what are my chances Forum

[frankjones89]

I took the June lsat and scored a mediocre 151. In my multiple practice tests I scored almost entirely in the 150s. However, my undergraduate gpa was 3.93, with a 3.89 gpa in my graduate coursework. What would be the best law schools I could hope to get into? I am hoping to get into BU, BC, BYU, or a school in that bracket. I understand that my lsat is definitely on the low side, but my grades were stellar and I do not believe I would score significantly higher on a retest. Do I still have a shot at a good school? Thanks in advance!

[Manteca]

I took the June lsat and scored a mediocre 151. In my multiple practice tests I scored almost entirely in the 150s. However, my undergraduate gpa was 3.93, with a 3.89 gpa in my graduate coursework. What would be the best law schools I could hope to get into? I am hoping to get into BU, BC, BYU, or a school in that bracket. I understand that my lsat is definitely on the low side, but my grades were stellar and I do not believe I would score significantly higher on a retest. Do I still have a shot at a good school? Thanks in advance!

With that GPA, you have to retake. I jumped over 10 points on my second try, I'm sure you can too. There's lots of resources on this site to help you master the LSAT. That being said, there's really no school is worth going to with that LSAT score:

http://lawschoolnumbers.com/gpa-3.9/lsat-151

[frankjones89]

I intend to retake the test in September. It seems safe to venture, then, that if I can't get out of the 150's, I do not have much hope for a, say, top 30 school? Also- has a consensus been reached on whether or not law schools average LSAT results? There seems to be a lot of disagreement.

[FSK]

Basically, if you do not drastically improve your LSAT score, you should not go to law school. Your current stats will not get you into a school worth attending with enough scholarship money to make the degree economically viable.

[frankjones89]

I'm not terribly concerned about financial aid- I figure if I can get into a good enough school it will pay for itself and more over the years. Is there a (rough) benchmark LSAT score for a, say, #20-30 ranked school? Would anything in the 160's, coupled with a pretty good GPA, be enough for simple admission?

[tachikara]

I'm not terribly concerned about financial aid- I figure if I can get into a good enough school it will pay for itself and more over the years. Is there a (rough) benchmark LSAT score for a, say, #20-30 ranked school? Would anything in the 160's, coupled with a pretty good GPA, be enough for simple admission?

This statement simply reinforces what others are saying about taking the time to re-take and re-evaluate your career goals. http://www.lstscorereports.com is your friend.

Let's take a look at Indiana (#29): http://www.lstscorereports.com/schools/indiana/2013/

As a non-resident, with no scholarship, and the education fully financed with loans, you will owe approximately $280k upon graduation, which amounts to approximately $3,369/month over 10 years. Frankly, only big-law will allow you to repay that, and even then it's a scary prospect because you definitely won't last 10 years in big law, and will almost certainly take a huge pay cut once you drop out. Unfortunately, only 13.3% get into big law from Indiana. It's not unlikely that a significant number of those have patent-bar eligible backgrounds like EE, so your chances diminish even further.

The general sentiment around these parts seems to be that unless your parents are financing the education out of the goodness of their hearts or you are independently wealthy, you should never pay full-freight for anything less than top 6 (Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Chicago, NYU). Some say top 3, some say you should never pay sticker price.

[RZ5646]

I'm not terribly concerned about financial aid- I figure if I can get into a good enough school it will pay for itself and more over the years. Is there a (rough) benchmark LSAT score for a, say, #20-30 ranked school? Would anything in the 160's, coupled with a pretty good GPA, be enough for simple admission?

1. You are right that a "good enough" school will pay for itself, but "good enough" means T20.... which you have no chance at unless you retake. Going to a low-ranked school without a huge scholarship is financial suicide. You'll end up as a statistic in one of those weekly editorials about how law school is a scam.

2. Use http://mylsn.info/r/pre-law/admissions/search/ to see what your chances are with different LSAT scores.

[frankjones89]

Very helpful information, thank you all. Hopefully I can boost my score 10 points or so in September.