Top Law Schools

Hello TLS people,

I am in an interesting predicament and I need a little bit of advice. After looking through these boards, I decided that my questions could be best answered in this section, but I don't think this is going to be a typical "here are my numbers, what are my chances at Harvard?" thread...

I just finished my sophomore year at UChicago and for several reasons, I am probably going to be graduating in three years rather than four, finishing up in the spring of 2011. I have not taken the LSAT, but one practice test without any sort of preparation (essentially the first time I ever saw any LSAT questions) resulted in a 164. I think with a few months of preparation I can get that up to 170 to hopefully take it in the fall of 2010.

Despite the seemingly good numbers, several things scare me about applying to a law school program. Firstly, I am going to be someone with only three years of undergraduate experience, and I have absolutely no idea of how this factors into the admissions process. Secondly, I am a Political Science major but am not planning on writing a BA thesis (thus I will only graduate with general Honors from the college and not Honors in my major). I have *heard* from academic advisers that law school adcoms like seeing lengthy writing samples from students, and that a BA thesis is the best way to demonstrate that to the committee. I will, however, be required to write a twenty-page paper in order to fulfill my graduation requirements...again, I don't know how this will impact my overall application. Finally, connecting to the first point, I am going to be very young - just 21 when applying and 22 when entering (this is probably the least important of my three concerns).

Another issue is money (I'm not wealthy in the least - single-parent home and my mom is unemployed), so I am looking to get the best possible merit/need-based award possible. I'm from North Carolina, so I have been looking at the following schools: Wake Forest, UNC, Duke, Emory, Vanderbilt, UVA.

I have been told that Wake Forest especially has *very good* merit-based aid for top entering students, and on their scholarships page, they list several full tuition with stipend scholarship programs. I doubt anyone has specific knowledge of the caliber applicants that WFU looks for to award such scholarships to, but if anyone has any insight regarding Wake's scholarships or full-tuition law school scholarships in general, I'd greatly appreciate it. I'd really love to go to Wake for free, but I don't know how the above circumstances will affect my eligibility for these types of awards.

Thanks much guys!

First: Take the LSAT seriously, and study hard. You clearly have a lot of potential, so don't waste it. The scholarships you get will depend almost entirely (with a few exceptions) on your LSAT and GPA. I doubt Wake is much more generous with money than anyone else, probably less so than a lot of the schools you listed.

Second: Almost all the advice you've received is incorrect. It won't matter too much that you graduated in 3 years, or that you didn't write a thesis -- law schools don't require a true writing sample, just a personal statement. If you were to enter at 22, you'd essentially be in the company of everyone who went straight from undergrad, which is a substantial portion of the class.

Good luck!

Stan?

Everything else does not matter. Just get the best LSAT that you can, the higher it is the more $ you will get from better schools. For instance, if you get mid-170s I'm pretty sure Columbia/NYU/CCN will throw you some money, perhaps even full scholarships.

Again, don't worry about everything else. Thesis, age etc., will not matter. Just concentrate on that LSAT.

Thanks for the tips guys.

I'm no expert at looking through law school statistics, but when I _do_ check out the top programs, like the ones mentioned by kazu, I see that only a very small percentage (in Columbia's case, 2.2% of the class of 2009 receives a full tuition scholarship while 8.1% is on half-tuition) received a lot of $ for attending.

I've always been under the impression that these places are so difficult to get into that receiving merit-based aid when every other student had a 3.9 and at least a 171 becomes _extremely_ difficult. Again, I don't really have any evidence to support this claim, but I suspect that it wouldn't be a walk in the park to get a considerable amount of money from top programs.

I will definitely "carpetbomb" (I've seen term used a bunch of times on this forum and it's pretty hilarious) the T14 if I get above 172 and see what sort of money I'm offered, but I'm not even sure I _want_ to go to a law program like Columbia's...I've been surrounded by wunderkinds for a few years and it doesn't really make for fun and exciting times.

Al Prufrock - that's me, who the heck are you?

You got a 164 without ever seeing the test and you are trying for a 170? Raising your score 10-15 points should be no problem for anyone who puts in a decent effort. I raised my score 15 points, I know others who have raised theirs' even more. Study, get that LSAT up to the mid 170's, and you can get a full scholarship at some T-10 schools. Of what I have seen so far, the only people who get significant scholarships at Columbia have 175+ so even that is not out of the question for someone doing 164 cold.
Finally, graduating in three years, without honors, means nothing. Anyone can write a thesis but not everyone can take enough credits to graduate that quickly. Just don't apply to Northwestern.

I hate Northwestern - won't be a problem.

What do you want to do, and why do you need a scholarship? You can get loans to cover all your costs, and if you get 171+, you'll get into Chicago/NYU and be in a great position to pay them off.

Stan?

Haha. Cool.

yeah shoot for a 173+ OP, with that score and UChicago, 3.86 you should have a great chance at Harvard or large scholarships at lower T14 schools.

Also, HYS offer need based financial aid which can help in ur situation or with a great LSAT score u'll qualify for stuff like a the deferred full tuition scholarship to Northwestern.

see what you get on the lsat...had a friend score a 164 on a pt and end up with a 166 on the lsat.....you never know what will happen/