Top Law Schools

Longtime lurker here, but I'm taking the plunge. What are my chances?

LSAC GPA: 3.5 (3.8 from T25 UG)
LSAT: 170
URM: Yes
Sex: Female
Softs: 6 year enlisted (non-combat) veteran working in the intelligence field, tons of awards/honors
LOR: 3 Professors (2 attended T14 Grad Schools), 3 from Work/Military, 3 Others

LSP:
Yale/Harvard: Deny
Stanford/Columbia/NYU: Weak
Chi/Penn/Duke: Consider

Do you think my WE + Vet status can give me an added boost anywhere?

sunshine21 wrote:Longtime lurker here, but I'm taking the plunge. What are my chances?

LSAC GPA: 3.5 (3.8 from T25 UG)
LSAT: 170
URM: Yes
Sex: Female
Softs: 6 year enlisted (non-combat) veteran working in the intelligence field, tons of awards/honors
LOR: 3 Professors (2 attended T14 Grad Schools), 3 from Work/Military, 3 Others

LSP:
Yale/Harvard: Deny
Stanford/Columbia/NYU: Weak
Chi/Penn/Duke: Consider

Do you think my WE + Vet status can give me an added boost anywhere?

WE will play a part for NU.
Vet status will be great for jobs.
URM status will be the biggest boost of all. What type of URM are you?

sunshine21 wrote: Do you think my WE + Vet status can give me an added boost anywhere?

Yes, you are in good shape.
Also, no school is going to let you submit more than 4 LORs, so choose which ones will work best for you. I would choose 2 professors, 1 military, and 1 work LOR.

Submit EVERYWHERE you want to go and you have a shot.....

Between the military WE and URM status not one of the predictors out there will be all that accurate for you. You may not get in everywhere but you WILL perform above your numbers alone.

JC

Would not be surprised at all with many T14 admits. I'd shoot for CCN

nmop_apisdn wrote:
WE will play a part for NU.
Vet status will be great for jobs.
URM status will be the biggest boost of all. What type of URM are you?

AA. Thanks.

cutecarmel wrote:
Yes, you are in good shape.
Also, no school is going to let you submit more than 4 LORs, so choose which ones will work best for you. I would choose 2 professors, 1 military, and 1 work LOR.

Will do. Thanks.

JCFindley wrote:Submit EVERYWHERE you want to go and you have a shot.....

Between the military WE and URM status not one of the predictors out there will be all that accurate for you. You may not get in everywhere but you WILL perform above your numbers alone.

JC

Do you think I should tailor my package to draw the connection between my background and my purpose for wanting a law degree? I feel like I have to draw a train of thought and use my IT/Intel past somewhere other than my resume.

Blanket all T-14 (not sure about Yale though). If you want to you can add lower ranked schools. H/S should be your reach schools but with a great app u should get one.

First of all, thank you for your service.

Second, go to the VA website and look at the schools with the highest G.I. Bill matching funding.

Third, if those schools are not T20, ignore them. Given you stats and softs, you can do, and deserve better.

Fourth, contact and visit some of those schools.

Fifth, blanket the T-14 for sure.

FWIW, I think UMich will gobble you up. Michigan and Cornell are by far the most generous towards vets when it comes to money - keep that in mind. Several other T-14s will allow you to come out of school with little to no debt, too.

sunshine21 wrote:

JCFindley wrote:Submit EVERYWHERE you want to go and you have a shot.....

Between the military WE and URM status not one of the predictors out there will be all that accurate for you. You may not get in everywhere but you WILL perform above your numbers alone.

JC

Do you think I should tailor my package to draw the connection between my background and my purpose for wanting a law degree? I feel like I have to draw a train of thought and use my IT/Intel past somewhere other than my resume.

It wouldn't hurt... I tried to do that though not sure how successful I was but it worked at the school I was shooting for. You can get some good help on the PS in that section of this forum....

TTTehehe wrote:First of all, thank you for your service.

Second, go to the VA website and look at the schools with the highest G.I. Bill matching funding.

Third, if those schools are not T20, ignore them. Given you stats and softs, you can do, and deserve better.

Fourth, contact and visit some of those schools.

Fifth, blanket the T-14 for sure.

FWIW, I think UMich will gobble you up. Michigan and Cornell are by far the most generous towards vets when it comes to money - keep that in mind. Several other T-14s will allow you to come out of school with little to no debt, too.

Throw in UVA if you can get in state tuition, it will pay at 100%. HLS allows 50 YRPs for this year so for the first 50 vets it will cover 100% tuition. As said above, Mich and Cornell are by far the most generous though and will cover an unlimited amount of Vets full tuition rides when using the GI Bill and YRP......

Here is a link to the YRP guide for this year and a Vets thread I started.....

http://gibill.va.gov/gi_bill_info/ch33/ ... t_2012.htm

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 1&t=187630

You will definitely get at least one of HYS. No need to consider other schools but you will get into any other school you apply to.

BruceWayne wrote:You will definitely get at least one of HYS. No need to consider other schools but you will get into any other school you apply to.

Yeah, I was surprised no one else was saying this. When you apply to Yale you should only use your academic LORs--they are explicit about strongly preferring them.

BruceWayne wrote:You will definitely get at least one of HYS. No need to consider other schools but you will get into any other school you apply to.

This. In at one of HYS, apply to other T14s for $$$. Enjoy hard choices between good offers.

Thank you for your service.

I think you'll be fine with those stats and WE. Good luck!

1776 wrote:Thank you for your service.

Oh, and this too.