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Will graduate Summa Cum Laude at Rice but LSAT was 162 and don't have time for another. I studied my ass off for months with 168-175 PTs but the real test didn't click. Wanting UT Austin and to practice in oil and gas in Houston I did a semester at London School of Economics, interned at House of Commons for a MP and did internships with US Representatives. Letters from former Harvard profs, Congressmen and Brit MP.

Will my GPA overcome the LSAT for UT?

I bet you'll get an offer. Great GPA and impressive softs! Get ready to hear everyone on this site and their moms tell you to retake though (but not me). I'd only recommend retake if you have time AND want to get a free ride. Otherwise I bet you'll get an offer.

Dont have time to retake?

Queue mass retake hysteria. Also "outstanding softs" hard truth pep talk.

Seriously though, just take another year. Will help you in any way. You have an easily HYS profile, or T6 w/ $$ (and most def UT full ride) if you just took the goddamn time to score a few pts higher on one test. What's another year compared to your entire legal career?

jbagelboy wrote:Dont have time to retake?

Queue mass retake hysteria. Also "outstanding softs" hard truth pep talk.

Seriously though, just take another year. Will help you in any way. You have an easily HYS profile, or T6 w/ $$ (and most def UT full ride) if you just took the goddamn time to score a few pts higher on one test. What's another year compared to your entire legal career?

Good point.

mx23250 wrote:

jbagelboy wrote:Dont have time to retake?

Queue mass retake hysteria. Also "outstanding softs" hard truth pep talk.

Seriously though, just take another year. Will help you in any way. You have an easily HYS profile, or T6 w/ $$ (and most def UT full ride) if you just took the goddamn time to score a few pts higher on one test. What's another year compared to your entire legal career?

Good point.

Yeah, he'll probably get in, but why would you not retake for a full ride? Avoiding six figures of debt isn't worth retaking a standardized test? WUT?

mx23250 wrote:I bet you'll get an offer. Great GPA and impressive softs! Get ready to hear everyone on this site and their moms tell you to retake though (but not me). I'd only recommend retake if you have time AND want to get a free ride. Otherwise I bet you'll get an offer.

This is bad and you should feel bad. What the hell does "have time" mean? If you don't have a terminal disease, you DO have time I promise you. People don't want to take a year off and retake/reapply because they don't think they have good options and because going to law school at this time has been THE PLAN for so long, and people just hate deviating from THE PLAN. It involves telling all of your friends and relatives, many of whom won't understand why, that you've changed your mind. It involves the insecurity of not having a concrete plan for the next year. Those are obviously shitty, but the potential gain is so ridiculously enormous that not retaking would almost certainly be the worst career decision you ever make.

OP, you could EASILY get in to HARVARD or get a full ride anywhere else if you score in the middle of your PT range. Why would you limit yourself just because you are too impatient to wait a year?? You worked your ass off for years and years to get that GPA at that school with those softs, why make a decision that will limit you for the rest of your life instead of waiting a year and putting in a bit more work.

Whatever the reason is that you just CAN'T not go to law school this fall is not good enough, I guarantee it.

Retake. You if you were PTing in the low 170s there is no reason why you should not sit this cycle out, retake, and then apply next year as soon as possible. If you get above a 168 or 170 you could be looking at a massive scholly from UT and good money from Penn down, with admits Columbia and NYU and a coin flip at Harvard and maybe Stanford with that GPA.

Even if you only want UT (which is fine), you should still retake for lots of scholarship money. I am certain your softs will definitely help you come job-gettin'-time.

If you are 100% going this year I guess you could try and get acceptances to one or two t14s to negotiate UT. I'd think with that gpa/resume a few schools might forgive your LSAT. This is if you are 100% coming this semester and are 100% set on UT.

But as everyone else in this thread has stated, retake.

These are considered "outstanding softs?" U wot m8?

Retake. Also, I would aim higher if TX big law is the goal. UT can get you there, but it's tough.

Lets get you into Harvard, yes?

Jetdriver69 wrote:Will graduate Summa Cum Laude at Rice but LSAT was 162 and don't have time for another. I studied my ass off for months with 168-175 PTs but the real test didn't click.

If you really were studying your ass off and taking timed PTs under strict conditions then here would be no "not clicking" going on. If it was text anxiety that's another thing, but the end result is the same: retake. You are capable of a way better score that'll get you a (probable) full ride where you want to go.

All your softs say is that you're a rich white kid. Even if you aren't one, that's what they say. A 5-point boost on the test is worth all the softs in the world.

cron1834 wrote:All your softs say is that you're a rich white kid. Even if you aren't one, that's what they say. A 5-point boost on the test is worth all the softs in the world.

Everyone knows rich white people don't get far in this life.

Here is why you should retake: A full ride will lead to an effective pay raise of at least $12,000 for ten years. When compounded, assuming even a minimal return on investment, this well more than an extra year's biglaw salary. 160K is nothing to sneeze at for a year of hanging around and studying for a multiple choice test.

Desert Fox wrote:

cron1834 wrote:All your softs say is that you're a rich white kid. Even if you aren't one, that's what they say. A 5-point boost on the test is worth all the softs in the world.

