Chances please? Forum

[rachsc]

I'm currently a Junior at University of Washington, with a UGPA of 3.85. I took a diagnostic LSAT with no preparation, never having seen the test and got a 156. If I prep for two months and can raise my score to say a 165-166, what are my chances of getting into Notre Dame early admission? Also, I will be graduating with my bachelor's in 3 years instead of 4, have lots of extracurriculars, an undergraduate fellowship, and am certain of my reasons for attending law school.

[nebula666]

lawschoolnumbers.com

[Nova]

Your chances would be good if you can score within a few points of median with that GPA. Hitting median, 167 I think, would give you much better chances of getting in with a substantial scholarship.

You should read the stickies at the top of this forum.

Try the calculator on this site:

http://WWW.mylsn.info

[jvincent11]

My first diagnostic was 145 and I received a 168 on Feb 2013 LSAT, after PT'ing in the 170s the weeks before. Don't sell yourself short, your goal is 170+. If you are dying to go to Notre Dame, you might as well go there for free.

[Crowing]

Don't plan to apply early decision. Aim high and if you really want ND apply RD and also hit up peer schools so you can have leverage to negotiate aid.

[052220151]

Dude, crush the LSAT and go to HYS or T14 on major scholly. Forget ND.

[Nova]

Dude, crush the LSAT and go to HYS or T14 on major scholly. Forget ND.

+1

This should be your mindset.

[jbagelboy]

Dude, crush the LSAT and go to HYS or T14 on major scholly. Forget ND.

+1

This should be your mindset.

this could be everyone's mindset, but its not realistic since only a few hundred kids get admitted to HYS every year. we are not all as special as we dream to be. I think OP has a reasonable goal and should set out to achieve it; whats wrong with wanting to go to a specific law school (as long as its not TTT) and prioritizing working hard enough to get there? I find there is a lot of satisfaction in this type of achievement, and less in creating new false dreams just because a poorly written magazine with a largely chinese and korean readership makes your original true dreams comparatively less sparkling.

If you want ND, I think 167 is a good goal and as another poster said you will have good chance at a scholarship w/ your GPA. Graduating in 3 yrs does weaken your application (and reduce your chances to increase your GPA even further) so I hope you've thought about that.

edit: also, something you should know about ED'ing is that it could limit your chances at scholarships. if you hit 167, apply RD to notre dame along with some peers like minnesota/GW/BC to negotiate $.

good luck!

[romothesavior]

Just study your ass off, do as well as you can, and come back to us. Aim to do as well as possible, 170+ ideally. Don't waste that GPA. Also, use LSN. There's not much we can really tell you at this point.

[052220151]

Dude, crush the LSAT and go to HYS or T14 on major scholly. Forget ND.

+1

This should be your mindset.

this could be everyone's mindset, but its not realistic since only a few hundred kids get admitted to HYS every year. we are not all as special as we dream to be. I think OP has a reasonable goal and should set out to achieve it; whats wrong with wanting to go to a specific law school (as long as its not TTT) and prioritizing working hard enough to get there? I find there is a lot of satisfaction in this type of achievement, and less in creating new false dreams just because a poorly written magazine with a largely chinese and korean readership makes your original true dreams comparatively less sparkling.

If you want ND, I think 167 is a good goal and as another poster said you will have good chance at a scholarship w/ your GPA. Graduating in 3 yrs does weaken your application (and reduce your chances to increase your GPA even further) so I hope you've thought about that.

edit: also, something you should know about ED'ing is that it could limit your chances at scholarships. if you hit 167, apply RD to notre dame along with some peers like minnesota/GW/BC to negotiate $.

good luck!

Bullshit. If OP can get a 3.85 in UG, s/he is smart enough to study for a learnable test. There are two types of folks who go HYS, the geniuses, and the ones who prepare properly. There is no reason that OP can't get a 170+ LSAT which would put HYS in reach, assuming s/he can keep up the GPA.

[jbagelboy]

Dude, crush the LSAT and go to HYS or T14 on major scholly. Forget ND.

