Hybrid What are my chances/Where I should Apply Forum

[tspence13]

Basically, I have not decided whether or not to apply to law school in this cycle or the next (2012 vs. 2013). It is pretty inconsequential right not anyways, all this post will do is gauge my chances and help me make up my mind.

My stats have changed a bit since last time I talked on here. My softs are really strong still (look at previous posts if you want specifics). My GPA has dipped because of summer Calculus to a 3.65, but my LSAT retake yielded a surprising 174.

I want to do Int'l Civil Rights Law or just work in some transnational legal organization. If that doesn't pan out, I know that International Law is what I want to practice and the private sector is probably not for me. I could also really get into Environmental Law.

Chance me/give me recommendations as to which schools on my list I should apply to. The list has grown quite a bit... o_O

Stanford
Columbia
Chicago
NYU
Mich
Penn
Berkeley
Georgetown
Toronto
Texas
UCLA
USC
GW
BU
BC
British Columbia
UDub
CU Boulder
American
Lewis and Clark

[Knock]

Basically, I have not decided whether or not to apply to law school in this cycle or the next (2012 vs. 2013). It is pretty inconsequential right not anyways, all this post will do is gauge my chances and help me make up my mind.

My stats have changed a bit since last time I talked on here. My softs are really strong still (look at previous posts if you want specifics). My GPA has dipped because of summer Calculus to a 3.65, but my LSAT retake yielded a surprising 174.

I want to do Int'l Civil Rights Law or just work in some transnational legal organization. If that doesn't pan out, I know that International Law is what I want to practice and the private sector is probably not for me. I could also really get into Environmental Law.

Chance me/give me recommendations as to which schools on my list I should apply to. The list has grown quite a bit... o_O

Stanford
Columbia
Chicago
NYU
Mich
Penn
Berkeley
Georgetown
Toronto
Texas
UCLA
USC
GW
BU
BC
British Columbia
UDub
CU Boulder
American
Lewis and Clark

Get rid of British Columbia, UDub, CU Boulder, American. Add the rest of the middle and lower T14 and WUSTL.

[NYCbound35]

Worst case scenario is MVP with $$. If you want minimal debt/want to work in Texas/SoCal, then apply to T18...otherwise, I think you are fine with applying to T10 and going with what fits your goals best from there.

[Richie Tenenbaum]

Worst case scenario is MVP with $$. If you want minimal debt/want to work in Texas/SoCal, then apply to T18...otherwise, I think you are fine with applying to T10 and going with what fits your goals best from there.

OP is in good shape for CCN and $$ at MVP, but to describe that as the worst case scenario is a bit optimistic. I had a 3.56/174 (3rd take) I got shut out of CCN, and only got into UVA out of MVP. I was offered $$, but that was by no means a given.

OP- No need to apply to British Columbia, UDub, CU Boulder, American, or Lewis and Clark. Add UVA, Duke, and Cornell and you have a good list. GW, BC, and BU are probably unnecessary safeties (esp GW since I don't think they give out full rides to anyone besides their ED people), but you can always email everyone on your list soliciting fee waivers for apps.

[tspence13]

Get rid of British Columbia, UDub, CU Boulder, American. Add the rest of the middle and lower T14 and WUSTL.

No. I am not at all looking for Biglaw. I want to get into politics or do international law. WUSTL, Cornell, etc. etc. don't do much for me.

Also, quite frankly, I would rather go to a lower ranked school in a place that I enjoy living in than go live in Ithaca or Charlottesville or St. Louis or Durham just because the school has a higher ranking. There are little to no gay people in these cities and my penis won't forgive me for living there, even if I get a job at Bingham McCutchen with a 200k salary and enough cocaine and rentboys to last me a lifetime as the end result.

I can't graduate with a lot of debt, so let me know people, where is the best place I can go for International Law (specifically international women's rights, LGBT rights, minority rights, working with NGOs and/or IGOs, Int'l Environmental Law, maybe even Int'l IP, nothing too business like and overtly capitalistic.) for the lowest cost.

[aerogear]

Get rid of British Columbia, UDub, CU Boulder, American. Add the rest of the middle and lower T14 and WUSTL.

