Curating a School List Forum

[couchpotato231]

Hey everyone! I'm a graduate student and recently decided I want to go to law school. I'm posting to understand where my chances are and what I can do to improve them.

I'm a CS student in a T20 (for CS) school and did my undergrad and grad back to back. I also double majoring in political science as an undergrad. I specialized in computer security and took courses in AI so I'm really interested in the legal side of both of those fields. I'm also interested in national security law. My top choice is Georgetown, but I'd be happy to go to any T14 school. I'm also planning on getting work experience for 2-3 years in tech before applying to law school. And I'm non-URM.

My biggest concern is my GPA, my uGPA is a 3.5 but with a significant downward trend that continued into grad school (my last year in undergrad and first year in grad were pretty bad, like below 2.5-3.0 every semester). I have somewhat of a reason, my dad passed away my second semester in undergrad and then COVID hit so I was at home for a year. I'll be explaining this in my addendum, but I'm not sure how much admissions will consider it since I actually had an upward trend the first year after my dad passed and I was at home. Kind of postponed my grief so I had a really hard time when I went back to in-person classes.

I took two LSAT diagnostics, 159 and 162, in two separate weeks. I just wanted to make sure it was an accurate reading of where I'm starting. My biggest issue was time and I had many unanswered questions, which I'm sure will improve with practice. I adjusted my scores assuming the same accuracy for the unanswered questions and it was a 170 and 165 respectively. I'm not planning on applying until I get a 175+ and since I have a couple years to do it, I'm confident I can get that score.

My letters of recommendation are somewhat of a concern for me as well. Because of COVID and my poor performance after, I didn't make great relationships with professors, but I'm hoping to change that with my final year in grad school.

Softs: I worked an average of 30 hours a week starting the summer after my first year in college. These were several part-time jobs with my school, including as a teaching assistant, a research assistant, and a writing tutor. I also had 4 internships every summer in big-tech companies, all of them the biggest in their respective industries. I held officer positions in a couple volunteer organizations at school for a year. And I also got a few selective awards and scholarships my first and second year in undergrad.

If you made it this far, thank you so much for taking the time! I don't think pivoting into law school from where I'm at is worth it unless I make it into a T14, I guess T15 now with Georgetown bumped down,. I'm interested to know what I can do in the next couple years to really solidify my chances in these schools, and possibly get a bite from a T6 school. So far, I know I have to kill it on the LSAT and improve my grades and relationships with professors in my last year of grad school.

Kinda Side Note: I was compiling my resume the other day and because so many of my experiences are quite technical in nature, I was wondering how I should try to phrase them so admissions counselors can understand it better.

[crazywafflez]

Hey everyone! I'm a graduate student and recently decided I want to go to law school. I'm posting to understand where my chances are and what I can do to improve them.

I'm a CS student in a T20 (for CS) school and did my undergrad and grad back to back. I also double majoring in political science as an undergrad. I specialized in computer security and took courses in AI so I'm really interested in the legal side of both of those fields. I'm also interested in national security law. My top choice is Georgetown, but I'd be happy to go to any T14 school. I'm also planning on getting work experience for 2-3 years in tech before applying to law school. And I'm non-URM.

My biggest concern is my GPA, my uGPA is a 3.5 but with a significant downward trend that continued into grad school (my last year in undergrad and first year in grad were pretty bad, like below 2.5-3.0 every semester). I have somewhat of a reason, my dad passed away my second semester in undergrad and then COVID hit so I was at home for a year. I'll be explaining this in my addendum, but I'm not sure how much admissions will consider it since I actually had an upward trend the first year after my dad passed and I was at home. Kind of postponed my grief so I had a really hard time when I went back to in-person classes.

I took two LSAT diagnostics, 159 and 162, in two separate weeks. I just wanted to make sure it was an accurate reading of where I'm starting. My biggest issue was time and I had many unanswered questions, which I'm sure will improve with practice. I adjusted my scores assuming the same accuracy for the unanswered questions and it was a 170 and 165 respectively. I'm not planning on applying until I get a 175+ and since I have a couple years to do it, I'm confident I can get that score.

My letters of recommendation are somewhat of a concern for me as well. Because of COVID and my poor performance after, I didn't make great relationships with professors, but I'm hoping to change that with my final year in grad school.

Softs: I worked an average of 30 hours a week starting the summer after my first year in college. These were several part-time jobs with my school, including as a teaching assistant, a research assistant, and a writing tutor. I also had 4 internships every summer in big-tech companies, all of them the biggest in their respective industries. I held officer positions in a couple volunteer organizations at school for a year. And I also got a few selective awards and scholarships my first and second year in undergrad.

If you made it this far, thank you so much for taking the time! I don't think pivoting into law school from where I'm at is worth it unless I make it into a T14, I guess T15 now with Georgetown bumped down,. I'm interested to know what I can do in the next couple years to really solidify my chances in these schools, and possibly get a bite from a T6 school. So far, I know I have to kill it on the LSAT and improve my grades and relationships with professors in my last year of grad school.

Kinda Side Note: I was compiling my resume the other day and because so many of my experiences are quite technical in nature, I was wondering how I should try to phrase them so admissions counselors can understand it better.

I know very little about tech law and regulations etc. but my guess is that the only real things that'll matter would be to go to a T14 school, or potentially Vandy, UCLA, WashU, UT or maybe BU/BC. You just need to keep studying for the LSAT and pull that score up. I'll let someone who knows more about that field in general chime in here- but if you can't get your scores that high, try to get them up to see if you can get a full scholarship in the location you'd like to practice. Wouldn't worry too much about the Grad GPA, but you can write an addendum if you want regarding the timeframe on declining GPA. But in general, the best way to solidify your chances is to get a 170+ on the LSAT.

[lynagitat]

Just don't stress too much about your grad GPA) but if it's declining, you can explain it in an addendum. Just show your commitment to improvement.