+1

This should be your mindset.

this could be everyone's mindset, but its not realistic since only a few hundred kids get admitted to HYS every year. we are not all as special as we dream to be. I think OP has a reasonable goal and should set out to achieve it; whats wrong with wanting to go to a specific law school (as long as its not TTT) and prioritizing working hard enough to get there? I find there is a lot of satisfaction in this type of achievement, and less in creating new false dreams just because a poorly written magazine with a largely chinese and korean readership makes your original true dreams comparatively less sparkling.

If you want ND, I think 167 is a good goal and as another poster said you will have good chance at a scholarship w/ your GPA. Graduating in 3 yrs does weaken your application (and reduce your chances to increase your GPA even further) so I hope you've thought about that.

edit: also, something you should know about ED'ing is that it could limit your chances at scholarships. if you hit 167, apply RD to notre dame along with some peers like minnesota/GW/BC to negotiate $.

good luck!

Bullshit. If OP can get a 3.85 in UG, s/he is smart enough to study for a learnable test. There are two types of folks who go HYS, the geniuses, and the ones who prepare properly. There is no reason that OP can't get a 170+ LSAT which would put HYS in reach, assuming s/he can keep up the GPA.

And this would be relevant if OP had said, "what do I need to do to get to Harvard? I really care about prestige whoring". I take the active assumption that people who make threads about trying to go to notre dame want advice about notre dame.

also, and this has nothing to do with Washington which is a fine school, but the 3.85 gpa = good lsat score is not credited. the entire purpose of the lsat is to distinguish a 3.85 in biomedical engineering from Princeton from a 3.85 in sports merchandising from kentucky state

[Redfactor]

OP, I believe you'd be in a better situation if you took the LSAT in October. Your goals, even for "just" NDLS are lofty. So do not rush becoming familiar with the test. It will be the same application cycle and as others have said, I believe it to be foolish to ED with your GPA - even if someone else is paying for your schooling and you don't care about scholarships.

There are more than sixty tests, and you really need to take each, grade each, comb through and rework the errors of each. When I would took a PT, the whole process would last over 5 hours. And I wasn't missing a whole lot of them. Just remember, you'll gain points very quickly to your score at first, but you will continue to gain points the more familiar you are with the test. In my opinion, that takes longer than 2 months. Just because you might be able to PT at 167 in June does not mean you shouldn't keep pushing through to October for that 170+.

The benefits will show themselves during the cycle. People saying that you should shoot for a 170+ are helping you. There is no downside to studying harder and scoring higher. If you want NDLS, you can go for free. If you want other options, they will open up. If you score a 173 and 3.85 from UW, I think you will be amazed at not only all the doors open to you, but about people on the other sides vying for you to choose their threshold to cross.

I have not been to ND, but my soon-to-be sister-in-law graduated with an LLM from there (international) and seems to have liked it.

[rachsc]

OP, I believe you'd be in a better situation if you took the LSAT in October. Your goals, even for "just" NDLS are lofty. So do not rush becoming familiar with the test. It will be the same application cycle and as others have said, I believe it to be foolish to ED with your GPA - even if someone else is paying for your schooling and you don't care about scholarships.

There are more than sixty tests, and you really need to take each, grade each, comb through and rework the errors of each. When I would took a PT, the whole process would last over 5 hours. And I wasn't missing a whole lot of them. Just remember, you'll gain points very quickly to your score at first, but you will continue to gain points the more familiar you are with the test. In my opinion, that takes longer than 2 months. Just because you might be able to PT at 167 in June does not mean you shouldn't keep pushing through to October for that 170+.

The benefits will show themselves during the cycle. People saying that you should shoot for a 170+ are helping you. There is no downside to studying harder and scoring higher. If you want NDLS, you can go for free. If you want other options, they will open up. If you score a 173 and 3.85 from UW, I think you will be amazed at not only all the doors open to you, but about people on the other sides vying for you to choose their threshold to cross.

I have not been to ND, but my soon-to-be sister-in-law graduated with an LLM from there (international) and seems to have liked it.

Thanks Redfactor for the honest reply. I've been thinking over what everyone has said on this post about pushing for a higher score, which can never hurt. I think you're right, I just signed up for a two month prep course and will just spend the whole summer working through powerscore bibles and practice tests. Thanks so much!