No. I am not at all looking for Biglaw. I want to get into politics or do international law. WUSTL, Cornell, etc. etc. don't do much for me.

Also, quite frankly, I would rather go to a lower ranked school in a place that I enjoy living in than go live in Ithaca or Charlottesville or St. Louis or Durham just because the school has a higher ranking. There are little to no gay people in these cities and my penis won't forgive me for living there, even if I get a job at Bingham McCutchen with a 200k salary and enough cocaine and rentboys to last me a lifetime as the end result.

I can't graduate with a lot of debt, so let me know people, where is the best place I can go for International Law (specifically international women's rights, LGBT rights, minority rights, working with NGOs and/or IGOs, Int'l Environmental Law, maybe even Int'l IP, nothing too business like and overtly capitalistic.) for the lowest cost.

LMAO. please spare us.

[$1.99]

i dont know what is more ridiculous. you want to go to a "less gay" city or practice international law. what is international law!?

[blurbz]

He wants to go to a MORE gay city, actually.

I understand wanting to be somehwhere that makes you happy, but I think your priorities are out of whack. Not on the gay thing, mind you, but on your timeline: I think you should choose long-term happiness over short term happiness and go to a place that will give you the best employment options in the gayest of cities (or whatever you want in three years!).

Oh, and international law isn't really a thing. You might be able to back-door your way into it at a place that happens to do some international work, but it's kind of laughed at as a field here on TLS.

[Grizz]

Obligatory international law link

http://www.annaivey.com/iveyfiles/2008/ ... e_the_hype

[3ThrowAway99]

Great shots at all on your list except Stanford I think, though I prob wouldn't bother with the lower half of the list if I were you and maybe add some other top schools.

[Tiago Splitter]

Oh, and international law isn't really a thing. You might be able to back-door your way into it at a place that happens to do some international work, but it's kind of laughed at as a field here on TLS.

I see what you did there.

[tspence13]

i dont know what is more ridiculous. you want to go to a "less gay" city or practice international law. what is international law!?

It is working as a prosecutor at the Hague, resolving international business suits, helping with cases at the WTO, and lots of other things. It is the same as government work, just at a transnational organization. And while I understand these are hard jobs to break into, I am confident I can do it. But, thanks for the advice (and condescension) everyone

He wants to go to a MORE gay city, actually.

I understand wanting to be somehwhere that makes you happy, but I think your priorities are out of whack. Not on the gay thing, mind you, but on your timeline: I think you should choose long-term happiness over short term happiness and go to a place that will give you the best employment options in the gayest of cities (or whatever you want in three years!).

Oh, and international law isn't really a thing. You might be able to back-door your way into it at a place that happens to do some international work, but it's kind of laughed at as a field here on TLS.

Short term happiness is long term happiness. I won't even get good grades if I am stuck in a super conservative atmosphere. For me, personally, fun must equal work or I get despondent and lazy and do neither. That is why, although I appreciate everyone's advice, UVA, Duke, WUSTL, Cornell, and Vanderbilt are out of the question and I would probably like to avoid Penn and Mich too.

Great shots at all on your list except Stanford I think, though I prob wouldn't bother with the lower half of the list if I were you and maybe add some other top schools.

Word. I kinda figured from the calculators that would be the case. What are my chances at these schools for $$$? I tried using the calculator for that but it said I have a 100% scholarship chance at Michigan but only an 11% chance at BU o_O. What is a more realistic assessment?

[HopefulGrad]

You know UVA has sent clerks to the ICJ... I'm just wondering how many have come from those lesser ranked schools. Your priority should be if you can get into a good law school that offers good employment opportunities. By the way, before you spout of that money is a massive factor (which I don't want to diminish it as a factor), you should read about law schools bait-n-switch method, ESPECIALLY the lower ranked schools.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/busin ... .html?_r=1
That should at least make you think twice about Lewis & Clark, American, British Columbia, CU-Boulder, and Toronto.

As for BC, here is a nice comical article, http://abovethelaw.com/2010/10/boston-c ... ty-ensues/

For your sake, I hope you can manage CCN since you've pretty much gotten rid of every other school because those city's are supposedly not "gay friendly..."

