Top Law Schools

My question:
How much would a binding Early Decision (ED) help my chances of getting into my goal school, UC Davis?

I will receive a 100% tuition waiver with the CA VA Fee Waiver (see bottom if unclear), I am from the CA Central Valley and NorCal, and I intend to stay and work in the area.
So, all the arguments about cost v. salary, it being lower-ranked, etc, I am aware of those and not concerned.

I have taken ten practice LSATs and just finished the (AWFUL, and NOT RECOMMENDED) TestMasters 2-month summer course.

My LSAT will be between 156 and 160.
I have very "strong softs," including being LGBTQ, a family member in the military and w. PTSD/disabilities, and extensive activist experience.

My Stats:
Goal: UC Davis, from area and intend to stay
Second-choice: UC Hastings
LSAT: 156-158
LSDAS GPA (Film and Digital Media UCSC): 3.56
MA (Global and Intl Studies UCSB) GPA: 3.98
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Political organizing
Student government
Labor and immigration policy
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MA, Global and International Studies
(3.98 graduate GPA)
2 yrs NGO work, American Red Cross
1 yr AmeriCorps
LGBTQ
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Father's a disabled veteran = tuition waived at CA public schools
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My profiles:
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http://lawschoolnumbers.com/mrtimothyirvine
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What do you intend to do with a law degree?

BigZuck wrote:What do you intend to do with a law degree?

Why is answering this question relevant for the purposes of this query?

TLS is not going to appreciate your superiority.

BNA wrote:TLS is not going to appreciate your superiority.

How should I reply without understanding the relevance or specificity of the query..?

From my initial post:
"
I am from the CA Central Valley and NorCal, and I intend to stay and work in the area.... extensive activist experience...
"

If I need to be more specific, I'm interested in public interest relating to immigration/refugee labor.
I'm particularly interested in the way that women's labor rights are defined in different contexts.
Ideally, I would spend significant time doing advocacy work for immigrant and refugee women within NorCal, specifically the major metro areas of SF and Sacramento.

I'm going to move it over to "What Are My Chances?" as that is probably more appropriate.

Query?

I was wondering "Why law school?" because there might be better ways to achieve your career goals that allows you to skip the whole law school thing altogether.

BigZuck wrote:Query?

Query = question / request / etc

BigZuck wrote:I was wondering "Why law school?" because there might be better ways to achieve your career goals that allows you to skip the whole law school thing altogether.

Confirmed. I figured, just wasn't sure that was the reason for asking; I've also answered that question a lot.

Given the fact that a JD is much more respected in both industry and academia, and that a JD takes only 3 years (compared to 6-10 for a PhD), and because I can mitigate the cost extensively with the fee waiver, a JD makes sense for a terminal degree and credential that empowers me to do extensive political-/lobby-related work, as well as possible future legislative-/policy-creation work.

Furthermore, after extensive talks with lawyers (even those drowning in debt after TTT experiences) I am convinced that either practicing law OR using the JD to advance an organization related to law is what I want to do career-wise.

Hi Timothy,

I've input your numbers into "MyLSN," an extremely useful resource that can calculate your chances of admission to various schools (based on many data points).

http://mylsn.info/pvdjub/

Feel free to play around with it; I've changed the settings to include ED applicants.

Unfortunately, your LSAT score and GPA will be weighed much, much more heavily than your other "soft" factors (grad school GPA, extra-curriculars, etc.) (Law school is mainly a numbers game.)

I think you'd be in good shape if your LSAT score was a bit higher (for RD or ED).

Happy to answer any more question you may have.

HYPSM wrote:Hi Timothy,

I've input your numbers into "MyLSN," an extremely useful resource that can calculate your chances of admission to various schools (based on many data points).

Thank you - I've spent this week leading up to the Sept LSAT obsessing over MyLSN.

HYPSM wrote: I've changed the settings to include ED applicants.

I couldn't figure out how to view ED only, thank you very much!

HYPSM wrote: Unfortunately, your LSAT score and GPA will be weighed much, much more heavily than your other "soft" factors (grad school GPA, extra-curriculars, etc.) (Law school is mainly a numbers game.)

I'm sadly aware. 24 hours from now I'll have a feel for how my studying I must do for the Dec test.

Do you have any thoughts on ED chances for UCD, other than the LSN insights? I really appreciate your response.

mrtimothyirvine wrote:

HYPSM wrote:Hi Timothy,

I've input your numbers into "MyLSN," an extremely useful resource that can calculate your chances of admission to various schools (based on many data points).

Thank you - I've spent this week leading up to the Sept LSAT obsessing over MyLSN.

HYPSM wrote: I've changed the settings to include ED applicants.

I couldn't figure out how to view ED only, thank you very much!

HYPSM wrote: Unfortunately, your LSAT score and GPA will be weighed much, much more heavily than your other "soft" factors (grad school GPA, extra-curriculars, etc.) (Law school is mainly a numbers game.)

I'm sadly aware. 24 hours from now I'll have a feel for how my studying I must do for the Dec test.

Do you have any thoughts on ED chances for UCD, other than the LSN insights? I really appreciate your response.

No problem, it's my pleasure!

I actually think your particular softs may be quite helpful for law schools admissions and for your ED application to UCD; you sound like a rather interesting candidate. If they are on the fence about you, I have a feeling the distinctive factors of your background might push you over to the admit pile. That being said, I feel it would be unwise to take such a gamble when you could virtually eliminate any such risk with a few more points on the LSAT. Admittedly, this will take some extra effort on your part, but I can almost guarantee it will pay off -- you may even end up saving tens of thousands of dollars through scholarships!

In short, raise your LSAT score a little bit and you have a fantastic chance at UCD. If that is not possible for some reason, highlight what you've mentioned in your original post and apply as early as possible -- and broadly (just in case).

Good luck!