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lalaland1987 · Post by **lalaland1987** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 10:18 pm

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bdubs · Post by **bdubs** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 10:21 pm

You're not considered a traditional URM. You have close to zero chance at any of those schools with your current LSAT.

Sorry. Retake.

lalaland1987 · Post by **lalaland1987** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 9:29 pm

I'm not sure what you mean by not considered a "traditional URM." Until there are more Hispanic Americans on Wall Street and Capitol Hill than waiting outside Home Depot, I'm pretty sure they are still an underrepresented minority.

kwais · Post by **kwais** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 9:32 pm

lalaland1987 wrote:I'm not sure what you mean by not considered a "traditional URM." Until there are more Hispanic Americans on Wall Street and Capitol Hill than waiting outside Home Depot, I'm pretty sure they are still an underrepresented minority.

there is URM in reality and URM in law school world. big difference

c3pO4 · Post by **c3pO4** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 9:37 pm

lalaland1987 wrote:I graduation from Stanford with a 3.56 in Intl Relations.
LSAT = 156 (67th percentile).

I wanted to evaluate my decision to apply to the following schools : UC Berkeley, University of Chicago, Columbia, Duke, George Washington, Harvard, University of Michigan, New York University, Northwestern, University of Pennsylvania, and Stanford.

I'm looking to get into just one of these schools. But I realize now, that it is also possible I could be rejected from all 12 due to my low LSAT. If that were true, I think I would study for the LSAT for a year and reapply for the 2013 cycle. Unfortunately, I already do feel that I studied very hard and I'm not sure I could improve by much. I am not a great standardized test taker (My SAT score was
1960).

I was born in Costa Rica, but my parents immigrated to the US when I was young. My father is from Venezuela.

My personal statement focus on my experiences abroad in China and time working on a case as a paralegal for a law firm in New York. My diversity statement focuses on the differences in the law/democracy in Costa Rica (my mother's home country) versus my father's (venezuela), which has great political strife at the moment.

I speak Mandarin, French and Spanish. I am also an accomplished dancer- I was a member of Alvin Ailey II for a summer term and have performed in several dance companies in San Francisco and New York.

You are in la la land with that LSAT. With your GPA, language skills, and other accomplishments, there is no question you can do better on the LSAT with some more preparation. Just retake.

law4vus · Post by **law4vus** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 9:40 pm

lalaland1987 wrote:I'm not sure what you mean by not considered a "traditional URM." Until there are more Hispanic Americans on Wall Street and Capitol Hill than waiting outside Home Depot, I'm pretty sure they are still an underrepresented minority.

That may be true, but law schools consider URMs to be Black, Native American, Mexican, and Puerto Rican. You're not any of those. Some schools MAY provide a very soft boost to South Americans, but most schools won't.

You're not getting into any of the schools on your list as it currently stands. As someone already said, given your language skills, there's no reason you can't take it again and score a 165+.

In addition, you're not some joe schmo from state u. You went to Stanford. How much did you study for the LSAT, honestly? Don't let your idea that you're not a good standardized test taker get in your way. If you study for even 3 hours a day for a month and take 20+ practice exams, you'll get a much higher score. I guarantee it.

kaiser · Post by **kaiser** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 9:40 pm

You will very likely be rejected from every single one of those schools. With your numbers, you should be focused on T2 schools, with some T1's as reaches. Hispanics in general are not really underrepresented in law school (though Mexicans and Puerto Ricans tend to be). But there are certainly a number of Central and South Americans, or at least those with some Central or South American ancestry. So there would be little boost from your cultural background. And even if you got 3 or 4 point boost, you would still just be scratching the surface of perhaps getting into a T1 school. So I think you should completely scrap the schools you mentioned and work up a realistic list.

lalaland1987 · Post by **lalaland1987** » Tue Oct 25, 2011 9:53 pm

Thanks for your replies.

Just to answer you bit about the LSAT: I actually did study intensively, more than most people I know.

I won a scholarship and attended the TRIALS program at Harvard; I took probably 30-40 practice tests and studied nothing but the LSAT for 2 months.

Just like everyone, I get pretty nervous with the time pressure and I did terribly on the games.

I'll probably just apply to fewer T1 and look at more T2 schools at this point.

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