[tspence13]

Well, there is another. And nobody has really told it to me straight yet. Am I getting into Berkeley or not? My softs are really strong, but my GPA is pretty weak. What's the diagnostic?

And I would maybe consider UVA or Mich depending on how much money they would give me. No fucking way I am going to Duke or Cornell though, no matter how good of schools they are. I am taking BU or UCLA before them.

[IAFG]

I don't understand why so many people are so sure about what sorts of law they will and won't practice without knowing what the work is like, who does it, or ever having held down a real job in a field even tangentially related. Truly baffles me.

[tspence13]

I don't understand why so many people are so sure about what sorts of law they will and won't practice without knowing what the work is like, who does it, or ever having held down a real job in a field even tangentially related. Truly baffles me.

I don't understand why so many people on TLS make judgmental and pompous comments without knowing anything about the posters except for GPA, test scores, and a few random trivia facts. Both of my parents are attorneys, my godparents are attorneys, all of my close friends parents are attorneys. I know what kind of law I want to practice, and I don't need to "hold down a job tangentially related" (mainly because I am 20 and that isn't an option) to know what I would like to do with my life.

The point of this forum is to get advice on where I should apply with my numbers, what the chances are that I will get into these schools with my numbers, and what the chances are I will get money from these schools. If I want anyone's opinion on the legal profession in general I will ask my father or his associates who all graduated from T14 law schools and have a quarter century or more of experience in the profession instead of nameless faceless twenty-somethings on some ridiculous internet forum, who are all either applicants like myself or law students and know absolutely nothing about the real world.

For the last time, please just look at the schools on my list and give me, based on your personal knowledge and experience, this--->

Chance me/give me recommendations as to which schools on my list I should apply to.

Stanford
Columbia
Chicago
NYU
Mich
Penn
Berkeley
Georgetown
Toronto
Texas
UCLA
USC
GW
BU
BC

I do value everyone's recommendations to not apply to the bottom schools so I am probably not going to, but please just tell me how likely I am to get into these other schools and how likely they are to give me money.

[Grizz]

I don't understand why so many people are so sure about what sorts of law they will and won't practice without knowing what the work is like, who does it, or ever having held down a real job in a field even tangentially related. Truly baffles me.

I don't understand why so many people on TLS make judgmental and pompous comments without knowing anything about the posters except for GPA, test scores, and a few random trivia facts. Both of my parents are attorneys, my godparents are attorneys, all of my close friends parents are attorneys. I know what kind of law I want to practice, and I don't need to "hold down a job tangentially related" (mainly because I am 20 and that isn't an option) to know what I would like to do with my life.

The point of this forum is to get advice on where I should apply with my numbers, what the chances are that I will get into these schools with my numbers, and what the chances are I will get money from these schools. If I want anyone's opinion on the legal profession in general I will ask my father or his associates who all graduated from T14 law schools and have a quarter century or more of experience in the profession instead of nameless faceless twenty-somethings on some ridiculous internet forum, who are all either applicants like myself or law students and know absolutely nothing about the real world.

For the last time, please just look at the schools on my list and give me, based on your personal knowledge and experience, this--->

[firemed]

Basically, I have not decided whether or not to apply to law school in this cycle or the next (2012 vs. 2013). It is pretty inconsequential right not anyways, all this post will do is gauge my chances and help me make up my mind.

My stats have changed a bit since last time I talked on here. My softs are really strong still (look at previous posts if you want specifics). My GPA has dipped because of summer Calculus to a 3.65, but my LSAT retake yielded a surprising 174.

I want to do Int'l Civil Rights Law or just work in some transnational legal organization. If that doesn't pan out, I know that International Law is what I want to practice and the private sector is probably not for me. I could also really get into Environmental Law.

Chance me/give me recommendations as to which schools on my list I should apply to. The list has grown quite a bit... o_O

Stanford
Columbia
Chicago
NYU
Mich
Penn
Berkeley
Georgetown
Toronto
Texas
UCLA
USC
GW
BU
BC
British Columbia
UDub
CU Boulder
American
Lewis and Clark

Get rid of British Columbia, UDub, CU Boulder, American. Add the rest of the middle and lower T14 and WUSTL.

