Hey Everybody...FIRST POST HERE

[shieldofachilles]

Off the bat I want to thank everyone on here for providing me with really good information over the years (yea i know ive been a troll on this site since my freshman year of college). Might as well introduce my self too--Hey! I'm Mike. Anyway, let's get to the grit.

I am currently a Junion at Fordham in NY and have been planning to go to law school since god knows how long. I already started studying for the June LSAT (I know I'm crazy but I'd rather not stress about studying and actually start doing it). Here are my stats so far.

GPA: 3.82 (I foresee this semester's grades bringing it up to a 3.85-7)
Major: Philosophy/Theology minor Classical Languages
Honors? Deans List every semester so far, in the honors fraternity for Classical Languages 2 years

LSAT Cold Diag: 165 Most Recent LSATs 166, 169, 171 (I've done 3 PT so far in the last 2 weeks almost all wrong answers were LG), will be studying for the next 9 months...I got every single LSAT known to mankind along with the Powerscore bibles. Probably going to get a private tutor the last 2 or 3 months if my scores aren't consistently over 173.

Work Experience: Project Manager overseeing 30 employees in a major NYC Plumbing and Heating company since August of '09-Presnt.

Basically I was a supervisor/foreman for an apartment building built in Midtown that took 2.5 years to complete and was 110 apartments (estimated real estate value of the building=60 million lmao). I know law has absolutely NOTHING to do with pipes and sh** but the pay was really good lol. I payed my own way through school while working full time and maintaining a full time schedule.
I had to take a year off between sophomore and junior year to work 60+ hours a week because my mom needed to get surgery and didnt have the funds to do it. It was pretty much a life and death situation, so I took off to help pay for the medical expenses. (Figured this is probably something to good to write about in my personal statement; while peppering in "divorced mother, never met father, only knows father through the inmate tracking thing online, never paid child support want to be a lawyer to hate on people like this" [yea he's a convicted felon lol]). Not to sound like a sob story but it is true and I think it'll go over well with ad counsels.

Part Time (09-Present): Private Music Teacher (6 students if that matters--Percussion)

Two Summers working on a farm in Europe. (Seriously, not kidding lol...and the Euro exchange was awesome)

Volunteer: Percussion Instructor at local high school for 2 years (probably like 200 hours)

Volunteer at Cemetery as a grief counselor and translator (proficient in 4 languages (if you count ancient greek and latin lol) since freshman year (over 500+ hours)

Planning on going to some 3rd world country with my school for volunteering during winter break. It would be a week commitment so I suppose that equates to somewhere around 150 hours of service (including sleep lol)

Hobbies ( ): Competitive Longbow archery, long range rifle shooting (1000+ yards), hunting please dont hate on that (been on 3 out of country hunts so far in Canada, new zealand and africa--will almost definitely not put this on any app bc it's such a hot button issue)

So how's this look so far for T14...I'm stressing out like crazy about where I am going to go to law school....Sure the dream is HLS but I have a soft spot for UPENN, dont ask me why there's just something about that school that's so endearing. I'll most likely go to the highest ranked school i get into though. Thanks to everyone in advance!

[northwood]

well since youve been here for a while you know that its hard to tell you until you have an actual score. Your GPA is fine- just dont let it drop. YOur LSAT will be the differencemaker. Get as high of a score on teh LSAT as possible, and see how that score and your gpa stands in comparison to your target schools.

[Swimp]

No one can tell you how you'll do until you have a real LSAT score. But if I were you, I'd feel optimistic. Your GPA is good (keep it that way!), your LSAT work is promising so far, and you've got plenty of time to improve. Your background suggests that you've got the discipline needed to get that score up into the 99th %ile by June, so let that be your goal and good luck to you.

[Balthy]

The key is going to be sticking all of that info (especially how far you can shoot an arrow) into your PS.

[shieldofachilles]

Guys thanks so much for the replies...I know not much can be said if I dont have a real LSAT score to report. Im pretty confident that with this much time and practice ill be able to get that score into the mid 170s. Nothing is for sure but wishful thinking never hurt. How strong are my softs (lol) just out of curiosity...there not particularly extraordinary but i think theyre kind of unique?

[ndirish2010]

I wish I had prepared like this. You look like you'll at least be headed to CCN. Good luck on the LSAT!

[shieldofachilles]

I wish I had prepared like this. You look like you'll at least be headed to CCN. Good luck on the LSAT!

this is the one acronym on the site i cant seem to pin down lmao...whats CCN...and do u think im going a bit overboard with the whole 9 month studying thing?

[northwood]

I wish I had prepared like this. You look like you'll at least be headed to CCN. Good luck on the LSAT!

this is the one acronym on the site i cant seem to pin down lmao...whats CCN...and do u think im going a bit overboard with the whole 9 month studying thing?

i thinkts chicago columbia northwestern????


9 months is plenty of time- especially since you are still in school. You can learn at your own pace and give yourself time off for finals and a life...

[Swimp]

I wish I had prepared like this. You look like you'll at least be headed to CCN. Good luck on the LSAT!

this is the one acronym on the site i cant seem to pin down lmao...whats CCN...and do u think im going a bit overboard with the whole 9 month studying thing?

It stands for Columbia Chicago NYU. And yes, probably.

[JamMasterJ]

I wish I had prepared like this. You look like you'll at least be headed to CCN. Good luck on the LSAT!

this is the one acronym on the site i cant seem to pin down lmao...whats CCN...and do u think im going a bit overboard with the whole 9 month studying thing?

1- Columbia, Chicago, NYU.
2- No.
Softs are pretty solid, not sure how a school will treat extensive WE since it's not after graduation. You obviously know that the advice is completely different with a 169 than even a 171, but come back when you get the real LSAT score. You're probably going to need a 173-5 for Harvard.

[shieldofachilles]

thanks for the clarification lol....yea i didnt think 9 months was too insane...next week are midterms so my lsat is going on hold for a week but then im hitting it with 2 tests a week after i work through the PS bibles.