3.5 UGPA, URM (Dominican/Hispanic) Forum

[cfrob14]

I'll preface the following by saying that I haven't taken the lsat yet. I'm planning on taking it in october, will start preparing for it in June which gives me approximately 3 and a half months to do well (above 170 is what I'm aiming for). With that said, what score would I need to get into a T10 school given:

3.57 ugpa, (not lsac gpa)- University of Miami
Double Major: Political Science (honors, concentrations in international security and american government; International Studies (honors, concentrations in international political economy).
Double Minor: Economics; Business Law.
Undergraduate honors thesis (for concentrations- not general honors).
President of a policy awareness group on campus, vice president of a pre-law advisory club, member of 2 other clubs.
2 internships in local government, another doing case research for a law firm in Miami.
I'm hispanic; does it matter that I'm Dominican?
Solid letters of recommendation.

I apologize in advance if I'm missing anything or just generally posting incorrectly. I perused the forums but the sheer amount of posts was slightly overwhelming.

[coldshoulder]

Need your lsac GPA and an lsat score.
Have you even taken a diagnosis yet?

[TheFutureLawyer]

Are you black? Dominicans aren't URM.

edit: read this: http://www.top-law-schools.com/urm-applicant-faq.html

[JamMasterJ]

I'll preface the following by saying that I haven't taken the lsat yet. I'm planning on taking it in october, will start preparing for it in June which gives me approximately 3 and a half months to do well (above 170 is what I'm aiming for). With that said, what score would I need to get into a T10 school given:

3.57 ugpa, (not lsac gpa)- University of Miami
Double Major: Political Science (honors, concentrations in international security and american government; International Studies (honors, concentrations in international political economy).
Double Minor: Economics; Business Law.
Undergraduate honors thesis (for concentrations- not general honors).
President of a policy awareness group on campus, vice president of a pre-law advisory club, member of 2 other clubs.
2 internships in local government, another doing case research for a law firm in Miami.
I'm hispanic; does it matter that I'm Dominican?
Solid letters of recommendation.

I apologize in advance if I'm missing anything or just generally posting incorrectly. I perused the forums but the sheer amount of posts was slightly overwhelming.

Your softs are fine, but nothing that warrants getting into a better school than your numbers and URM status deserve. I'm not sure about the relative strength of Dominican vs other URM hispanic groups, but it's a boost regardless. EDIT: Maybe not

Other than that, without an LSAT score and an LSAC gpa, I can't tell you much, but if your LSAC gpa is close to your ugpa, a 170 would definitely get you something in that range, and a couple points lower might still get you in somwhere

[cfrob14]

Are you black? Dominicans aren't URM.

edit: read this: http://www.top-law-schools.com/urm-applicant-faq.html

I mean, you can be black and Dominican or white and Dominican. I'm a mix, skin color leans toward the latter group though. Don't know if that matters. Thanks for the link!

[cfrob14]

I'll preface the following by saying that I haven't taken the lsat yet. I'm planning on taking it in october, will start preparing for it in June which gives me approximately 3 and a half months to do well (above 170 is what I'm aiming for). With that said, what score would I need to get into a T10 school given:

3.57 ugpa, (not lsac gpa)- University of Miami
Double Major: Political Science (honors, concentrations in international security and american government; International Studies (honors, concentrations in international political economy).
Double Minor: Economics; Business Law.
Undergraduate honors thesis (for concentrations- not general honors).
President of a policy awareness group on campus, vice president of a pre-law advisory club, member of 2 other clubs.
2 internships in local government, another doing case research for a law firm in Miami.
I'm hispanic; does it matter that I'm Dominican?
Solid letters of recommendation.

I apologize in advance if I'm missing anything or just generally posting incorrectly. I perused the forums but the sheer amount of posts was slightly overwhelming.

