Top Law Schools

Hi all, I'd really appreciate any feedback.

I graduated from UC Berkeley in 2016 with honors - got a mediocre LSAT score (and chose to just apply rather than take the LSAT again). I am now faced with a decision of choosing between UC Hastings, UC Davis, and U Washington.

I'm sort of semi-committed to UC Hastings - my parents live in Berkeley so I'd be saving $15,000 a year by living with them (which makes Hastings and Davis attractive options...especially Hastings since it's shorter commute).

I know that Hastings (ranked 58) and Davis (ranked 37) are peer schools despite the gap in ranking so somewhat interchangeable. I didn't receive financial aid to any of the three schools. Washington is ranked the best (32) but I'd suffer more in terms of debt, being away from family/friends, etc. since I can't benefit from saving rent with my parents.

My ultimate goal would be to transfer to Berkeley Boalt after 1L. Though, I know I shouldn't count on transferring.

Can anyone offer any insight on this decision?

uc davis. but u really should retake LSAT. worth it in long run

Since your goal is to transfer after 1L you shukdneetske and not matriculate. It’s very hard to do well enough to transfer to your target school ( and if you do you will be paying sticker). But it’s possible to improve on he lsat especially since you admitted you have a mediocre score).

hey I'm a 1L transferring out of UCD who entered with the intent to transfer (but also knew I would be ok if I ended up there!) if you want to email me any questions!

sorry I'll add - currently deciding between transferring to UCLA and GULC but I have also applied to Boalt

sorry to triple reply lol but given that your lsat was mediocre, in this case it may be worth it to just wait and retake. if your GPA is high and you can raise your LSAT that seems to make the most sense.

I had a low GPA and a high LSAT so retaking was not as good of an option for me!

Thank you guys so much for replying, I really appreciate it.

I chose to not retake the LSAT because I studied for about 6 months intensively and could barely budge my score. I ended up getting a 156 (highest PT score was 162). I graduated from Berkeley with a 4.0 but could no for the life of me master the LSAT. So that's why I chose to just apply without retaking....

If my goal is to transfer, should I aim to go to a school for 1L with a small population of students? So better chance of getting grades in top of class? Does that even make logical sense?

Questions123 wrote:hey I'm a 1L transferring out of UCD who entered with the intent to transfer (but also knew I would be ok if I ended up there!) if you want to email me any questions!

It would be really helpful to talk with you! Where are you transferring to?

Just wanna say OP you may not realize it now, but if you do not retake with a 4.0, you are literally making the single worst decision of your life. You have been warned.

Do not go to any of those schools with a 4.0. I to went to Berkeley with a 3.5 and took a t25 with money. Got lucky to get a 3.6 and land biglaw but if I would do it again I’d retake...wouldn’t have had to hustle so hard.

sparkytrainer wrote:Just wanna say OP you may not realize it now, but if you do not retake with a 4.0, you are literally making the single worst decision of your life. You have been warned.

How did you prepare for the LSAT? There are some great strategies on this site that you ought to consider. You are potentially leaving hundreds of thousands of dollars if tuition on the table, especially with a 4.0

sparkytrainer wrote:Just wanna say OP you may not realize it now, but if you do not retake with a 4.0, you are literally making the single worst decision of your life. You have been warned.

You are leaving a lot of money on the table and wasting your hard work if you don’t study and retake. I’m guessing your study method was flawed in some way.

I doubt you will listen, but that’s the best advice you will find here.

cocoleigh wrote:

Questions123 wrote:hey I'm a 1L transferring out of UCD who entered with the intent to transfer (but also knew I would be ok if I ended up there!) if you want to email me any questions!

It would be really helpful to talk with you! Where are you transferring to?

So far I've gotten into UCLA and GULC. Still waiting to hear from UCB and a few other places. email me! stormgoddess7@gmail.com

also i was in a similar situation to you deciding between these three schools... i kicked out hastings immediately because they seem to be going downwards

between davis and washington i was basically advised to look at where i wanted to practice long term and washington is AMAZING if you are down to stay in seattle but if you want CA then davis makes more sense. that is what I was told at least.

