175/3.56 - Music Producer/Photographer/Journalist/Do-Gooder Forum

[ksd2138]

Reposting under a new screenname, as the last was too easy to ID. Request in to moderator to delete old thread.

I feel confident about LSAT, softs, LORs. I'm not so confident about GPA.

Background: Grew up in TX, studied music production at NYU.

GPA: 3.56

LSAT: 175

Softs: Fluent in Spanish/Portuguese. After graduation in 2009, got into human rights documentary/multimedia advocacy work, shot a doc in the Amazon on former indigenous slaves, spent all of 2010 in India as "communications fellow" working with anti-human-trafficking NGO. In 2011 I moved to Brazil, shot human rights content for various NGOs including Amnesty International and Witness, also wrote/shot for various publications, including NYT, HuffPo, etc.

Targets: Shooting for Harvard, Columbia, NYU.

Goal: I'd like to end up doing human rights/public service work for HR org's like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty, UN, etc.

Questions:

1. How much is 3.56 gonna hurt me with my target schools, and how can I help compensate for that with the rest of my application package?

2. Any general suggestions?

Thanks!

[Luchando]

Are you a URM? If not, enjoy lawschoolnumbers.com

Approaching the law school application process with the notion that your softs can compensate for a significantly below-floor LSAT and/or GPA is almost always a recipe for grave disappointment. Numbers are and always will be the critical ingredient. If your softs have an impact, it only happens at the margins.

Based on LSN, you are almost certainly out at Harvard. You are in good shape for NYU and borderline at Columbia, but your softs would probably put you over (again, at the margins...).

[2014]

You are in pretty bad shape for Harvard but it is worth the app fee. Should be in RD potentially with up to 60k at NYU, and in with less or none at Columbia. If for whatever reason you are WLed you can feel confident that you will get into both.

[Ti Malice]

Here's how non-URM applicants with your numbers have fared over the last four cycles: http://myLSN.info/dispresults.php?sk=1iipy.

You have an excellent shot at CLS, and NYU is yours to lose. Harvard is unlikely, but people with your numbers do regularly land on the WL. With apps expected to decline further this year, Harvard might have to admit a few applicants like you to maintain their LSAT numbers. Unlikely, but worth a shot.

[kalvano]

Cheerio.

[ksd2138]

Just visited Columbia and NYU and I'm pretty sold on the former. Torn between ED'ing there to be certain or letting the cycle play out.

Thoughts?

[Tiago Splitter]

I'd apply RD to Columbia. Harvard might really like your softs, and you are a good bet for 50K at NYU.

[ksd2138]

Thanks again, Tiago. I'm definitely gonna take the RD route, especially given the potential for $ at NYU, and MAYBE some $ uptown with you.

How's Columbia treating you so far?

[Tiago Splitter]

Columbia is great so far. No complaints.

As for money here, they do seem to dole out need based aid more than the conventional wisdom would suggest. Their claim that everything other than Butler and Hamilton money is all need based is of course BS, but the $$ awards do seem to take the applicant's need into account.

[ksd2138]

Nice, how do you demonstrate need at C?

[Tiago Splitter]

Just gotta fill out FAFSA and Need Access