Your softs are fine, but nothing that warrants getting into a better school than your numbers and URM status deserve. I'm not sure about the relative strength of Dominican vs other URM hispanic groups, but it's a boost regardless. EDIT: Maybe not

Other than that, without an LSAT score and an LSAC gpa, I can't tell you much, but if your LSAC gpa is close to your ugpa, a 170 would definitely get you something in that range, and a couple points lower might still get you in somwhere

Thanks for addressing all aspects of my post. I have yet to submit my transcript to LSAC as my thesis is still being poured over by my advisors. As such, I still have two "incompletes" (thesis is worth 6 credits at my school) and, for obvious reasons, I'm waiting for the grade before I send my transcript anywhere.

[bk1]

Are you black? Dominicans aren't URM.

edit: read this: http://www.top-law-schools.com/urm-applicant-faq.html

I mean, you can be black and Dominican or white and Dominican. I'm a mix, skin color leans toward the latter group though. Don't know if that matters. Thanks for the link!

If you're a mix of black and white (and check that you are black on your applications) then you will be considered a URM for law school admissions.

[cfrob14]

Need your lsac GPA and an lsat score.
Have you even taken a diagnosis yet?

Working on lsac GPA. I took a diagnosis about a year ago and if I recall correctly, my performance was horrible (high 150s, i think). I'm going to work on the LSAT for about a month- month and a half then decide if I should register with power score. All my friends that got into top 5 schools have told me that registering for classes or getting tutors was a waste of time, yet they got into the schools they wanted and I can't see how registering might hurt me. Might not help me as much but hurting my chances seems unlikely.

[cfrob14]

Are you black? Dominicans aren't URM.

edit: read this: http://www.top-law-schools.com/urm-applicant-faq.html

I mean, you can be black and Dominican or white and Dominican. I'm a mix, skin color leans toward the latter group though. Don't know if that matters. Thanks for the link!

If you're a mix of black and white (and check that you are black on your applications) then you will be considered a URM for law school admissions.

I don't mean to be ambiguous or facetious, but what do you mean by black? To me, black is just a skin color, but to others it's an ethnicity. Both my parents are Dominican, my dad is dark-skinned but not African-American (if that's what you were referring to). My mom is fair skinned. I'm a mixture. That's all I got.

[bk1]

I don't mean to be ambiguous or facetious, but what do you mean by black? To me, black is just a skin color, but to others it's an ethnicity. Both my parents are Dominican, my dad is dark-skinned but not African-American (if that's what you were referring to). My mom is fair skinned. I'm a mixture. That's all I got.

It does get murky. I think the simplest way to put it is, you are black if you have ancestors that are from Africa. There are exceptions to this (e.g. Egyptians and most northern Africans are not black, nor are white South Africans, etc), but it is about as simply as I can put it.

If you have ancestors from Africa (and I don't mean that you have to definitively trace your ancestry, but if you believe that you have ancestors from there that aren't what people would consider not-black like the exceptions I listed above), then there isn't anything wrong with checking black.

If your dad is dark-skinned because he has African blood then he (and you) are black. If your dad is dark-skinned because he has Hispanic/Native/etc blood (and not African blood), then he (and you) are not black.

Another thing I forgot to mention is that you should check everything that you are. If you are black and white, check both (in addition to whatever else you are). People who are partially black and people who are 100% black are considered the same URM.

[bk1]

Working on lsac GPA. I took a diagnosis about a year ago and if I recall correctly, my performance was horrible (high 150s, i think). I'm going to work on the LSAT for about a month- month and a half then decide if I should register with power score. All my friends that got into top 5 schools have told me that registering for classes or getting tutors was a waste of time, yet they got into the schools they wanted and I can't see how registering might hurt me. Might not help me as much but hurting my chances seems unlikely.

TLS tends to advocate self-study (mainly the PowerScore bibles in addition to some of the guides that are on here, along with doing as many practice tests as you can). It is cheaper than tutors/classes and generally more effective. However, that doesn't mean it is in your case. Some people do better with a tutor, some do better with a class, some do better with self-study. It really depends on the person so don't let the fact that it works for someone else or doesn't work for someone else mean that you don't try it in case it does work for you.

[cfrob14]

thanks for the help! will report back once I get myself more oriented.