A lot of people do well coming from davis, it seems to have a really good rep within the bay and I know a lot of 3Ls who did well their 1L year that have offers from big law firms in the bay (largely in Palo Alto). Additionally as a 1L i know a lot of 1Ls who have great summer opportunities, I know a lot of judicial interns (a lot in fed court and in state court - sac seems to pull heavily from davis), i know a handful of people who have 1L summer positions in in-house counsel in the bay and in LA, and some people who are in private firms their 1L summer.

additionally, the faculty from davis really is amazing. every single prof I've had is from Harvard, Yale, Chicago, Stanford, or Davis for law school. I haven't had a single prof that I don't like honestly every single one has been amazing. i really love davis law school honestly and had a really positive experience here, I just am from the bay originally and 100% do not want to go back there and it seems like we largely place there, at least for the students who are going to big law.

i have some more info for you that i do not want to post lol that i think will be helpful so pls email me!

Questions123 wrote:

cocoleigh wrote:

Questions123 wrote:hey I'm a 1L transferring out of UCD who entered with the intent to transfer (but also knew I would be ok if I ended up there!) if you want to email me any questions!

It would be really helpful to talk with you! Where are you transferring to?

So far I've gotten into UCLA and GULC. Still waiting to hear from UCB and a few other places. email me! stormgoddess7@gmail.com

OP while it’s possible for you to be able to transfer from UC D after 1L like the above poster, there is no guarantee that you will do well enough after 1L to be n this position. One rule of thumb from this site has been to matriculate into a law school where you would be happy to graduate median from. If none of these schools got that criteria, then my asvise remains the same : retake the LSAT( and use July and August for prep for September) and apply to your target schools that meet your criteria.

Law school will be there next cycle, however your best chance to get into law school ( LSAT and undergrad gpa as being the main deciding factors) is eliminated once you have 1L grades.

I’ll pose this in another question: if you go and don’t do well enough to transit out of UCD, will you dropout or will you graduate? If you drop out, what will that cost be, and is the cost of dropping out worth more than a year without tuition fees books and living expenses than sitting out and retaking the lsat again?

Retake. I had similar grades and first LSAT, now I'm at a t14 on the cheap

Wubbles wrote:Retake. I had similar grades and first LSAT, now I'm at a t14 on the cheap

What sort of LSAT score would I need to go, in your opinion, to make it to t14 or top 20? My friend got a 164 and had same GPA as me at Berkeley but got rejected from Berkeley. And I don't think I could go from a 156 to 164.

cocoleigh wrote:

Wubbles wrote:Retake. I had similar grades and first LSAT, now I'm at a t14 on the cheap

What sort of LSAT score would I need to go, in your opinion, to make it to t14 or top 20? My friend got a 164 and had same GPA as me at Berkeley but got rejected from Berkeley. And I don't think I could go from a 156 to 164.

I went from a 156 to a 167 and got into Berkeley and 6 other t14 schools

Wubbles wrote:

cocoleigh wrote:

Wubbles wrote:Retake. I had similar grades and first LSAT, now I'm at a t14 on the cheap

What sort of LSAT score would I need to go, in your opinion, to make it to t14 or top 20? My friend got a 164 and had same GPA as me at Berkeley but got rejected from Berkeley. And I don't think I could go from a 156 to 164.

I went from a 156 to a 167 and got into Berkeley and 6 other t14 schools

Edit: and I did that with only 3 months between exams during school

cocoleigh wrote:Hi all, I'd really appreciate any feedback.

I graduated from UC Berkeley in 2016 with honors - got a mediocre LSAT score (and chose to just apply rather than take the LSAT again). I am now faced with a decision of choosing between UC Hastings, UC Davis, and U Washington.

I'm sort of semi-committed to UC Hastings - my parents live in Berkeley so I'd be saving $15,000 a year by living with them (which makes Hastings and Davis attractive options...especially Hastings since it's shorter commute).

I know that Hastings (ranked 58) and Davis (ranked 37) are peer schools despite the gap in ranking so somewhat interchangeable. I didn't receive financial aid to any of the three schools. Washington is ranked the best (32) but I'd suffer more in terms of debt, being away from family/friends, etc. since I can't benefit from saving rent with my parents.

My ultimate goal would be to transfer to Berkeley Boalt after 1L. Though, I know I shouldn't count on transferring.

Can anyone offer any insight on this decision?

