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So, here is my situation. I am looking to apply to law school for this cycle. My GPA is 2.89. I have taken the LSAT 3 times. My highest is a 164...not good enough for most places, except UNM where I live and will most likely get in (cheap tuition, 2nd tier).

I took the LSAT in october and was expecting high 160s. This did not happen, I did not sleep well the night before. I am considering asking a school to ask LSAC to let me take the test again, in December. I hear that it is not difficult to get a law school to do this. However, there are drawbacks: If I take the LSAT in December, my score won't be out till like the beginning of January. Also, Finals week is literally the week of the December test. There is also the possibility that I will not do better on the LSAT, which would look very bad.

Should I just apply with a 164, or should I risk a retake and apply late, but possibly score higher on the LSAT?

Any advice would be appreciated.

shameless bump

Apply and retake. I'm sure many schools will wait for December's LSAT before making a final decision anyway. If you manage high 170s NU would not be out of the question.

apply this cycle with the 164, and see how it goes. Since the feb test will be very late, and you are in school, try to get a school to write on your behalf for the june or october test, so you can have adequate time to prep, and re apply next cycle

northwood wrote:apply this cycle with the 164, and see how it goes. Since the feb test will be very late, and you are in school, try to get a school to write on your behalf for the june or october test, so you can have adequate time to prep, and re apply next cycle

It would be the December LSAT, not the Feb...

Ragged wrote:Apply and retake. I'm sure many schools will wait for December's LSAT before making a final decision anyway. If you manage high 170s NU would not be out of the question.

And if I get a 163 I will look like a fool...

i said feb because if december is your finals week, there is a greater possibility that you will be mentally exhausted on saturday.

since that is your third time, why take the chance??

nStiver wrote:

Ragged wrote:Apply and retake. I'm sure many schools will wait for December's LSAT before making a final decision anyway. If you manage high 170s NU would not be out of the question.

And if I get a 163 I will look like a fool...

People on TLS will publicly patronize you and secretely laugh at you, yes. But schools won't care - and its all that matters. But if you do do well you will gain TLS cred and will go to a much better school or to the same school but much cheaper or both.

There is a whole lot of upward potential to this and very little downward. If applying next cycle an option maybe give yourself till June to really be prepared. If you want to absolutely go to school next year then go for it in December. (Probably should not wait till February because even a really high LSAT score might not be of much help that late.)

If you really want to apply this cycle do it. However, I took it during my finals week and got a crappy score. If you know you will do better then do it, otherwise you are wasting a 4th chance.