Combat Veteran Splitter Forum

[californiadreamin15]

5 years military experience including Purple Heart for wounds sustained in combat in Afghanistan.
3.32 gpa with clear delineation between shitty grades before I joined the military and basically all A's since I've returned to school.
170 lsat taken once.
Adopted Korean with lots of community involvement and powerful diversity statement.

What are my chances at t14? As far as I've been told, my military service counts as WE. I'd like to practice in Cali, but I know S and likely B out of the picture. How bout UCLA or SC? Suggestions on where to give my ED? I will have the GI Bill to cover a substantial amount (in some cases all) of tuition, so money is less of an issue for me. Thanks in advance!

[haus]

I strongly suspect that you will have a very nice cycle, with several good choices to choose from.

You might want to check in on the Veteran thread, http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 2&t=170257

Good Luck!

[UnicornHunter]

http://lawschoolnumbers.com/AfghanTourist

Obviously, 173 v 170 is not insignificant, but neither is a purple heart. I think you'll have a great cycle. I would probably not ED in your shoes, though NYU might be worth it as your stretch play. What are your goals with law outside of get back to CA?

[twenty]

How much GI bill do you have left?

edit> never mind, apparently you have a lot of it. I would seriously consider EDing to the best school you can get into.

[UnicornHunter]

How much GI bill do you have left?

edit> never mind, apparently you have a lot of it. I would seriously consider EDing to the best school you can get into.

The only reason I disagree with this is that he mentioned Cali. I know a sub 3.5 GPA is usually dead in the water for B and S, but with those softs (purple heart!) I don't think B is out of reach. And who knows, maybe even S. I think there's someone at Yale with like a 3.1; for every GPA floor, there's an exception. That's why I asked about goals. If he's PI focused, I would ED UVA. Big law, I would choose between Penn or NYU depending on how lucky I was feeling. But if it's Cali>everything, I would either ED CC or just not use it at all and hope that Berk/Stanford like the whole package.

[californiadreamin15]

Thank you kindly for the replies so far. Biglaw is the plan. I was stationed in Southern California during my time in the military, met the love of my life there & fell in love with the area. I'm a resident of Michigan, so I'm assuming that helps me (if ever so slightly) with them.

[winstonsalem]

I would say blanket the T14 but think about retaking the LSAT to get above the 75% at your dream schools. As a fellow vet who just finished the applying, I can tell you that schools will be forgiving of low GPAs for vets so long as you have a high LSAT score and the rest of your application emphasizes your best qualities. You should definitely apply to Berkeley and Stanford because both of those schools are willing to dip below their normal GPA floors to admit veterans.

One other thing I would recommend is looking into a group called service2school. It is a free law school admissions consulting service offered to veterans. Splitters, like I was as well, need to maximize their admission chances by making the rest of their applications nearly perfect. Service2school can provide lots of advice on everything from resumes to essays to general admissions strategy. I also know for a fact that there are vets working for that organization that are currently at Boalt hall and at Stanford who could provide insight into admissions at the two schools.


http://service2school.org

[TheSpanishMain]

Apply widely. You'll almost certainly get into UCLA/USC. I think you've got a fighting shot at Berkeley, too. I'm a vet and my military service seemed to provide a definite boost to my cycle. For comparison, I had a GPA only very slightly higher than yours and a 168. I got into UCLA, UVA, Northwestern and Georgetown.

If you can write a compelling PS about your deployments/wound, I think you'll be in fantastic shape. Good luck buddy.