You've already received a lot of great advice. I'll just add that after studying for 6 months and never being able to crack a 162 (unless this was on the logic games, which you should definitely be able to further improve upon) you may have a particular issue with excelling under extreme time pressure, which is basically every law school final as well. So with your 4.0 and 156lsat, the LSAT score is more telling on how you'll do on law school finals and I would not think you're set up well to rank top 10% after 1L year at Hastings or Davis to be able to transfer to a t14 school. But... even if you can bring your LSAT up to a 159/160 and with your GPA you're looking at a big scholarship at Hastings compared to paying full price. Of course as others have mentioned, bring it up a few points above that and you're in at Top 20 schools. Definitely retake - especially considering you were often scoring several points above 156 on your practice exams.

CALaw717 wrote:

cocoleigh wrote:Hi all, I'd really appreciate any feedback.

I graduated from UC Berkeley in 2016 with honors - got a mediocre LSAT score (and chose to just apply rather than take the LSAT again). I am now faced with a decision of choosing between UC Hastings, UC Davis, and U Washington.

I'm sort of semi-committed to UC Hastings - my parents live in Berkeley so I'd be saving $15,000 a year by living with them (which makes Hastings and Davis attractive options...especially Hastings since it's shorter commute).

I know that Hastings (ranked 58) and Davis (ranked 37) are peer schools despite the gap in ranking so somewhat interchangeable. I didn't receive financial aid to any of the three schools. Washington is ranked the best (32) but I'd suffer more in terms of debt, being away from family/friends, etc. since I can't benefit from saving rent with my parents.

My ultimate goal would be to transfer to Berkeley Boalt after 1L. Though, I know I shouldn't count on transferring.

Can anyone offer any insight on this decision?

You've already received a lot of great advice. I'll just add that after studying for 6 months and never being able to crack a 162 (unless this was on the logic games, which you should definitely be able to further improve upon) you may have a particular issue with excelling under extreme time pressure, which is basically every law school final as well. So with your 4.0 and 156lsat, the LSAT score is more telling on how you'll do on law school finals and I would not think you're set up well to rank top 10% after 1L year at Hastings or Davis to be able to transfer to a t14 school. But... even if you can bring your LSAT up to a 159/160 and with your GPA you're looking at a big scholarship at Hastings compared to paying full price. Of course as others have mentioned, bring it up a few points above that and you're in at Top 20 schools. Definitely retake - especially considering you were often scoring several points above 156 on your practice exams.

I just wanted to add, I'd estimate 3-4 points additional on the LSAT is worth $90k to you. Compared to Hastings admission with no scholarship offer, a 159 with a 4.0 or definitely with a 160 and a 4.0 and you're looking at a great likelihood of a $30k/year scholarship, which would bring annual tuition to just $14k/year.

Im a Hastings rising 2L. Probably transferring out (accepted to UCLA, and lower T14).

You should definitely retake. I would recommend taking a class. I studied 6 months intensely, didn't improve my score. However, after taking a class , my score went up 10 points. I ultimately went with Hastings b/c of the financial aid package. But had gotten into T20s (Vanderbilt, Emory, etc)

I would say UC Hastings is better than Davis for a chance at biglaw. The top 10% at Hastings gets great jobs at firms like Fenwick, Cooley, etc. However, there is no guarantee, you'll be in the top 10%.

If you are interested in crim, Hastings also gives you access to great externships. Lot of public defenders and DAs went to Hastings.

Definitely negotiate financial aid package. Friends with 158 and 3.7 got 10k-20k.

ladysansastark wrote:
I would say UC Hastings is better than Davis for a chance at biglaw. The top 10% at Hastings gets great jobs at firms like Fenwick, Cooley, etc. However, there is no guarantee, you'll be in the top 10%.

.

I’m gonna argue against this. I was deciding between Hastings and UC Davis last year and spoke to a lot of big law lawyers from the Bay and they all unanimously told me Davis > Hastings. Both schools had really strong reps historically and both have fallen in the rankings but Hastings has fallen farther than UCD. Additionally, it seems to me that most davis students who end up doing well seem to end up getting offers from good law firms I know several 2Ls and 3Ls who got into the t14 via transfer (usually t10) and turned down those schools because their gpa already got them big law eligibility coming from Davis. Also you will be in a quiet town with no distraction instead of a bad part of SF (no offense, SF native here).

I think big law is possible from either if you do well enough but Davis is the better ranked school and seems to hold a slightly better reputation among Bay Area attorneys from my research last year.

However, given that your gpa is high I also think for you it probably makes sense to retake. If anything you can b pretty sure you’ll get into these same schools next year year and at least have a shot of having a much higher gpa