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I'm applying to law school with the following stats:

173 LSAT
2.8 GPA
2 years work experience with a fortune 500 company (finance/banking)
Member of a non-profit.
Not a URM
North Carolina resident (I want to stay in the Charlotte area)

What are my chances at:

UNC - Chapel Hill
Wake Forest
University of South Carolina
Tulane University
Southern Methodist University

Reach chances:
Duke
Vanderbilt

Anywhere else I should apply? Any advice would be great.

northwestern would love you, I think.

I think you could get Duke as well, but I'm not quite as sure. Unless you get big money, I wouldn't go to any of those other schools.

I was reading that Northwestern liked work experience.

I think I'd be out at Duke due to the GPA. I was also considering applying to one of the Ivy League's but I think I'd be out at all of them except maybe Cornell.

Predictions:

banerkguy wrote: What are my chances at:

UNC - Chapel Hill Pretty good IN
Wake Forest Good IN
University of South Carolinajust dont IN
Tulane University Good IN
Southern Methodist University Good IN

Reach chances:
Duke Possible, but unlikely OUT
Vanderbilt Possible, but unlikely OUT

Anywhere else I should apply? Any advice would be great.

Midwest T30s will ignore your GPA and should give you decent money (UMN/WUSTL)

Def throw apps to Northwestern and GULC. Cornell and Michigan are possible reaches too.

I would personally throw a hail mary to NYU, UVA, and Penn too.

type your stats into http://www.mylsn.info

Thanks for the link. According to my stats the best T-14 I'd have a shot at is Northwestern.

UPENN and NYU I think would be a pipe dream, unless the admissions committee ignored my GPA.

I did economics, but it's not considered a hard science. So I can't see the major helping me at all.

I had similar numbers and softs, got into NU. I agree that you'd get big cash from WUSTL/UMN, but they probably won't get you back to Charlotte. I think your plan of action is to definitely apply to NU, GULC, Duke, UNC, and maybe a couple of safeties in case you get unlucky or UNC doesn't show you the money, so you can prod them for more.

So my GPA actually dropped to a LSDA 2.73. Is this going to be a huge difference to the admission committee compared to a 2.8? Both suck I know. Accounting and I didn't get a long to well.

If you are willing to pay sticker price, UVa places pretty good in Charlotte and you have a decent shot at getting in.

And there is a Cook Out pretty close to the law school.

Tom Joad wrote:
And there is a Cook Out pretty close to the law school.

Cot dayum cook out is titties.

banerkguy wrote:So my GPA actually dropped to a LSDA 2.73. Is this going to be a huge difference to the admission committee compared to a 2.8? Both suck I know. Accounting and I didn't get a long to well.

Its not going to make that much of a difference. You were already going to have one of the lowest GPAs in the class anyway.

banerkguy wrote:I was reading that Northwestern liked work experience.

I think I'd be out at Duke due to the GPA. I was also considering applying to one of the Ivy League's but I think I'd be out at all of them except maybe Cornell.

Zero shot at duke. They have a soft 3.5 or 3.6 floor. I have a hard time remembering them going any lower than that.

UVA is your best bet. NU is your other T14 option but not that helpful for getting to Charlotte

So I want to stay in North Carolina.

I'm trying to decide if I should choose between Wake or Chapel Hill (pending I get in).

I also want to work on mergers and acquisitions. I read that a JD/MBA is looked upon fondly by corporations.

Out of those two schools, which would you pick?

I know the UNC JD and MBA are ranked better. Wake has better prestige overall.

Thanks for the advice.

banerkguy wrote: I know the UNC JD and MBA are ranked better. Wake has better prestige overall.

Base your decision off LST and debt

mr.hands wrote: Zero shot at duke. They have a soft 3.5 or 3.6 floor. I have a hard time remembering them going any lower than that.

UVA is your best bet. NU is your other T14 option but not that helpful for getting to Charlotte

LSN has a few data points with sub-3.0 GPAs getting acceptance to Duke. For non-ED who submitted early in the cycle...3/10 accepts (albeit 2 off the waitlist) with 2.X/<173. I only found one ED in the last decade for that range, and that person got in with a 2.95/172.

That doesn't sound great, but damned if it sounds like zero shot (especially with the application numbers still declining).

I'll throw a hail marry to Duke, and pray to god they over look the GPA.

Any chance at Vanderbilt? I thi I they're the same as duke when it comes to gpa

I think you are in at vanderbilt, at least waitlisted. out at duke though. if you want charlotte, go to carolina or vanderbilt, maybe throw an app to emory because i bet they will give you a bunch of money. forget wake, you can do much better. and go to UVA over all of these if you pull that off, which i think youve got a shot. Im not sure how rigid you are on working in charlotte or if youd consider anywhere else. you might have to give up on charlotte if you leave the south to go to school, but those schools youd be leaving for (northwestern) could potentially open up many more doors.

NW and Vandy http://mylsn.info/3ieva8