Top Law Schools

Hi all -

I am a female applying to law school for the 2016 year. I have a 160 LSAT and a 3.6 GPA. What are my odds of getting substantial scholarships or a full ride? I don't want to pay sticker and am not interested in biglaw. I'm targeting health law and have been working in the healthcare industry in consulting for the last 4 years.

Schools I'm looking at:
BU
UMaryland
Columbia
Georgetown
UGA
GA State
Emory
Northwestern

Check out www.mylsn.info for chances

Assuming you're in-state (based on Emory/UGA/GSU combo), you should be able to negotiate for full or close-to-full ride at UGA. They'll probably offer you half-off of in-state right off the bat. If you're trying to stay in Atlanta and are not interested in big law (and I would argue, even if you were interested in big law), there is zero reason to choose Emory (at presumably substantially more $$) over UGA.

You sound like a cookie cutter NU ED candidate to me
(EDIT: nevermind, I forgot it's probably too late for NU ED this cycle :/)

Maybe not since you don't want biglaw

but still worth looking into

GeorgeTTTown will probably be stingy and your numbers aren't high enough for good money at Columbia

What do you mean by health law? Like what are some employers you had in mind where you could practice health law coming out of law school

It's a weird list of schools. Columbia and Northwestern but not Cornell? Maryland?

You need to apply broader within the T14 and acquire a greater geographic focus outside of it.

eta: Just looked at US News, seems like the OP has looked at the Health Law program rankings and is basing applications off that in part (just not Saint Louis University because St. Louis is yucky I'm guessing). Don't do that OP, specialty rankings are completely and utterly useless.

What do you mean by health law anyway?

OP should absolutely be applying to Cornell and their regional powerhouses. I suspect that's not UGA/Maryland.

BigZuck wrote:It's a weird list of schools. Columbia and Northwestern but not Cornell? Maryland?

You need to apply broader within the T14 and acquire a greater geographic focus outside of it.

eta: Just looked at US News, seems like the OP has looked at the Health Law program rankings and is basing applications off that in part (just not Saint Louis University because St. Louis is yucky I'm guessing). Don't do that OP, specialty rankings are completely and utterly useless.

What do you mean by health law anyway?

Yeah, OP. Law schools aren't like other graduate programs that have legit niche specialties. You go to school in the region you want to practice in or you go to a top national school (T-14) that (generally) can place students in any market where the student has sufficient pre-existing ties.

The specialization stuff comes with good grades, demonstrated interest, networking, and luck.

Do you know people who have the "health law" job you want? Did they go to law school? Where are they practicing? Which? How did they get that job?

And aren't there giant firms that have big health care practice areas? Proskauer? If so, it's possible that biglaw could have a "health law" exit. But that would just mean crush the LSAT--->T-14 with good grades ----> biglaw with established health law practice----> health law.

Lotta ifs....