harvard and columbia?! Forum

[cidergirl]

aa female, 165 lsat 3.7 gpa
decent resume

[titan747]

Try Michigan because you will have a strong shot of getting accepted with money. My a.a. friends with similar stats were accepted and received 45k+.

[JamMasterJ]

Try Michigan because you will have a strong shot of getting accepted with money. My a.a. friends with similar stats were accepted and received hefty financial aid packages.

In at Columbia, questionable, but within the realm of possibility at H. Apply to HYSCCNMVPB and you should get at least one of the T6 and money at some of the lower ones

[patrickd139]

Try Michigan because you will have a strong shot of getting accepted with money. My a.a. friends with similar stats were accepted and received hefty financial aid packages.

In at Columbia, questionable, but within the realm of possibility at H. Apply to HYSCCNMVPB and you should get at least one of the T6 and money at some of the lower ones

Co-signed. URM (especially AA, and double-especially female AA) are notoriously unpredictable. Blanket the top schools (request fee waivers if you already haven't done so), and you'll have some really significant options to choose from. GL!

[cidergirl]

t

[Strange]

thanks so much! i am thinking of taking testmasters to retake the lsat in february (my grandma offered to pay for the class because she knows how important law school is to me), will the schools care about a score increase in feb? i don't want to wait another year to go to law school because i quit my job in august to take care of my grandma full time (she is terminally ill and she raised me) and don't want to have to find a new job only to quit within a year. also, should i explain why i quit my job and what i am doing now in an addendum?

also, just to verify, does it matter that i am only 50% black in getting the aa boost? it never did for other admissions but law school ad comms are weird

February is going to be way too late for an application because I think schools put your app on hold if they see you are retaking.

Being 50% black doesn't matter, you are black.

If you don't want to take a year off, that's up to you, but if you think you can do better on the LSAT I would still consider it. A 170+ score (an increase of a few points in your case) will make you a lock for near all of T6 and you will probably have tons of money thrown at you.

[20130312]

A 170+ score (an increase of a few points in your case) will make you a lock for near all of T6 and you will probably have tons of money thrown at you.

This is worth taking a year off for. You could get into a GREAT school, save bundles of money, and be looking at some very attractive employment prospects.

[cidergirl]

k

[20130312]

i thought schools would consider ur application before feb (even if put u were taking the feb test) and accept u if they thought u were good enough w/ ur current scores? i didn't know that putting a later test date would hold up the entire eval process, is this true?

It will hold up the process, but you can email them and ask to be processed without the new score.

[cidergirl]

would it be better for me not to tell them that i plan to take in february (i haven't signed up yet) and then shoot them an email later asking them to please update my file in light of new info? the only way i can see this backfiring is if i get rejected, but if i'm waitlisted the (hopeful) score jump will buy me additional consideration. i was reading some stats on lsat retakes and i suppose there is always the chance of a score decrease, in which case i wouldn't want my new score evaluated. hopefully testmasters will help me get my score up, though...for $1500 i REALLY hope so!

[JamMasterJ]

i thought schools would consider ur application before feb (even if put u were taking the feb test) and accept u if they thought u were good enough w/ ur current scores? i didn't know that putting a later test date would hold up the entire eval process, is this true?

It will hold up the process, but you can email them and ask to be processed without the new score.

do this. you already have the stats to get in most places. If you don't get T10 with tons of money or better, then consider a retake

[Tiago Splitter]

would it be better for me not to tell them that i plan to take in february (i haven't signed up yet) and then shoot them an email later asking them to please update my file in light of new info? the only way i can see this backfiring is if i get rejected, but if i'm waitlisted the (hopeful) score jump will buy me additional consideration. i was reading some stats on lsat retakes and i suppose there is always the chance of a score decrease, in which case i wouldn't want my new score evaluated. hopefully testmasters will help me get my score up, though...for $1500 i REALLY hope so!

Given your URM status and current stats, any school that decides not to accept you before the February score comes in will likely waitlist rather than outright reject. The February retake can help you get off of waitlists and get more scholarship money from schools that have already admitted you. No downside.

Agree with the above though that you should ask for them to evaluate your app based on the current score.

