How do I stack up? Forum

[SlimRidge]

Hey everyone, this is my first ever post on TLS.com, although I have been looking at the rankings and reading school profiles for a while now. I'm wondering if I can get some feedback on my numbers and factors. I have cumulative 3.774 GPA from Central Washington University where I'm about to go into my senior year, so not the best undergraduate school, but I've been told that mostly doesn't matter (does it?). I'm taking the LSAT October 5th this year, and I've been studying my tail off all summer as well as taking a Kaplan Extreme LSAT prep course to boost my score. My goal is a 170, and the best I've scored on a practice test so far was 164. I'm double majoring in Philosophy and Political Science, participated on CWU's debate team in the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl last year and planning on this year, I held an internship at a local law firm during my junior and will start up again as a senior, and I've also had numerous work experience since I was about 13 and I've been on the Dean's List every quarter I've been at college. I don't have a lot of volunteer experience, but I do have some. I'm also a great writer and will probably piece together a good personal statement for the schools I'm applying to.

Anyway, the schools I'm thinking of applying to are Berkeley, Cornell, UCLA, USC, University of Washington, Arizona State, Boston U, UC Davis, and maybe Fordham. Any help, advice, recommendation, or anything at all would be greatly appreciated!

[Nova]

Focus on the lsat for now and worry about your admissions chances later.

[SlimRidge]

I'm definitely focused on the LSAT, but considering I'm applying this September, I'm focused on that as well.

[Nova]

Where you attend undergrad doesn't really matter.

What your major is doesn't really matter.

[Nova]

I'm definitely focused on the LSAT, but considering I'm applying this September, I'm focused on that as well.

Okay, well since you are pretty much a typical applicant, your admissions chances are dependent on your lsat.

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 9&t=170051

Http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 6&t=200917

[Ramius]

Anyway, the schools I'm thinking of applying to are Berkeley, Cornell, UCLA, USC, University of Washington, Arizona State, Boston U, UC Davis, and maybe Fordham. Any help, advice, recommendation, or anything at all would be greatly appreciated!

Also take a gander at lawschooltransparency.com for all of these schools. Their employment outcomes range from strong to pretty marginal at best. I thought this list was pretty random, so think long and hard about where you want to practice, where you have ties to the area and what your career ambitions are and let that determine where you should apply. A more focused list based on your desired outcome is, in my opinion, necessary.

[MyNameIsFlynn!]

Where you attend undergrad doesn't really matter.

Just want to point out that some schools at the top end seem to care about undergrad (eg YHC) but this is correct for 99% of schools

[SlimRidge]

Yeah, I know it seems kind of random, but I live in the Seattle area, so west coast schools are a bit more attractive to me. Other schools on that list like Boston U and Cornell are schools close to big legal markets that I felt I had a chance of getting in to. I'm still adding and subtracting to my list of schools, but I just want to practice in a more urban, big market where I could acquire a higher-paying job. I'm also considering UVA on my list, although it would probably be a tough school to get in to, the employment prospects are great and Charlottesville seems like a great place to study the law. At this point, I'm just considering sending applications all over the country to places I feel I wouldn't mind working in.

[TheSpanishMain]

Conventional wisdom is that the undergraduate softs aren't going to matter. The kind of work experience people have at 13 is not the kind that anyone is going to care about. I'm not putting you down: we all worked shitty retail type jobs in high school, but you're a pretty standard applicant. If you had a few years of post-college work experience as a financial analyst, or an engineer, or a (insert professional job here) that would provide a boost. For you, 99.99% of the admissions decision is going to be LSAT + GPA.

Also, conventional wisdom is that Kaplan LSAT prep is shit. Never tried it myself so YMMV.

[bailey8078]

If you don't start scoring significantly higher in the next couple weeks I'd postpone the LSAT until December and do Pithypike or Noodley's LSAT prep. Why waste one of your 3?

[SlimRidge]

I've never heard that Kaplan was bad, but then again I never heard that it was good either. It does seem to be helping a pretty decent amount though, my instructor is pretty knowledgeable and has scored a 180 himself on the LSAT. But yes, it's a possibility that I may postpone until December, although at this point I'm still set on taking it in October. We have 4 more practice timed practiced LSATs to take in class that will be scored, and since we've only taken the diagnostic on which I scored a 158 while managing to only compete 75% of the Logic Games and Reading Comp sections, I'm sure I still have room to improve, and I will definitely know the direction I'm heading once I take a couple more.

And what are these LSAT prep companies? Pithypike and Noodley? I've never heard of them in my life.

[TheSpanishMain]

Check the LSAT prep forum here. Pithypike and Noodley developed prep strategies that many people rave about.

[bailey8078]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=pithypike+lsat+guide

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=noodleyone+lsat+guide