Top Law Schools

I've got a little time to do this. I'm still an undergrad and I'm not a junior, so I'd like to educate myself on this process.

My goals are not biglaw, although, I wouldn't be opposed to it if i had to do it until i got the loans paid. But my main goals, are a good law school with littlest debt possible, or a school that I would get a scholarship from. I'm wanting to have my own firm.

Whatever i do, I don't want to go to a bad school, like Cooley.

I have ties to Florida, California, and Michigan. Those are my target markets.

On to the question part.

Do you apply to, what i would call a safety school, like a lower tier like I did for undergrad? Or is it a bust, and don't go, and reapply? I'm probably selling myself short, but I'm terrified, I'll be rejected at my dream schools.

I'm considering schools like Michigan, USC, UCLA, Miami, UF, FSU

Should i consider Loyola in LA, U San Diego, FIU, or schools along that line as "safeties". I clearly, have just started looking into schools, so I don't know if its standard to do that. Or, should i just apply to the dream schools? Because, honestly, I would not be happy at the "safeties".

Are there any other schools you would suggest looking into for those markets I mentioned?

It's pretty silly worrying about all this before you've taken the LSAT (or even started studying). What is considered a reach and safety is all relative to your stats.
University of San Diego could end up being a reach or Michigan could end up being a safety.

I have started studying, but I just wanted to get in the loop about how everything is done. And, I guess if some of these "safeties" would even be worth it to go. I don't want to end up applying to 30 different schools. I've got a pretty good GPA.

But, thank you for your reply.

lawschoolbound94 wrote:I have started studying, but I just wanted to get in the loop about how everything is done. And, I guess if some of these "safeties" would even be worth it to go. I don't want to end up applying to 30 different schools. I've got a pretty good GPA.

But, thank you for your reply.

As far as how it's done, once your LSAT and GPA are in Law School Admissions for all but Yale and Stanford are fairly predictable. As such, you could then go to mylsn.info, enter your LSAT score and GPA, and you'd know real quick which schools you've got a great shot and which are your safety schools. In the meantime just keep in mind that LSAT and GPA are your biggest components of your applications, so if you're gonna shoot for the stars and intend to go to a school like Michigan, or perhaps other schools in the area, including possibly even Berkley or Stanford, you have to keep your GPA as close to 4.0 as possible through your undergraduate career.

Well law school financial aid, unlike undergrad, is merit-based (except Yale, Harvard, and Stanford which do need-based aid) so people oftentimes apply for a few schools that would be considered "safeties" just to get some full-rides to leverage later during scholarship negotiations.

You are likely to get really good financial aid packages if you are above both the school's LSAT 75th percentile and GPA 75th percentile. You are likely to gain admission if you are at or around the school's medians. Less than median, it's a tossup if you'll be admitted and you are unlikely to receive scholarships.

Here are all the law school class profiles:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/lv? ... true&gid=9
This will give you some idea of the kind of numbers you need.

Throw out all ideas of reach, safety, dream schools etc that's undergrad thinking