Applying to reaches is a humiliating waste of time and money Forum

[RayFinkle]

Finkle is Einhorn...

your gun is digging into my hip

It's not a woman, it's a man!!

Oh ho HOOO! Fiction can be fun...

[Borhas]

Don't ever do it.

I agree for the most part, applicants with well rounded #'s and little good WE will have no shot at a reach

splitters are another story

[BarbaraGordon]

It's been a brutal year for admissions. A lot of applicants that used available (read: dated) numbers to brand themselves as "reaches" or "splitters" will look back at this cycle's data and see that all the benchmarks increased this year.

If it's super important to you to get into your dream school, then you might want to go to work or into the peace corps for a few years while the economy improves, then reapply when the applicant pool is smaller. Alternatively, if your grades are already solid, then spend six months getting an LSAT to match and reapply next cycle.

[beesknees]

Seriously, why would you apply to a school where you're at or below the schools 25 percentiles unless you've done something truly extraordinary after college? Even then, you're still throwing a hail mary. Someone who got in with one number around the 25%ile is most likely a splitter or a URM (in other words, an applicant that offered something to compensate for the low number). I consider being below both medians at a particular school means that that school is probably a reach for you.

[PlugInBaby]

Paraphrasing the OP: THE LACES WERE IN!!!!!!!

Seriously, try some fee waivers....that way reaches aren't that bad.