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I was just offered a conditional full ride to George Mason Law. First year I'm guaranteed full tuition. Second and third year are contingent on performance. If I stay in the top ten percent, i keep my full ride. If I'm in the top twenty, my scholarship drops to 80% of tuition. If I'm below that, my scholarship drops to 75%.

A little background...3.91 GPA studying economics at a large public university, 152 LSAT. I like the idea of living and working in DC for life, but my serious girlfriend thinks she will want to end up in CO at some point. So I guess I'm looking for advice on two fronts...do you think this is a good offer, especially considering my dismal LSAT? Do you think it's worth studying in DC if there's a good chance I'll wanna end up in CO after? And finally, is it worth giving up on my economic research career, especially considering I just accepted a job at 60k per year?

No. Those are horrible conditions

P.S retake the lsat or stay at your job

If you like economics, 60k is likely to be more than you're going to make as a lawyer coming out of gmu. Those conditions are truly terrible. I'm guessing they section stack, in which case the likelihood of you finishing top ten is much lower than 10%. If you got that lsat up to the mid 160s even, you're looking at much better options. Oh and trying to go to CO from gmu is about as difficult a move as you could try to make as a lawyer. With your gpa, georgetown will give you a full ride if you bring that lsat up. Don't go to gmu.

Don't take it. It looks like GMU reduced or eliminated about half of their scholarship awards last year, which is pretty awful.

http://www.law.gmu.edu/assets/files/adm ... t_2015.pdf

To answer your question, it makes no sense to go to school here if you're looking to wind up in Colorado. Retake the LSAT and hang out at your 60k job for a year or two. You're looking at full rides at great schools with an improved LSAT given your GPA. Don't squander the GPA you worked hard to achieve!

If you're 1000% set on GMU (which I hope you aren't) then at least try to negotiate away the class rank stipulations. Those are complete garbage and generally negotiable. Good luck!

Thanks for the advice everyone! You all said basically what I was thinking. I'll give the current gig a year or two to heat up while concurrently studying for the LSAT.

Just one question...that means i would be entering law school at 26. Is that too late?

hanson377 wrote:Thanks for the advice everyone! You all said basically what I was thinking. I'll give the current gig a year or two to heat up while concurrently studying for the LSAT.

Just one question...that means i would be entering law school at 26. Is that too late?

no

hanson377 wrote:Thanks for the advice everyone! You all said basically what I was thinking. I'll give the current gig a year or two to heat up while concurrently studying for the LSAT.

Just one question...that means i would be entering law school at 26. Is that too late?

I went to one law school's ASD and it reminded me of the geriatric wing at a nursing home. Twenty six is not old by any means.

I would give up my big law job in a heartbeat for that 60k research job you've got. Run away and don't look back.

Doesn't this seem like one of those rare times where you could do part-time at gulc (after a retake) while you keep your job. If you REALLY want to be a lawyer?

Otherwise, explain to gf, you can't be a lawyer in CO

hanson377 wrote:3.91 GPA

That GPA alone just shouts out a retake.

These are the most absurd conditions I've ever seen. Even the unranked TTTTTT I applied to didn't give that strict of conditions on their full ride....

You have a 3.9. I would do terrible things for that gpa. Retake.

What shitty stipulations, ASS Law.
Good decisions sitting out the cycle and retaking in the future. Good luck!

Definitely retake but people are overreacting to these stips. It's really a 100%/75%/75% scholly with a little bonus if you do well. BS that they call it a conditional full ride, but still a lot better than the "full ride" that goes away completely below some cutoff.

Agreed. The stips are not really bad.