Top Law Schools

It sucks waiting for adcomms to give you a decision, so I thought I'd get some mock decisions from TLS instead.

I've gotten into Villanova and Dickinson already. The rest are silent so far. I'm not URM.

These are the schools I've applied to that I'm praying I have a realistic chance at:

George Washington
WUSTL
American
Emory
UIUC
BC
BU
Temple
Fordham
UC Davis

People say BC is out usually, but I recently saw a TLSer accepted with a 3.4/161 without being a URM or non-trad and special. So I'm hoping I'll be one of those lucky few as well.

I wrote "Why X" essays for all of them, if that's worth anything. I hope it is. They were thoughtful, honest "Why X" essays too.

I have a 168 with a 3.3. I received a 90k scholarship at Illinois and was accepted at WUSTL and am waiting for scholarship information.

My numbers are pretty similar to yours (3.05/169) and I got into WUSTL, GW, and AU so far. Waitlisted at Fordham. Good luck with everything! Hope we both get into Emory and BU!

Edit: I haven't heard from Emory. Freudian 1st thing in the morning wishful thinking.

Congratulations, you two! I hope I'm as lucky as you were.

George Washington- WL/IN
WUSTL- IN
American- IN
Emory- IN
UIUC- IN
BC- WL/Out
BU- WL/Out
Temple- IN
Fordham- IN/WL
UC Davis- IN

Another school you may want to consider applying to is Indiana. I received 120k and with that large alumni donation they are handing out a lot of money for high LSAT scores.

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You are 1 pt above me on the LSAT, otherwise samesies:

George Washington: WL / IN
WUSTL: IN
American: IN
Emory: IN
UIUC: IN
BC: WL /OUT
BU: WL / OUT
Temple: IN
Fordham: WL / IN
UC Davis: IN

Good luck! Hope you get BC.. they straight up rejected me but I didn't do a Why BC essay or anything.

Thanks for the positive predictions, everyone! I hope your cycles turn out as good as you've predicted mine to be.

bball25 - I seriously considered both Notre Dame and IU-Bloomington, but I wasn't too thrilled about 3 years amid the cornfields of Indiana...perhaps that wasn't a wise decision on my part, but it's awesome you got such an offer from IU.

You should apply to Notre Dame! I'm not biased or anything...seriously, you should get in with a bit of money I would think. South Bend is not as horrible as most people on here would have you believe (the snow sucks though).

So I got into WUSTL and U Minn (no word on scholly yet, I received emails only so far), and it made me think about the "Waitlist or Ding" predictions for me at Boston College.

Let me list the 25th-75th percentiles for these three according to TLS.

WUSTL: 3.3-3.8 ; 161-168

UMN: 3.3-3.85 ; 160-168

BC: 3.34-3.68 ; 163-167

I got accurate predictions for my WUSTL and UMN chances ("IN"), but my predictions for BC were either WL or ding. Going by the above numbers and my stats (3.1/168) I'm not sure why BC would be so picky with me when the higher ranked schools, with similar percentile numbers, accepted me. Could anyone explain this?

Peg wrote: I got accurate predictions for my WUSTL and UMN chances ("IN"), but my predictions for BC were either WL or ding. Going by the above numbers and my stats (3.1/168) I'm not sure why BC would be so picky with me when the higher ranked schools, with similar percentile numbers, accepted me. Could anyone explain this?

Peg - the common explanation for this is that, historically, WUSTL, UMN, Emory and UIUC tend to accept a fair number of higher LSAT, lower GPA students. The Boston schools tend to be less open to low GPAs. Check out BC's lsn graph from last year: http://bc.lawschoolnumbers.com/stats/0910/ and then compare to WUSTL's http://washu.lawschoolnumbers.com/stats/0910/

LSN is a self-selecting, not huge sample but these trends have seemed to hold true this cycle as well. (Although UIUC and WUSTL seem to be targetting 168+ instead of 167+). Boston tends to be tough for lower GPA students, which makes me a very sad panda.

Congrats on WUSTL and UMN, though, and best of luck for the rest of the schools!

I was flat out rejected from BC with a 3.66/168 last cycle. Then again, I transferred out of there after freshman year of undergrad. Not sure if that had anything to do with it.

snapdragon and ndirish, thanks for clearing that up. Yeah I figured it was a higher GPA-snottiness, which I think is weird since they're ranked at like 26 while WUSTL is ranked 19. Snapdragon - no sad panda! We might be lucky. =)

Peg wrote:snapdragon and ndirish, thanks for clearing that up. Yeah I figured it was a higher GPA-snottiness, which I think is weird since they're ranked at like 26 while WUSTL is ranked 19. Snapdragon - no sad panda! We might be lucky. =)

BC and WUSTL are peer schools with different regional strengths. Ignore the rankings.

ndirish2010 wrote: BC and WUSTL are peer schools with different regional strengths. Ignore the rankings.

Okay, that makes the earlier predictions make more sense.

I thought I'd round this thread out by posting my results, for the benefit of future little 0Ls. BU and BC didn't happen, WL at Davis, Fordham, GW and American. Nice scholly offers from UIUC and WashU. Right now it looks like WashU will be my new home. =)

Thanks for the all the advice, help and predictions, lovely people! TLS made all the difference for me.

WUSTL takes tons of splitters. They also hand out wads of cash.

BU/BC likes more rounded applicants.