3.95/170 nonURM female with few/unrelated softs Forum

[dominoski]

Sorry for the long story, but any advice on where to apply/my chances is much appreciated!

I'm a white female from a decent public school. Majors were psychology & anthropology. Minors in history & human rights. Worried that I don't have enough extracurriculars.

I was super involved in psych, spent 2+ years doing honors research, got scholarships/grants/nominations, and am in the process of trying to publish 2 research articles. However, this is completely unrelated to law, so I'm wondering if this counts for anything...

Other possible softs include: setting up a library in tanzania, being an honors peer mentor, doing community presentations

I haven't done a lot of community service because I've been paying for school and have had to work part-time for the last six years.

Will have one very good rec letter (who got her phd from stanford), and one okay one (from an anth prof)

1. Chances at T14 or T25? 2. If I want to even be considered at HYS should I retake the LSAT? 3. Will it help if I quit my job and get involved in community service related to law this summer?

Thank you for the input!

[descartesb4thehorse]

1. Chances at T14 or T25? 2. If I want to even be considered at HYS should I retake the LSAT? 3. Will it help if I quit my job and get involved in community service related to law this summer?

1. I'm not as sure about T6, but I'd say you have a decent shot at CCN. Boalt is a good bet, and lower T-14 as safeties. You're in at the rest of the T25.

2. Yes.

3. No? Unless you feel like you have nothing to say in your PS, although that library in Tanzania would probably trump it.

Most common mistake of 0Ls: thinking that they need something related to law. Your softs are good. Do what you like, adcomms are into diversity.

[Confused7]

Not entirely impossible to get into HYS with a 170, especially with a near perfect GPA. I definitely contemplated retaking and reapplying, but it ended up working fine for me. For what it's worth, I don't have too much related to law either in my background (not necessary) and one of my majors was also Psychology. Have you checked lawschoolnumbers? A wealth of information there....either way, T14 is definitely possible.

[dominoski]

Not entirely impossible to get into HYS with a 170, especially with a near perfect GPA. I definitely contemplated retaking and reapplying, but it ended up working fine for me. For what it's worth, I don't have too much related to law either in my background (not necessary) and one of my majors was also Psychology. Have you checked lawschoolnumbers? A wealth of information there....either way, T14 is definitely possible.

Thanks for the info everyone. Congrats on your acceptance! That makes me feel better to hear of a psych major with a 170 getting into top schools. I looked on some database where it seemed like psych majors were rejected more than other majors and I was a little worried that it didn't look like a challenging enough major (a stereotype about psychology).

I also looked on a LSN predictor thing and with my stats (and of the people who submitted their stats), 40% got into stanford, and 20something % into Harvard. However, as I entered better and better LSAT scores out of curiosity, the percentage getting into S seemed to max out at about 50% whereas for H getting better and better scores just kept improving the chances of getting in. This might support the idea that retaking might help for H but not as much for S.

[Law Sauce]

Not entirely impossible to get into HYS with a 170, especially with a near perfect GPA. I definitely contemplated retaking and reapplying, but it ended up working fine for me. For what it's worth, I don't have too much related to law either in my background (not necessary) and one of my majors was also Psychology. Have you checked lawschoolnumbers? A wealth of information there....either way, T14 is definitely possible.

Thanks for the info everyone. Congrats on your acceptance! That makes me feel better to hear of a psych major with a 170 getting into top schools. I looked on some database where it seemed like psych majors were rejected more than other majors and I was a little worried that it didn't look like a challenging enough major (a stereotype about psychology).

I also looked on a LSN predictor thing and with my stats (and of the people who submitted their stats), 40% got into stanford, and 20something % into Harvard. However, as I entered better and better LSAT scores out of curiosity, the percentage getting into S seemed to max out at about 50% whereas for H getting better and better scores just kept improving the chances of getting in. This might support the idea that retaking might help for H but not as much for S.

Thats probably true. S is just harder due to small class size. H is more a numbers game. I think that CCNMVPB should be your targets though and not really YHS. Try to get money at one of these is best bet. But try YHS, you never know.

