Law School Decisions in the South Forum

[LitigationSensation]

I got a 152/3.8 GPA, with excellent recommendations, a lot of community service and philanthropy work, an inspirational, well written personal statement and 4 years of law firm work experience with legal research and drafting discovery, motions, and pleadings. I know the LSAT is very low, but I have the credentials otherwise. I have applied to Georgia State, Mercer, Samford, Ole Miss, and John Marshall. The only school I have heard anything from is John Marshall (Accepted). Is there anyone else out there who has still not heard from any of these schools? Many seat deposit deadlines are approaching and I do not want to get locked in at JM without getting answers from my other schools.

[TomahawkChopper]

Have you thought of retaking? Get the score up in the 160s and youll have a good shot at $ at Vandy, Emory, W&L, UGA and Alabama. All better choices...

[CanadianWolf]

If accepted to Ole' Miss & you have Mississippi connections, then that is a reasonable choice if you want to practice in that state. Otherwise, retake the LSAT & reapply accordingly.

P.S. Georgia State University is a reasonable option for Georgia residents wishing to practice in Georgia.

[LitigationSensation]

I have thought about retaking the LSAT. I took the Kaplan Review course and was hitting the 158-162 range, but I have ADD and find myself extremely distracted by the end of the exam. What is more frustrating is, I got a perfect score on the games section and performed reasonably well on the other sections, but bombed the reading comp. I know I am capable of scoring better, but I am 24 and would like to get started with "real life." Has anyone ever heard of someone from JM transferring to a school with a higher pedigree or someone being accepted to a school like GSU with a score that low?

[duckmoney]

I have thought about retaking the LSAT. I took the Kaplan Review course and was hitting the 158-162 range, but I have ADD and find myself extremely distracted by the end of the exam. What is more frustrating is, I got a perfect score on the games section and performed reasonably well on the other sections, but bombed the reading comp. I know I am capable of scoring better, but I am 24 and would like to get started with "real life." Has anyone ever heard of someone from JM transferring to a school with a higher pedigree or someone being accepted to a school like GSU with a score that low?

You're going to need to find a way to get over the ADD if you want to go to law school. Law school exams are as long and stressful and the LSAT- even moreso if you have a take home exam - and you have to take 8 - 10 of them a year.

Find a way to beat the ADD, then retake.

[murray18]

Don't go to john Marshall expecting to transfer. The best option is to retake, but it all depends on your ties. like another poster said, If you're from ms or have some good ties, ole miss isn't a terrible choice. Same goes for goes for Georgia state. Both hqve low in state tuition. The others are no gos.

[rad lulz]

lawschoolnumbers.com

[mwilson37]

I got a 152/3.8 GPA, with excellent recommendations, a lot of community service and philanthropy work, an inspirational, well written personal statement and 4 years of law firm work experience with legal research and drafting discovery, motions, and pleadings. I know the LSAT is very low, but I have the credentials otherwise. I have applied to Georgia State, Mercer, Samford, Ole Miss, and John Marshall. The only school I have heard anything from is John Marshall (Accepted). Is there anyone else out there who has still not heard from any of these schools? Many seat deposit deadlines are approaching and I do not want to get locked in at JM without getting answers from my other schools.

I applied to a couple of yours Mercer and Georgia State. I got accepted to Mercer, but Im still on hold at GSU. I think a lot of these schools are waiting to see what kind of deposits they are going to get and you should hear more closer to the end of the month. Best of luck and Ill let you know if I hear anything from GSU.

[Richie Tenenbaum]

I have thought about retaking the LSAT. I took the Kaplan Review course and was hitting the 158-162 range, but I have ADD and find myself extremely distracted by the end of the exam. What is more frustrating is, I got a perfect score on the games section and performed reasonably well on the other sections, but bombed the reading comp. I know I am capable of scoring better, but I am 24 and would like to get started with "real life." Has anyone ever heard of someone from JM transferring to a school with a higher pedigree or someone being accepted to a school like GSU with a score that low?

You are selling yourself short. Endurance is something that can be beaten into most people with enough practice. I tutored plenty of people that couldn't handle a full test w/o getting distracted halfway initially. By taking enough individual sections and by taking longer tests when you take a full practice test (as in add in 2 experimental sections instead of 1) you can probably work through this problem. (And probably better to work through it now before law school than try to deal with it during your first semester when prepping for finals.)

There should be absolutely no rush at 24 to "get started with 'real life.'" I started law school at 25 I did not feel old or out of place at all. The reality is that applying to law schools is a numbers game and the LSAT is the most important number on your application. Don't sell yourself short by not maximizing your number. By not retaking you are leaving tens of thousands of dollars on the table in terms of scholarship money or depriving yourself of greatly increased career prospects at law schools with much better placement. Don't do that just because you want to get your professional life started and you can't be patient enough to wait one more year.

[bk1]

I have thought about retaking the LSAT. I took the Kaplan Review course and was hitting the 158-162 range, but I have ADD and find myself extremely distracted by the end of the exam. What is more frustrating is, I got a perfect score on the games section and performed reasonably well on the other sections, but bombed the reading comp. I know I am capable of scoring better, but I am 24 and would like to get started with "real life." Has anyone ever heard of someone from JM transferring to a school with a higher pedigree or someone being accepted to a school like GSU with a score that low?

I have little to no idea what having ADD is like. However I will note that law school exams are often around 3 hours long. If you can't avoid getting distracted during the LSAT I would be worried that you would suffer the same issue in law school. My recommendation is conquer or at least mitigate your issues on the LSAT when it is relatively cheap (each LSAT costs $150ish) with the possibility of retaking (subject to the limitation of 3 per 2 years). Law school on the other hand costs thousands of dollars (much more than the LSAT) and you only get 1 shot at 1L grades (whereas the LSAT can be taken an almost infinite number of times).

[Dr. Filth]

If accepted to Ole' Miss & you have Mississippi connections, then that is a reasonable choice if you want to practice in that state. Otherwise, retake the LSAT & reapply accordingly.

2nd this