Top Law Schools

Ok, I figured there would be a flood of "what are my chances" posts with the release of the June LSAT scores today, but there's really not, so I'll give it a shot. I've spent a lot of time on LSN/LSP/etc. so I'm pretty aware of my situation already, but I know a lot of you guys like answering these anyway. I guess this is more of a general advice on where I should apply thread moreso than about my chances. In particular, I'm really interested in whether people think I should ED or not, and if so, where I should ED. Here's the relevant info:

LSAC GPA: 3.49

LSAT: 171 (June 2010)

White male

Undergrad: Georgia Tech (known for difficult coursework and lack of grade inflation), double majored in an engineering and a hard science

Work experience: Roughly 8 years since college graduation, all in software engineering. While in school, I was a TA for several years and did part-time engineering work.

Preferred locations: mid-Atlantic, southwest, pacific. I don't like the midwest, don't think I'd like the northeast, and don't want to come back to Florida. Willing to attend a school in a shitty place if it's significantly better than my alternatives.

Legal employment concerns: no interest in biglaw/midlaw/shitlaw/etc. Only interested in govt. or public interest jobs. Dream outcome would be DOJ Honors program.

Debt tolerance: Obviously the less debt the better, but given my career plans the LRAP/IBR are most likely in my future no matter what. I have 35K of student loans remaining from undergrad, will be paid down a bit more by the time I start law school.

Tentative list of schools to apply:
Virginia
Penn
Duke
Georgetown
Texas
UCLA
Vanderbilt
USC
GW

Given that I think I'll get into at least some of those schools, should I bother applying to Northwestern/Cornell/Michigan since I hate their locations and it's unlikely they'd give me money to make it worth passing up the schools in my list?

NYU and Columbia would be awesome enough that I could learn to like NYC for a few years - should I take an ED shot at one of them and hope to get lucky?

Assuming I'm out at NYU/CLS, I'm really unsure about what the best ED strategy for me is. I really don't have one school that I love more than all the others at this point, and haven't visited any of them yet. I'm leaning towards just applying regular decision everywhere on my list, but I'm curious what people think about that.

I will probably also apply to a few lower-ranked schools that are in areas I like, for the possibility of scholarships and fallback options. E.g., Emory, UNC, Wake, UCIrvine.

In at all. Def in at Northwestern if you decide to go there. I would personally recommend Northwestern.

malfurion wrote:
Tentative list of schools to apply:
Virginia WL or IN; Write a Why Virgina or you will be WL'd
Penn WL or IN; Write a Why Penn or you will be WL'd
Duke WL or IN; Write a Why Duke or you will be WL'd
Georgetown In
Texas You've got a shot, but it's iffy.
UCLA You've got a shot, but it's iffy.
Vanderbilt in, probably with money
USC You've got a shot, but it's iffy.
GW In

Given that I think I'll get into at least some of those schools, should I bother applying to Northwestern/Cornell/Michigan since I hate their locations and it's unlikely they'd give me money to make it worth passing up the schools in my list?

I'd at least apply to Michigan because they give money to people with your numbers, and they do place well nationally. You can leave off NU, and Cornell, they won't give you cash.

Though it's not inconceivable that you WL'd or Dinged at the T14's you apply to. If they give you fee waivers why not?

Thanks for the responses, guys. I'll definitely write the Why X essays for my reach schools.

Anyone have thoughts on whether I should ED anywhere?

malfurion wrote: Anyone have thoughts on whether I should ED anywhere?

Bumping once for this - I still can't make up my mind but am leaning towards not using an ED anywhere.

An aside, but doesn't a ~3.3 and above at the North Avenue Trade School give you summa distinction?

TheBigMediocre wrote:An aside, but doesn't a ~3.3 and above at the North Avenue Trade School give you summa distinction?

Nah, 3.55 was summa, 3.35 was magna. I blew my summa by getting a D in quantum mechanics II my last semester when I no longer gave a shit.