[dominoski]

Not entirely impossible to get into HYS with a 170, especially with a near perfect GPA. I definitely contemplated retaking and reapplying, but it ended up working fine for me. For what it's worth, I don't have too much related to law either in my background (not necessary) and one of my majors was also Psychology. Have you checked lawschoolnumbers? A wealth of information there....either way, T14 is definitely possible.

Thanks for the info everyone. Congrats on your acceptance! That makes me feel better to hear of a psych major with a 170 getting into top schools. I looked on some database where it seemed like psych majors were rejected more than other majors and I was a little worried that it didn't look like a challenging enough major (a stereotype about psychology).

I also looked on a LSN predictor thing and with my stats (and of the people who submitted their stats), 40% got into stanford, and 20something % into Harvard. However, as I entered better and better LSAT scores out of curiosity, the percentage getting into S seemed to max out at about 50% whereas for H getting better and better scores just kept improving the chances of getting in. This might support the idea that retaking might help for H but not as much for S.

Thats probably true. S is just harder due to small class size. H is more a numbers game. I think that CCNMVPB should be your targets though and not really YHS. Try to get money at one of these is best bet. But try YHS, you never know.

Thanks for the advice! Sounds like a plan. One thing I wondered was if I did retake, could I apply early and then update the schools with my new score? Or would I have to notify them to wait until my new score? Or just apply after the new score? I'm pretty new to all this. I probably won't retake just because I'm afraid I'll do worse even though my average was higher than 170.

[descartesb4thehorse]

Not entirely impossible to get into HYS with a 170, especially with a near perfect GPA. I definitely contemplated retaking and reapplying, but it ended up working fine for me. For what it's worth, I don't have too much related to law either in my background (not necessary) and one of my majors was also Psychology. Have you checked lawschoolnumbers? A wealth of information there....either way, T14 is definitely possible.

Thanks for the info everyone. Congrats on your acceptance! That makes me feel better to hear of a psych major with a 170 getting into top schools. I looked on some database where it seemed like psych majors were rejected more than other majors and I was a little worried that it didn't look like a challenging enough major (a stereotype about psychology).

I also looked on a LSN predictor thing and with my stats (and of the people who submitted their stats), 40% got into stanford, and 20something % into Harvard. However, as I entered better and better LSAT scores out of curiosity, the percentage getting into S seemed to max out at about 50% whereas for H getting better and better scores just kept improving the chances of getting in. This might support the idea that retaking might help for H but not as much for S.

Thats probably true. S is just harder due to small class size. H is more a numbers game. I think that CCNMVPB should be your targets though and not really YHS. Try to get money at one of these is best bet. But try YHS, you never know.

Thanks for the advice! Sounds like a plan. One thing I wondered was if I did retake, could I apply early and then update the schools with my new score? Or would I have to notify them to wait until my new score? Or just apply after the new score? I'm pretty new to all this. I probably won't retake just because I'm afraid I'll do worse even though my average was higher than 170.

You can apply as early as you want. LSAC will notify them with your new score automatically once it becomes available. This will definitely be fine for an October score. For a December, others who know better may want to chime in, but it seems like since many schools make decisions before January, you may want to notify them that you're retaking in December and to watch out for it. Will only matter if they were going to ding you beforehand (doubt many places would, but jic) since they're updated with WL'ers scores as well. So, if they have WL'd you or haven't made a decision yet, the score will be automatically there for them to consider. Does that make sense?

[dominoski]

You can apply as early as you want. LSAC will notify them with your new score automatically once it becomes available. This will definitely be fine for an October score. For a December, others who know better may want to chime in, but it seems like since many schools make decisions before January, you may want to notify them that you're retaking in December and to watch out for it. Will only matter if they were going to ding you beforehand (doubt many places would, but jic) since they're updated with WL'ers scores as well. So, if they have WL'd you or haven't made a decision yet, the score will be automatically there for them to consider. Does that make sense?

Thank you for explaining it! That makes perfect sense