3.3/168 -- Impact of Work Experience? Forum

[DoogieHowser]

Graduated in 2008 from a well-known, fairly well-respected public institution. Here is my background info:

3.3/168 (only try). Non-URM.

~3 years post-grad work experience (will be ~4 years when I actually enroll):

Field Organizer for Obama for America
Legislative Aide for a State Assemblyman
Campaign Manager for a State Assembly race

I've played around with all of the different law school probability calculators, but of course none of them can adequately factor in 1) time off from UG and 2) quality of work experience.

I'm basically looking to go to the best school I can get into (hopefully top 20). Any ideas on how much my work experience will realistically help my mediocre gpa and moderately decent LSAT? I also have some pretty solid LORs, although since I've been out of school for a few years, none are academic at this point.

Also, I won't be enrolling until 2012, so I'll get another year of WE under my belt -- I'll be 26 when I start applying this fall.

Thanks for the help.

[tourdeforcex]

probably the best thing to do is look on lawschoolnumbers.com for a student w/ similar work experience and similar numbers.

some schools also prefer older candidates. also look for those that care more for LSAT relative to GPA

i think you should be able to break into top 30, maybe top 20.

best wishes.

[The Gentleman]

I applied with pretty similar WE, and my cycle has been going more or less as my numbers suggested.

[hokie]

Unfortunately, law school admissions is primarily a numbers game, meaning that your WE will neither make or break you. However, it will give you a slight boost and certain schools like Northwestern seem to highly rate WE. Although you have a fairly good chance at the lower of T20 (i.e. WUSTL, USC, Vandy), in order to be a competitive candidate (and receive more $$$), I would retake granted you feel confident to outperform your previous score. GL!

[DoogieHowser]

Unfortunately, law school admissions is primarily a numbers game, meaning that your WE will neither make or break you. However, it will give you a slight boost and certain schools like Northwestern seem to highly rate WE. Although you have a fairly good chance at the lower of T20 (i.e. WUSTL, USC, Vandy), in order to be a competitive candidate (and receive more $$$), I would retake granted you feel confident to outperform your previous score. GL!

I really doubt that I can do much better on the LSAT. Of the probability calculators that I have used, each one has indicated that anywhere from 10 percent to 40 percent of previous similar applicants were accepted to some of the top 20 (and even some of the lower t14) . So, I figured that the 10-40 percent got in for reasons other than just their numbers (since they were close to my numbers and obviously not too overwhelming), and I was hoping that my work experience was good enough to make a difference. Am I dreaming here?

Thanks again for the help...

[DoogieHowser]

...

[ebo]

Graduated in 2008 from a well-known, fairly well-respected public institution. Here is my background info:

3.3/168 (only try). Non-URM.

~3 years post-grad work experience (will be ~4 years when I actually enroll):

Field Organizer for Obama for America
Legislative Aide for a State Assemblyman
Campaign Manager for a State Assembly race

I've played around with all of the different law school probability calculators, but of course none of them can adequately factor in 1) time off from UG and 2) quality of work experience.

I'm basically looking to go to the best school I can get into (hopefully top 20). Any ideas on how much my work experience will realistically help my mediocre gpa and moderately decent LSAT? I also have some pretty solid LORs, although since I've been out of school for a few years, none are academic at this point.

Also, I won't be enrolling until 2012, so I'll get another year of WE under my belt -- I'll be 26 when I start applying this fall.

Thanks for the help.

Your work experience won't do much for you, if anything. GPA will hurt you, but not kill you. I would apply to schools where you LSAT is median or 75th percentile- GW, WUSTL, etc. I had slightly worse GPA/LSAT than you and the best school I was admitted to was Emory with $$$