Top Law Schools

Hey guys. My stats:

3.5 LSDAS GPA, English Lit Degree
174 LSAT
Honors College
E-board and founding member of Pre-Law Society
Florida state school
Legal assistant at law firm for 3 years
GPA addedum will address poor grades due to family crisis... maintained straight As for junior & senior years

Here are the schools I'm applying to:

Harvard (I know... bring on the laughs)
NYU (probably my top choice)
Fordham
Columbia

What do you guys think? What are my chances at these schools, or what other schools should I be looking at? Ideally I want to stay on the East coast.

Also... I am a 22 year-old, non-URM female.

IMO you don't need a addendum for your GPA. I might be wrong...but I recall speaking with Adcom (I have similar GPA--3.60 LSAC GPA 3.57)...and majority said an outright NO when asked if an addendum was needed.

Harvard- Reject
NYU- Waitlist
Columbia- Waitlist
Fordham- In

blanket the t14 and see what kind of money you get.

HYS you are out at, period. Take Fordham off the list, you can get into higer ranked schools like UVA and Michigan which trump Fordham in NYC placement (more prestige).

If you want NYU or CLS, you are going to need to do ED. Alas, your softs are quite normal, so it will probably come down to numbers. NYU is more into numbers than CLS, so EDing there would give you a better shot. Its up to you.

Also, 3.5/174 plus your softs are good for RD to UVA, Duke, Cornell, Gtown and Vandy.

I would throw Michigan and UofC on your list too even though you want to stay on the East Coast (location should not trump prospective employment opps.).

I think you end up into NYU and WL at CLS.
HLS is obviously a decline, maybe a prayer waitlist but you will never get off of it.
Fordham easily in.

App to more T14s as others have said. You might appreciate having a fall back option if you are left with Fordham as your only acceptance.

Good shot at NYU. Most likely a waitlist at Columbia. Harvard is probably out.

At the very least add Penn. You should also consider adding Michigan, Virginia, Northwestern, and Cornell.

GPA's too low for Harvard. For the other schools though, you have a good - great shot at being admitted; just make your personal statement as strong as possible and you're good to go. Edit: Cornell is also another great school for the NY market.

The people saying a 3.5/174 has a shot at NYU without ED are crazy. Being around 50% means you need real softs to get in; otherwise you are out. Now, if the OP has uber softs, great. If not, it has to be a ED to CLS or NYU.

dissonance1848 wrote:The people saying a 3.5/174 has a shot at NYU without ED are crazy. Being around 50% means you need real softs to get in; otherwise you are out. Now, if the OP has uber softs, great. If not, it has to be a ED to CLS or NYU.

Once, again, and for probably the 100th time in a few days you are wrong. CLS yes you likely need ED, but NYU, you are likely to get in RD if you have a good application and apply early.

dissonance1848 wrote:The people saying a 3.5/174 has a shot at NYU without ED are crazy. Being around 50% means you need real softs to get in; otherwise you are out. Now, if the OP has uber softs, great. If not, it has to be a ED to CLS or NYU.

The bolded is just wrong. NYU doesn't emphasize softs much at all to begin with and 3.5/174 puts you in better shape at NYU than 50%.