should I apply now or wait until January?? Ahhh Forum

[Hoping4Happiness]

Hey guys, I would really appreciate input on this as I am VERY conflicted... I got a 163 on my Oct LSAT and my gpa is a 3.75, I wanted to apply to Boston College, and just spoke to someone in admissions over the phone who said their median lsat is a 164 and median gpa is a 3.65, she said they pay a lot of attention to "all aspects of the application" and what not. Basically I wanted your thoughts on whether to apply early (by Nov 21) or to wait, take the Dec LSAT and apply in January 2014?? I feel like it is a lot more favorable to apply on November.... I'm VERY tempted... Just wanted to know your thoughts especially because I don't think my dec lsat would be higher than a 165/166 to be honest..

[SteelPenguin]

Hey guys, I would really appreciate input on this as I am VERY conflicted... I got a 163 on my Oct LSAT and my gpa is a 3.75, I wanted to apply to Boston College, and just spoke to someone in admissions over the phone who said their median lsat is a 164 and median gpa is a 3.65, she said they pay a lot of attention to "all aspects of the application" and what not. Basically I wanted your thoughts on whether to apply early (by Nov 21) or to wait, take the Dec LSAT and apply in January 2014?? I feel like it is a lot more favorable to apply on November.... I'm VERY tempted... Just wanted to know your thoughts especially because I don't think my dec lsat would be higher than a 165/166 to be honest..

A 2 point increase would make your January application more competitive than your current numbers submitted in November. That being said, you should have your applications ready to go and send them either before or immediately after receiving your score.

[usernotfound]

The consensus around here seems to be that you're better off taking the December test and applying later if you can do even 2 points better.(1 point better in higher score range even)

[Hoping4Happiness]

Thanks, do you know what the 'brackets' are for the lsat ranges? is 165+ the next bracket up?

[wtrc]

I'll be honest, I'm surprised posters haven't already said this. With a 3.75, you shouldn't be aiming for Boston College, and if you can't hit 168 by December, I would consider taking off a year and aiming for T14.

[Jeffort]

I'll be honest, I'm surprised posters haven't already said this. With a 3.75, you shouldn't be aiming for Boston College, and if you can't hit 168 by December, I would consider taking off a year and aiming for T14.

^This is sound long term advice. 3.75 GPA plus an LSAT score above 165 would open up many opportunities that a 163 doesn't.

If October was your first take with just a few months of prep, you certainly can score much higher with refined prep methods. You clearly understand the concepts and techniques to have gotten 163. Scoring much higher in the 160s from there is mainly about refining your approaches to each question type into good systematic methods that you consistently apply. Lack of consistency in applying proper strategies and techniques is a common mistake that holds people in the low 160s instead of being in the high 160s. A lot of Q type focused drilling and deep review to burn into habit the proper steps of analysis for each question type usually helps substantially improve performance, especially with LR.

If you are willing to put in a lot more LSAT prep time and delay your application plans, you could fairly easily make yourself a competitive applicant at much better and higher ranked schools than you are currently considering. In the current legal climate, it would be career suicide not to push as hard as you can to get into the best possible law school you can, even if it means delaying for a year and spending a few more months prepping for the LSAT.

Even if you don't postpone, you could still prep hard for the next four weeks and improve your LSAT score to hopefully at least 165+, possibly even 168-9 or higher on the December test. You'll never know unless you immediately start hitting the LSAT books hard again and drill/review a lot the next four weeks. Not at least doing this would be very foolish. Raising a 163 to 165+ in four weeks shouldn't be that hard since you were just in LSAT mode. It just requires that you are willing to and actually do put in the extra work for the next four weeks.

You really have nothing to lose and only things to gain by prepping for and taking the December test and should do so unless you decide to postpone re-taking the LSAT until next year. Not prepping for and taking the Dec test and just applying with your October score would basically be you saying you are not willing to invest any more effort into improving what your future opportunities and quality of life after law school are going to be like.

[iamgeorgebush]

1. How much have you studied (both in terms of number of months/weeks and in terms of number of hours)?

2. What have you done to study (PTs, drilling, any books, etc.)?

3. What was your score on your initial diagnostic?

Answer those three questions so we can better help you determine the prudent choice, which may be to study longer and apply next cycle (or it might not be).

[CitrusFruit]

I'll reiterate what the other posters said. Study hard and boost your score. Then you can aim higher and/or get some merit money at a school like BC.

[kobe1020]

guys, i have a question, yes retake helps you to aim for reach school or super reach school. but with such score should we go ahead and apply to a "safe school" and try to get some scholarship first? i think a lot of us right now will be much calmer if we have at least one admission in place (with some $$$ would be good..). i know anything that non-T14 is god forbid topic..well i'll save my safety school..