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Graduated from University of Michigan undergrad in 3 years (if that makes any difference). From Detroit area. Have family ties in D.C., Philadelphia and Michigan. Would be fine working in any of the three locations. All that considered, which school should I use my ED on?

Michigan
Pennsylvania
Virginia
Georgetown
Cornell

Thanks!

Maybe ED to Michigan but I don't think you wil get any of these at the moment. If you want to go to these schools you need to retake the LSAT. Even 2 points would make a dramatic difference.

Two things:

Retake.

The answer.

Cornell isn't binding. Only slight change there I would imagine. No chance anywhere else unless URM

If you are set on EDing, I would try Michigan. Your M UG could very well give you a slight boost. It's still going to be unlikely because you are around the 25 percentiles for GPA and LSAT.

Having said that, you should retake the LSAT.

Thanks for the responses everyone!

I figured "retake" would be the primary response. However, I just don't know if I could get a better score. I studied intensely for about 3 months. I took more than 40 practice tests. The highest score I ever got on a practice test was 167, and I only got that once. I was testing primarily in the low to mid 160's. My testing day went perfectly and I was very psyched to get a 167 as it was the best score I'd ever received. Considering all of this, I do not know if I could score higher.

I'm not opposed to going to a school out of the T-14. From looking at LSN it appears I could get accepted with some money to many schools in the Midwest (Notre Dame, Minnesota, Indiana, Illinois) along with George Washington.

I think I might be in a bit of a different situation in that I'm married and my husband has a six figure salary. We will easily be able to live off of his salary, and even pay for law school, without taking out too many loans (maybe none if I get a decent scholarship).

Would it be an unwise decision to attend one of these law schools if I don't necessarily have Big Law as an end goal, considering my situation?

Applying ED is not going to help you because neither your LSAT nor your GPA is above any T14 schools median GPA or LSAT. You need to retake so your LSAT is at, or preferably above, the LSAT median of schools that you might like to ED to.

Also, we need a public service announcement that graduating undergrad in three years is generally detrimental to law school applicants. It's great that you saved a year of tuition, but, if you had spaced out your classes more you probably would have had more time to study for each class and received a higher GPA.

cclawer wrote:Thanks for the responses everyone!

I figured "retake" would be the primary response. However, I just don't know if I could get a better score. I studied intensely for about 3 months. I took more than 40 practice tests. The highest score I ever got on a practice test was 167, and I only got that once. I was testing primarily in the low to mid 160's. My testing day went perfectly and I was very psyched to get a 167 as it was the best score I'd ever received. Considering all of this, I do not know if I could score higher.

I'm not opposed to going to a school out of the T-14. From looking at LSN it appears I could get accepted with some money to many schools in the Midwest (Notre Dame, Minnesota, Indiana, Illinois) along with George Washington.

I think I might be in a bit of a different situation in that I'm married and my husband has a six figure salary. We will easily be able to live off of his salary, and even pay for law school, without taking out too many loans (maybe none if I get a decent scholarship).

Would it be an unwise decision to attend one of these law schools if I don't necessarily have Big Law as an end goal, considering my situation?

Just because you studied a lot doesn't mean you studied correctly. How did you go about it? I refuse to believe that you have some 160's ceiling.

If you're dead set against retaking the LSAT, I'd say Cornell and I think you'd actually have a pretty decent chance there. UVA/Penn are definitely out. The rest are unlikely but not impossible with your numbers.