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Long time lurker, finally get a chance to make one of these for myself.

LSAT: 164 in October, 170 this December. 170 was my target so I am very pleased
GPA: 3.56
Average softs, two years of unremarkable work experience. Non-URM.

My ultimate goal is to live and work in North Carolina. Am I correct in assuming I have 0% chance at Duke with that kind of GPA?

I feel pretty good about my numbers for UNC, but I don't have state residency, though I have lived there previously and emphasized this in my PS. I believe they have to give 75% of their seats to residents, so that makes me nervous.

Suggestions otherwise? Typical "ED to UVA"? And should I be thinking about applying to specific schools just to use them for scholarship negotiations, or is that a waste of the $21 report fee if it's somewhere I wouldn't want to attend anyway? Thanks in advance for taking time to respond!

ED UVA might be a good bet. You have a small but nonzero chance at Duke. Theyve been less picky about GPAs due to the downturn in applications.

And yeah apply to as many places as you can afford. Good luck!

Thanks! I'm a little concerned as to the portability of a UVA to NC, but considering they're neighboring states and I do have some ties, maybe it's not so impossible. And even if it is...eh, VA isn't too bad I guess.

ED kind of frightens me though. Do my chances at UVA take a huge nosedive if I were to RD instead of ED? Strangely, LSN does not seem to have many reference points for my numbers. My GPA is a bit strange, I think...but by god I'm not rounding that .06 down.

Yes UVA's ED gives a strong boost. Make sure you'd be comfortable with sticker. That said, youre unlikely to get much money at any T14. Duke, if you got in, would probably be at near sticker.

You have a great chance at both Penn and UVA ED, so if you want to ED then I would pick which one you want of these two.

This being said, you have a great chance at Penn, UVA, Michigan, and Duke. If scholarships are important, I would consider the possibility of not EDing and seeing who throws you the most money.

This is what happened to applicants last cycle with your #s: http://myLSN.info/aj93vh

Doorkeeper wrote:You have a great chance at both Penn and UVA ED, so if you want to ED then I would pick which one you want of these two.

This being said, you have a great chance at Penn, UVA, Michigan, and Duke. If scholarships are important, I would consider the possibility of not EDing and seeing who throws you the most money.

This is what happened to applicants last cycle with your #s: http://myLSN.info/aj93vh

Things look much worse if you excluded ED

Doorkeeper wrote:You have a great chance at both Penn and UVA ED, so if you want to ED then I would pick which one you want of these two.

This being said, you have a great chance at Penn, UVA, Michigan, and Duke. If scholarships are important, I would consider the possibility of not EDing and seeing who throws you the most money.

This is what happened to applicants last cycle with your #s: http://myLSN.info/aj93vh

Thanks for this link! I changed the upper GPA limit to 3.56 and also told it to exclude early decisions, and Duke still looked viable...71% acceptance rate, but only for 7 people, if I'm reading it correctly. I wonder if that's just due to small sample size, and all the people who got rejected or waitlisted with my numbers just aren't reporting.

Either way, I'm gonna chuck that hail mary. I guess I'll do some research on Duke's LRAP and figure out exactly how scary the prospect of paying sticker really is before I decide if I want to 2nd round ED or not.