Admission into law school with a low LSAT and an advanced educational background in science Forum

[DH1015]

i took the LSAT in October and just received my score, which is on the lower end of the spectrum. I was looking for some insight regarding my chances of getting into law school given my credentials (listed below). my educational background is in science. for the LSAT, i studied 8-10 hours per day and 6 days per week for about 1.5 months. my goal would be to start a career in either IP law or pharmaceutical law.

LSAT: 147
MS in Biochemistry (Georgetown Univ)/GPA: 3.89
BS in Biology (Marymount Univ)/GPA: 3.74


thanks in advance

[R. Jeeves]

for the LSAT, i studied 8-10 hours per day and 6 days per week for about 1.5 months.

How could you have possibly ended up with a 147 after this? How did you typically score on your practice tests?

Youre going to have to retake the LSAT and change your study methods this time around. There is no law school worth going to that will take a 147

[Mack.Hambleton]

Agree with above, are you ESL or have dyslexia etc?

If not then find a LSAT prep guide on here and follow it through

ETA: a 147 means you got less than half of all the questions right

[antiworldly]

An advanced degree is very nice, but you will only barely outperform your numbers (speaking from personal experience). You definitely need to retake. Pick up a good LSAT study guide and figure out where you went wrong, you spent a ton of time studying for a very low score.

[haus]

From my personal experience, my cycle went almost exactly as one would expect from my LSAT and LSAC GPA, despite having a Masters, being former military, and having significant work experience.

[twenty]

Not even kidding; don't go. You're going to get killed in law school, and your BA/MS combo should land you a sweet non-law job. Go do that and never look back.

[Traynor Brah]

Not even kidding; don't go. You're going to get killed in law school, and your BA/MS combo should land you a sweet non-law job. Go do that and never look back.

This a million times.

[Nomo]

Not even kidding; don't go. You're going to get killed in law school, and your BA/MS combo should land you a sweet non-law job. Go do that and never look back.

This a million times.

Fully agreed. Its possible that with a few hundred hours of studying you can get a score that will get you in to a good law school, but its not likely. There is almost no way that law school is going to improve your career prospects.

[NonTrat]

Surprised no one told him to just retake, or just change his study habits.

There's people who have told me that they studied for the LSAT, which means they read a book or two or three...but didn't take one practice test..

[Troianii]

Not even kidding; don't go. You're going to get killed in law school, and your BA/MS combo should land you a sweet non-law job. Go do that and never look back.

+1

A lot of people give out the advice to "avoid law school" too brazenly - for someone who has a gender studies major to drop plans for law school and go look for employment elsewhere - they're probably better off holding their nose and going to law school. But with the background that the above applicant has, law school doesn't seem like a good option, and it looks like they'd be able to land a nice job outside of law as it is.

[BigZuck]

Surprised no one told him to just retake, or just change his study habits.

There's people who have told me that they studied for the LSAT, which means they read a book or two or three...but didn't take one practice test..

Multiple people told him to retake and change study habits

[twenty]

Surprised no one told him to just retake, or just change his study habits.

I stand by "don't go." The issue for me isn't that OP's scores aren't good and therefore can't get into a good school; at that point, I'd say pay some smart Asian kid $5,000 to take the test for you. But the reality is, OP says they spent about 300-350 hours studying for the test and still ended up with a terrible score - even though the LSAT is a notoriously shitty predictor of law school success, I'd venture to say anyone who can't wrap their head around the LSAT despite that much prep should probably not go regardless of what their score is.

The scary thing to me is that there are a lot of people on this forum that can white-knuckle their way to a decent LSAT score, had a pretty good GPA in a field they enjoyed, and find out too late that they absolutely hate 'reading-big-blocks-of-dense-text-and-trying-to-figure-out-what's-going-on' school.

On the flip side, for OP, someone's already answered the inevitable "what else am I gunnaaa dooooo" question. Get a non-law job in biochem. Have three years of work experience and substantially less debt. Good luck and follow your dreams!

[Troianii]

idk. After giving this a second look, the OP MIGHT do well to just retake. The OP doesn't sound like another rankings wh***, it sounds like the OP wants to go into patent law. The OP certainly has a great background for entering patent law, but would need to bump their LSAT up. I'd recommend a retake if the OP was practice testing in the mid 150s - if the OP wasn't practice testing, then they weren't studying right and should study and retake in the future.

However, the bit about wanting to enter IP law, probably patents, makes the OP's case a bit brighter. Obviously the OP already has something good to fall back on, but IP law is huge, especially patent law. UNH is a 2nd tier school which, until recently, was a 3rd tier school. IP is their thing - they have built themselves around IP, and that's why their employment figures (and salaries) are that of a mid-pack tier 1 school, while they're actually bottom rung tier 2. My point here is simply that, if the OP wants to do IP law, UNH is a school the OP could get into with a small bump in their LSAT, and with the OP's intent to study IP... it might not be such a bad idea. With a LSAT score in the mid 150s, the OP could certainly get into higher ranked schools than UNH, but my point here is simply that law school isn't such a horrible choice for the OP given the OP's background and law goals.

So I'd recommend the OP retake if 147 was well below what they were practicing. If the OP spent 300 someodd hours practicing the right way and got a 147... well, idk then. Without a retake, I wouldn't bother with law school.