Everything Fantastic......Except LSAT Forum

[saintgr2]

Hello Everyone, I usually dont post to forum's online, but I currently am in a dilemma and am searching for some advice or different perspectives on what I should do. As the title describes, everything with my application is fantastic except one element....my lsat. Application overview: Senior Year cumulative GPA 3.66 Honors Program. Degree: BA Political Science and Mathematics. My resume includes being student body president of the college for two years beginning while I was a freshmen through my junior year (youngest president in schools history). One of twenty five nationally selected to visit Israeli government buildings, facilities, and interview high ranking officials and journalists to learn about their democracy. National qualifying moot court competition in undergraduate, Pre-Law Club President. Trained in Hate Crime Prevention and Community Response Systems as well as intermediate to advanced language skills in Spanish with beginning skills in Hebrew and Arabic. While in undergraduate I also have presented twice at academic conferences traditionally reserved for graduate students as well as given lectures as part of a separate curriculum than my own at my college. There are many more unique attributes similar to this on my resume. In addition, I have four glowing letters from two professors, my pre law/moot court coach, and the President of the college (aka Head Honcho that answers to the Board of Trustees). The only factor that is giving me a low mark is my lsat score, being 147. I was curious what others would say about this dilemma. Should I retake the test or hope that my non-quantifiable qualities redeem this weak score? Looking for differing perspectives from my own. The highest ranking school Im applying to is Notre Dame.

Thanks!

[MistakenGenius]

Post removed.

[thatsnotmyname]

The LSAT is the most important factor of the law school application process along with GPA. None of your non-quantifiable or soft factors matter with a 147 LSAT. With a 147 LSAT you're unlikely to be admitted to any law school worth attending, you need to study harder and retake the test.

[Clemenceau]

Well the lsat is the single most important part of any law school application. Your softs might push you over the edge if you were a borderline applicant, but a 147 puts you very far from any border.

If you are committed to attending law school, then you must study like hell for a few months to retake and apply next cycle. If you are not committed to law school, don't go.

Edit: scooped nearly word for word

[emkay625]

Hello Everyone, I usually dont post to forum's online, but I currently am in a dilemma and am searching for some advice or different perspectives on what I should do. As the title describes, everything with my application is fantastic except one element....my lsat. Application overview: Senior Year cumulative GPA 3.66 Honors Program. Degree: BA Political Science and Mathematics. My resume includes being student body president of the college for two years beginning while I was a freshmen through my junior year (youngest president in schools history). One of twenty five nationally selected to visit Israeli government buildings, facilities, and interview high ranking officials and journalists to learn about their democracy. National qualifying moot court competition in undergraduate, Pre-Law Club President. Trained in Hate Crime Prevention and Community Response Systems as well as intermediate to advanced language skills in Spanish with beginning skills in Hebrew and Arabic. While in undergraduate I also have presented twice at academic conferences traditionally reserved for graduate students as well as given lectures as part of a separate curriculum than my own at my college. There are many more unique attributes similar to this on my resume. In addition, I have four glowing letters from two professors, my pre law/moot court coach, and the President of the college (aka Head Honcho that answers to the Board of Trustees). The only factor that is giving me a low mark is my lsat score, being 147. I was curious what others would say about this dilemma. Should I retake the test or hope that my non-quantifiable qualities redeem this weak score? Looking for differing perspectives from my own. The highest ranking school Im applying to is Notre Dame.

Thanks!

Your LSAT and GPA are really the only things that matter. You need to devote yourself to studying for the LSAT for 3-4 months. 4-5 hours a day 6 days a week. If you need to quit some of your extracurriculars to make this happen, do so.

[JerryLundegard]

1. You can get around a poor LSAT under certain circumstances. A fantastic gap and great sorts are the way to go about this:
Your GPA isn't high enough to compensate. If you lsat is below your schools 25th% , as a general rule you want to be above the school's 75th% for GPA. Yours looks like it's at Median

2. It looks like you have done a great deal of things in college. This is good. I don't think, however, that any of these things on their own is sufficient to continue to build a case for you without the lsat. Examples are things like military service, Doctors without Borders, Teach for America, Americorps/ Peace corps, etc.

3. It sounds like you're a relatively smart person. Do the powerscore bibles and take some practice tests. Getting out of the 140's can happen very easily. I think for a lot of people(myself included) they hit a wall around a 164.(getting more than 80 questions correct)

It sounds like you're not taking advantage of the parts of the test built to help you(1-10 on the LR sections, Grab a Rule questions in LG, etc)

In this buyers market, a less than stellar lsat can be overcome with a very high GPA, a dynamic soft(this is usually work experience/service), and letters of rec do help also.

Retake, get above a 155 and then this is a much different discussion.

[RZ5646]

I wouldn't call a 3.66 fantastic either. Having good soft factors is cool, but lsat and gpa are like 95% of any admissions decision.

[KMart]

Well the lsat is the single most important part of any law school application. Your softs might push you over the edge if you were a borderline applicant, but a 147 puts you very far from any border.

Please retake and study for the LSAT. There is a lot of great guides on this website that can help you do just that.

[Mack.Hambleton]

Pre-Law Club President

[A. Nony Mouse]

Pre-Law Club President

Don't be an asshole.