I agree with everything my homey wrote... except that you should add UBC back provided you want to spend the rest of your career in Canada. They are the second best school in the country, and dominate the West Coast (of Canada).

[IAFG]

I don't understand why so many people are so sure about what sorts of law they will and won't practice without knowing what the work is like, who does it, or ever having held down a real job in a field even tangentially related. Truly baffles me.

I don't understand why so many people on TLS make judgmental and pompous comments without knowing anything about the posters except for GPA, test scores, and a few random trivia facts. Both of my parents are attorneys, my godparents are attorneys, all of my close friends parents are attorneys. I know what kind of law I want to practice, and I don't need to "hold down a job tangentially related" (mainly because I am 20 and that isn't an option) to know what I would like to do with my life.

Well, that's untrue; you could absolutely go get a job in a related field before you spend a ton of time and money on something you only have an outsider's impression of. There's nothing to stop you from doing so, 20 or otherwise.

The point of this forum is to get advice on where I should apply with my numbers, what the chances are that I will get into these schools with my numbers, and what the chances are I will get money from these schools. If I want anyone's opinion on the legal profession in general I will ask my father or his associates who all graduated from T14 law schools and have a quarter century or more of experience in the profession instead of nameless faceless twenty-somethings on some ridiculous internet forum, who are all either applicants like myself or law students and know absolutely nothing about the real world.

Many TLSers do know about the real world and aren't like you because, instead of going straight on to professional school, they went out and worked, both gaining a better idea about the realities of the legal field and strengthening their chances of getting the sorts of 1:1,000,000 jobs you want.

[kaiser]

Lol its sort of cute how OP's chosen areas of law are areas that either don't exist, or are so narrow that only a handful of attorneys can break into the area.

[soj]

You're probably not getting into Berkeley. You're GPA's too low. You might have a chance if your softs and essays were great since Berkeley tends to evaluate applications holistically, but based on your posts it doesn't look like you have good softs, nor does it seem likely that your essays will be all that great, since I'm guessing you'll be writing about your pedestrian and unrealistic career goals.

(EDIT: Don't take too much offense at my assessment above. The bottom line is you don't have the numbers for Berkeley. And that's ok because you're pretty safe for CCN sticker and $ below.)

Also, I wouldn't rule out schools just because they're not located in large, gay-friendly cities. Many schools are very gay-friendly even if the cities they're in aren't.

[$1.99]

lol international law and environmental law. good luck with that with minimal work experience. sorry but gays are everywhere so stop trying to avoid them.

you are a noob OP lol. if you are mad about the responses, why don't you use the search function and look this stuff up foolio iglesias.

[firemed]

Many TLSers do know about the real world and aren't like you because, instead of going straight on to professional school, they went out and worked, both gaining a better idea about the realities of the legal field and strengthening their chances of getting the sorts of 1:1,000,000 jobs you want.

+1

The majority of regular posters either have real world experience or are very knowledgeable about either the law or law school admissions.

For instance I got admitted to over 30 schools and I also have over 15 years real world work experience. Don't get mad... learn instead.

[Blessedassurance]

Go to Seattle U. It's in Capitol Hill, the gay mecca of Seattle. You may graduate unemployed but your aspirations tell me you like to gamble.

People are kinda communist/environmentalist-let's-hug-and-sing-kumbaya-and-piss-on-multi-national-corporations-for-the-shit-they-pull-in-third-world-countries around Seattle proper. No one's few people are going to look down on you for being unemployed. Most of them work for Microsoft anyways and most likely live in Redmond, so they don't count.

I wouldn't do Portland though, they're just weird, like really really weird.

I personally don't like the East Coast meself. People expect you to pay attention to what you wear out there, etc etc.

Actually, forget everything I just said. Just go to the U-Dub.

[Blessedassurance]

sorry but gays are everywhere so stop trying to avoid them.

Not sure if you're being sarcastic, but he's gay and looking for places with vibrant gay communities etc.

Agree with everything else.