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GPA- 3.48
LSAT- 164
Mexican American
1st generation
single mom (I got pregnant my first semester of college at 18)
below poverty line


Please do not be rude, or mean, but realistic. I will be submitting a URM along with my Personal Statement, and an addendum to address a specific semester when my dad passed away. One LOR is from a district attorney I interned for, and another one is from a professor I was extremely close with. (so two strong letters)

Probably have a shot at T14 schools with the URM boost I think. This maybe should be in URM thread instead, but I'm not sure. Not sure what the early pregnancy has to do with anything--not trying to be rude, but just not entirely sure it is relevant. Then again I guess it could give a slight 'hardship' boost, as I do imagine you had your hands full to say the least.

Lower T14 is possible. Retaking and hitting median would likely get you in.
Toss up at UCLA/USC/UT/Vandy
Likely in at UMN and down.
Big $$$ everywhere you are above the LSAT median.

Lawquacious wrote:Probably have a shot at T14 schools with the URM boost I think. This maybe should be in URM thread instead, but I'm not sure. Not sure what the early pregnancy has to do with anything--not trying to be rude, but just not entirely sure it is relevant. Then again I guess it could give a slight 'hardship' boost, as I do imagine you had your hands full to say the least.

early pregnancy is a lot. I was a teen mother, and the statistics of teen moms, especially a teen mom that is a minority of going to college, let alone graduate is VERY low. Being able to raise a child on one's own financially/physically and maintain an okay GPA is also VERY low.

Where are you from/where would you like to practice law?

Nova wrote:Where are you from/where would you like to practice law?

I am from California, but more specifically from Los Angeles. I would like to practice law in Los Angeles. I was hoping for UCLA, Loyola, or USC.

andreasmommy wrote:

Nova wrote:Where are you from/where would you like to practice law?

I am from California, but more specifically from Los Angeles. I would like to practice law in Los Angeles. I was hoping for UCLA, Loyola, or USC.

You could pretty much write your own ticket to USC/UCLA with a 167/168 in October.

Youll very likely get into Loyola with money, but their schollys have top 50% stipulations on them.

Nova wrote:

andreasmommy wrote:

Nova wrote:Where are you from/where would you like to practice law?

I am from California, but more specifically from Los Angeles. I would like to practice law in Los Angeles. I was hoping for UCLA, Loyola, or USC.

You could pretty much write your own ticket to USC/UCLA with a 167/168 in October.

Youll very likely get into Loyola with money, but their schollys have top 50% stipulations on them.

Nova - is MA URM boost not the same as AA? genuinely asking cuz i have no idea. but it seems like 3.5/164 with a typical URM boost should get UCLA/USC...

TLSwag wrote:
Nova - is MA URM boost not the same as AA? genuinely asking cuz i have no idea. but it seems like 3.5/164 with a typical URM boost should get UCLA/USC...

Yeah, they are different. AA boost is much bigger. AA males get the biggest boost. I think it comes down to medians and standard deviations by race. AA median is 142. MA median is 148.

Im MA, and my 167 is the 94.6th percentile overall, but is approximately the 98.5th percentile for my race. A 167 is deep into the 99th percentile for AAs (like 99.8X). The score becomes even more rare when we consider that the percentage of LSAT test takers who are AA/MA is much lower than the percentage of United State's citizens who are MA/AA.

Marlo made an underrated thread about how this is calculated, http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 9&t=183144 . Unfortunatly LSAC moved the PDF... Ill hunt it down some time.

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OP is definitely very competitve for a below both median seat at USC/UCLA. She should be near the front of the line for those seats. Its just that there are so few of those seats available. To clarify, I would modestly estimate she has about a toss up chance at each, not total. By applying to both, it is more likely than not that she will be admitted to at least one. A strong PS/DS could very well put her over the edge at both. Still, she would practically be a lock if she retook and hit median.

I would really love UCLA, any advice on how to better market myself? Any specifics I should emphasize on?

I was going to use my personal statement to address being a single young mom, and how that has shaped me into the person I am now. A URM to address growing up poor with internalized racism, mentioning my illiterate mother, first generation, ect. An addendum to address 2 specific semesters, one was when I had just given birth, I was suffering from post partum taking care of a new born, and my father who was sick with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and the other semester when my father passed away.