[cidergirl]

thanks guys! unfortunately i just found out that a fair number of the top schools claim to average scores and i have already scored a 163 and a 165. i guess this means harvard will be using a 164 to evaluate me, since their official policy states "the lsat need only be taken once"

[JamMasterJ]

thanks guys! unfortunately i just found out that a fair number of the top schools claim to average scores and i have already scored a 163 and a 165. i guess this means harvard will be using a 164 to evaluate me, since their official policy states "the lsat need only be taken once"

the truth of this averaging policy is very questionable since schools stopped reporting average score to the ABA

[JamMasterJ]

thanks guys! unfortunately i just found out that a fair number of the top schools claim to average scores and i have already scored a 163 and a 165. i guess this means harvard will be using a 164 to evaluate me, since their official policy states "the lsat need only be taken once"

the truth of this averaging policy is very questionable since schools stopped reporting average score to the ABA

[cidergirl]

the truth of this averaging policy is very questionable since schools stopped reporting average score to the ABA

if you are right, then i'm going to spend dec 16-feb 11 pouring over prep materials. if i crack 170, do you think columbia will get me big money? i didn't realize t5 schools even gave out scholarships to people other than the very top students

[JamMasterJ]

the truth of this averaging policy is very questionable since schools stopped reporting average score to the ABA

if you are right, then i'm going to spend dec 16-feb 11 pouring over prep materials. if i crack 170, do you think columbia will get me big money? i didn't realize t5 schools even gave out scholarships to people other than the very top students

I don't know exactly how money is distributed to URMs, but you can search through URM cycles (paying special attention to AA) for some previous results. However, I can tell you with reasonable confidence that a 170 would get you a lot of money at CCN and probably acceptance at at least one of HYS. At HYS, your aid will be evaluated on need rather than merit

[20121109]

Definitely retake if you want; you have nothing to lose but much to gain.

FYI, a 165/3.7 AA female has a pretty good shot at H anyway. I anticipate a KB1 coming your way. If you get WLed, do NOT withdraw. You'll probably be one of the first pulled from the WL.

[cidergirl]

yay. is t true that urm status won't help for ca and tx school admssion, since those states now use socioeconomc status as a proxy for race? accordng my reading of the berkely applcaton, ad comms dont even see race

[lats19nys]

yay. is t true that urm status won't help for ca and tx school admssion, since those states now use socioeconomc status as a proxy for race? accordng my reading of the berkely applcaton, ad comms dont even see race

from my experience with undergrad admissions, it is almost impossible to disregard race. admissions officers even when they are not supposed to have that info directly usually get that information through other means. Usually, "underrepresented" applicants from my experience lol for some reason seem to write about their status as minorities an overwhelming percentage of the time. I would guess even for Berkeley, perhaps even more, the fact that you can write a diversity statement which would let them know of your aa status-although technically they are not supposed to take that into account. I always thought it funny in admissions how stereotypical essays have gotten. Such a huge percentage of frankly white applicants now write about how they spent their summer helping some poor community while so many minority applicants write about being simply minorities. lol. everyones playing the game...idk what exactly to think of all of it.

[cidergirl]

I had all these high hopes, but now I've been told that biracial<regular URM. Is this true? Apparently if schools have to list you as 2+ races, you don't get the same boost as being just black? Anyone know if this is true? I was really praying and working for Harvard

[JamMasterJ]

I had all these high hopes, but now I've been told that biracial<regular URM. Is this true? Apparently if schools have to list you as 2+ races, you don't get the same boost as being just black? Anyone know if this is true? I was really praying and working for Harvard

not true. It's equal

[vanwinkle]

I had all these high hopes, but now I've been told that biracial<regular URM. Is this true? Apparently if schools have to list you as 2+ races, you don't get the same boost as being just black? Anyone know if this is true? I was really praying and working for Harvard

Not at all true based on what I've heard/seen. Also, get your apps in soon, and you'll have a shot at H plus possibly $$$ at CLS.

[180asBreath]

This thread is confusing; are you all saying that one can apply with a December score, tell them to hold the application, take the Feb LSAT, and then have your application reviewed after the Feb LSAT comes back?

I thought Feb LSAT's aren't accepted for that year of admission, that they are only considered if one reports them in a LOCI.

[cidergirl]

I think it depends on the school, yale will take them. though for some reason my studying is not giving me the improvements i had hoped for...gotta keep truckin