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I'm accepted to Northwestern and deferring a year for personal/work reasons. I will have to fill out all the financial aid stuff again next year.

I have a 3.56/171, 8 years WE, unremarkable softs.

First time around, I didn't really have a study plan. I did 7 weeks of PTs, and worked through most of Logic Games for Dummies. If I were to retake, I would get the Bibles, and spend more time on figuring out why my answers were right/wrong after taking a PT. I would track question types and determine my weaknesses.

I feel like my studying was pretty half-assed, and some improvement isn't totally unlikely. I also feel, looking at NU's scholarship numbers on LSN, that a couple of points higher on the LSAT might push me over the edge into merit money territory.

Would retaking the LSAT in June or October to improve my chances at merit money be a good idea?

And if I DIDN'T improve my score, would LSAC even report it to NU, since I wouldn't have any active/submitted applications for next year's cycle?

They might assume if you retook it, you were now using them as a safety as you had already gotten in and not accept you.

Is there any way you can just explain your situation to NU, and say something along the lines of, if I retook the LSAT in June, can my file be reevaluated for merit aid?

LSATWIZ wrote:They might assume if you retook it, you were now using them as a safety as you had already gotten in and not accept you.

If I retook and improved my score, I would probably mention my reasoning for doing it in my scholarship application essays somewhere.

I will have paid 2 (or possibly 3, I'd have to look at my letter) seat deposits by then. Plus, how much higher than NU could I possibly expect with only a 3.56?

I wasn't worrying about them rescinding my acceptance--it's not like letting your GPA drop 1.0 or getting arrested!

LSATWIZ wrote:Is there any way you can just explain your situation to NU, and say something along the lines of, if I retook the LSAT in June, can my file be reevaluated for merit aid?

Wow, how sad is it that asking NU didn't even occur to me? That should have been my first step! Thanks.

Most schools require you to make a deposit and commit to not applying to other schools if you defer. If that's the case for your deferral, I doubt a higher LSAT score is going to make much of a difference, it'd be like an accepted ED applicant re-taking.