA
The schools that are almost first choices that I might actually choose over those already listed, if accepted:
  • Michigan
  • Georgetown
  • Wash U in St. Louis
  • University of Southern California
  • Duke
My "what the hell" schools - I probably won't get in, but still tossed my hat in the ring, and would be more than happy to go if I did, by some miracle, get accepted:
  • Stanford
  • NYU
  • Cornell
My "middle tiers" who are good targets given my stats:
  • GW
  • Notre Dame
  • University of Washington
  • Boston University
  • Emory
  • Maryland
  • American University
  • Arizona State University
Really sorry for the long post, but I just needed to write it all out. So, where do you think I can get in, given my stats?

Re: Help me calm myself down: What are my chances?

Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 9:43 pm
by thewaves
edit: more accurate search

Image

Click the link for full results for your other schools.

Re: Help me calm myself down: What are my chances?

Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 9:44 pm
by Dr.Zer0
Check mylsn.info

ETA Scooped

Re: Help me calm myself down: What are my chances?

Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 10:08 pm
by nothingtosee
Retake. Good luck. You can do it!

Re: Help me calm myself down: What are my chances?

Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 10:27 pm
by Zeeguy91
thewaves wrote:edit: more accurate search

Click the link for full results for your other schools.

Yeah, I'm a little skeptical about LSN. For one, I used LSAC's indicator for a bunch of my schools, and the results there turned out a bit....different. More optimistic for a bunch of them. Although, this one's giving me a better chance with some. And second, I just tried experimenting by increasing the entered GPA to a 3.6, and now its saying that I have a 0% chance of getting into Michigan.

....How would an applicant with the same LSAT score as me, but with a higher GPA, have less of a chance getting in? That makes no sense at all.

Re: Help me calm myself down: What are my chances?

Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 10:33 pm
by cron1834
You're misunderstanding how it works. It reports specific data points - the extrapolation is your own invention.

You're probably not getting into Michigan. Georgetown, Vandy, or WUSTL might be doable.

Re: Help me calm myself down: What are my chances?

Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 10:39 pm
by Zeeguy91
cron1834 wrote:You're misunderstanding how it works. It reports specific data points - the extrapolation is your own invention.
No, I get that part. I mean, its obvious just looking at it. However, you can't really extrapolate a conclusion based on the experiences of others. I mean, whenever I enter data point differently, the numbers change unpredictably. If I had a higher GPA, my chances should increase, not decrease, even if it was the experience of some other people that they didn't get in.
Georgetown, Vandy, or WUSTL might be doable.
From your mouth to God's ears, pal.

Re: Help me calm myself down: What are my chances?

Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 10:48 pm
by thewaves
MyLSN does not show you your chances of admission at a particular school. MyLSN only shows you how many applications in our database have self-reported success and failure in gaining admission to any given law school. As a result, you might very well be accepted to every school that this website returns a “0%” acceptance rate for, and you might be rejected at every school that this website returns a 100% acceptance rate for

Re: Help me calm myself down: What are my chances?

Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 10:51 pm
by cron1834
thewaves wrote:
MyLSN does not show you your chances of admission at a particular school. MyLSN only shows you how many applications in our database have self-reported success and failure in gaining admission to any given law school. As a result, you might very well be accepted to every school that this website returns a “0%” acceptance rate for, and you might be rejected at every school that this website returns a 100% acceptance rate for
Yes. The 3.5 who was accepted may have had amazing softs. The 3.6 that was rejected may have had nothing going on to counteract the GPA.

Re: Help me calm myself down: What are my chances?

Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 11:03 pm
by Zeeguy91
cron1834 wrote:
thewaves wrote:
MyLSN does not show you your chances of admission at a particular school. MyLSN only shows you how many applications in our database have self-reported success and failure in gaining admission to any given law school. As a result, you might very well be accepted to every school that this website returns a “0%” acceptance rate for, and you might be rejected at every school that this website returns a 100% acceptance rate for
Yes. The 3.5 who was accepted may have had amazing softs. The 3.6 that was rejected may have had nothing going on to counteract the GPA.
Ah, okay. Thanks for the clarification. That makes a lot more sense now.

Although, one question. What do the other data points, like ED stand for?

Re: Help me calm myself down: What are my chances?

Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 11:05 pm
by Crowing
Zeeguy91 wrote:
cron1834 wrote:You're misunderstanding how it works. It reports specific data points - the extrapolation is your own invention.
No, I get that part. I mean, its obvious just looking at it. However, you can't really extrapolate a conclusion based on the experiences of others. I mean, whenever I enter data point differently, the numbers change unpredictably. If I had a higher GPA, my chances should increase, not decrease, even if it was the experience of some other people that they didn't get in.
Small sample size--the tradeoff is between more representative stats and a larger sample size

Nobody here is going to be able to offer much beyond the hard data anyway

Re: Help me calm myself down: What are my chances?

Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 11:08 pm
by ScottRiqui
Zeeguy91 wrote: Although, one question. What do the other data points, like ED stand for?
With some schools' Early Decision options, you get an ever-so-slight boost compared to applying Regular Decision. So LSN gives you the option to exclude or include ED results in order to better match your situation.