Everyone knows rich white people don't get far in this life.

Reverse discrimination!!!!11

Copying over what I put in the duplicate thread:

Unless your categories of LORs are overlapping, it sounds like you have a minimum of 5.

UT takes a maximum of three LORs. Under no circumstances should you exceed that limit.

Also, hopefully at least one of those "former Harvard profs" taught you in an actual academic setting. You need at least one academic LOR, especially as a KJD. The letters from Congressmen and the MP will only be helpful if they were your direct supervisors and can speak very specifically about you. "X interned in my office and was a great asset to the team" will be useless.

Also, it's false that you don't have time for another LSAT. You can take a year off and apply next cycle. You clearly won't have any trouble finding something to do to occupy that year. If you choose not to, fine, but at least acknowledge that you're making a choice not to raise your LSAT and throwing money down the drain.

How do you think you will do in law school if you can't handle retaking the LSAT? I'm not saying the LSAT is a good predictor of success, but it's the only real barrier to enter law school. If you can't be bothered to re-take or try harder, you have an up-hill battle ahead with your goals.

Jetdriver69 wrote:Will graduate Summa Cum Laude at Rice but LSAT was 162 and don't have time for another. I studied my ass off for months with 168-175 PTs but the real test didn't click. Wanting UT Austin and to practice in oil and gas in Houston I did a semester at London School of Economics, interned at House of Commons for a MP and did internships with US Representatives. Letters from former Harvard profs, Congressmen and Brit MP.

Will my GPA overcome the LSAT for UT?

Those are average softs.

thewaves wrote:How do you think you will do in law school if you can't handle retaking the LSAT? I'm not saying the LSAT is a good predictor of success, but it's the only real barrier to enter law school. If you can't be bothered to re-take or try harder, you have an up-hill battle ahead with your goals.

LSAT and GPA are good indicator of success.

If people said that they DO NOT have time for retake they are lying to themselves.
They are just being lazy and / or afraid of failure .

indo wrote:

thewaves wrote:How do you think you will do in law school if you can't handle retaking the LSAT? I'm not saying the LSAT is a good predictor of success, but it's the only real barrier to enter law school. If you can't be bothered to re-take or try harder, you have an up-hill battle ahead with your goals.

LSAT and GPA are good indicator of success.

If people said that they DO NOT have time for retake they are lying to themselves.
They are just being lazy and / or afraid of failure .

OP o obviously doesn't have the drive or the desire to push for his best outcome. Let him get by with the minimal goals he has set, if he can can achieve them. I'm tired of trying to convince people not to throw away their best shot for a great start to their career.

You seem to think Rice carries some extra weight. Not to be a dick, but it doesn't.

NYstate wrote:

indo wrote:

thewaves wrote:How do you think you will do in law school if you can't handle retaking the LSAT? I'm not saying the LSAT is a good predictor of success, but it's the only real barrier to enter law school. If you can't be bothered to re-take or try harder, you have an up-hill battle ahead with your goals.

LSAT and GPA are good indicator of success.

If people said that they DO NOT have time for retake they are lying to themselves.
They are just being lazy and / or afraid of failure .

OP o obviously doesn't have the drive or the desire to push for his best outcome. Let him get by with the minimal goals he has set, if he can can achieve them. I'm tired of trying to convince people not to throw away their best shot for a great start to their career.

BRO. I never thought this until this very thread. I am so with you on this one.

Clearly wrote:

NYstate wrote:

indo wrote:

thewaves wrote:How do you think you will do in law school if you can't handle retaking the LSAT? I'm not saying the LSAT is a good predictor of success, but it's the only real barrier to enter law school. If you can't be bothered to re-take or try harder, you have an up-hill battle ahead with your goals.

LSAT and GPA are good indicator of success.

If people said that they DO NOT have time for retake they are lying to themselves.
They are just being lazy and / or afraid of failure .

OP o obviously doesn't have the drive or the desire to push for his best outcome. Let him get by with the minimal goals he has set, if he can can achieve them. I'm tired of trying to convince people not to throw away their best shot for a great start to their career.

BRO. I never thought this until this very thread. I am so with you on this one.

Clearly, don't you, uh, have something to show the op?

drevo wrote:

Jetdriver69 wrote:Will graduate Summa Cum Laude at Rice but LSAT was 162 and don't have time for another. I studied my ass off for months with 168-175 PTs but the real test didn't click.

If you really were studying your ass off and taking timed PTs under strict conditions then here would be no "not clicking" going on. If it was text anxiety that's another thing, but the end result is the same: retake. You are capable of a way better score that'll get you a (probable) full ride where you want to go.

I disagree with this. Anyone can have a rough day regardless of how much they may have studied and taken practice tests under real conditions. There are a multitude of reasons the test may not have clicked and none of them may have to do with preparation.

OP, I would retake for more options. You could try for February, but if I were you, I'd probably try to get a job and retake in June or October. As others have said, if you want UT Austin, a higher score will get you a full ride (maybe 169+). The middle of your PT range makes you competitive at HYS and would give you lots of excellent scholarship options elsewhere.