Top Law Schools

I know this is a very frequently asked question, but I'm an AA URM, from a private Ohio University, my LSAT is a 174 and my GPA is a 3.6. I have a few softs (internships at local law offices, hundreds of volunteer hours, and mayor's office etc) and I'm also 2 years (ahead?) of the average age of an undergrad. I graduate this upcoming semester (my 3 classes are easy As, as the credits for 2 are coming from an internship) and I am wondering what my chances are at the top 14, especially HYS.

I just finished reading a URM thread. Other URMs were into H and Y with lower GPA and LSAT than you. I'd say you've got most of them on lock. You might get some yield protection waitlisting though.

Wait, are you 19-20 or 23-24? With your stats and AA status you are probably ok regardless, but if you are 19 or 20, that can and will hurt you.

gentlemanscholar wrote:I just finished reading a URM thread. Other URMs were into H and Y with lower GPA and LSAT than you. I'd say you've got most of them on lock. You might get some yield protection waitlisting though.

What exactly is yield protection? I'm still unfamiliar with a little bit of the vocabulary used on this site.

phillywc wrote:Wait, are you 19-20 or 23-24? With your stats and AA status you are probably ok regardless, but if you are 19 or 20, that can and will hurt you.

I'm 20. Why would it hurt me? Should I take a year off as a paralegal, or something in that vein to improve my chances?

Aristogeiton1 wrote:

phillywc wrote:Wait, are you 19-20 or 23-24? With your stats and AA status you are probably ok regardless, but if you are 19 or 20, that can and will hurt you.

I'm 20. Why would it hurt me? Should I take a year off as a paralegal, or something in that vein to improve my chances?

I was 20 when I applied, just turned 21. I worked full time throughout UG so that probably helped offset it a bit, but people are going to think that you are too young for school and they aren't necessarily wrong. It will also hurt you during OCI to be so young. I'd normally recommend taking 2 years off, but with your stats you might get HYS or big money from the T6. If you don't get one of those though, I'd sit out at least a year. You can afford to be picky, and it will help.

Aristogeiton1 wrote:

gentlemanscholar wrote:I just finished reading a URM thread. Other URMs were into H and Y with lower GPA and LSAT than you. I'd say you've got most of them on lock. You might get some yield protection waitlisting though.

What exactly is yield protection? I'm still unfamiliar with a little bit of the vocabulary used on this site.

Yield protection is when schools don't extend you an admissions offer because they're concerned that with your high stats you won't attend since you'll have offers from higher ranked schools. They do this because for every offer they extend and a student doesn't accept, it hurts them in the USNWR rankings.

UVA and UPenn are examples of schools that YP hard. Usually to overcome this you simply write a Why X law school addendum.

With your stats, I'd say you're a lock at H, YS are hard to predict but still apply. Also apply to the rest of the t-14 chances are good you'll get tons of money.

Post removed.

MistakenGenius wrote:

phillywc wrote:

Aristogeiton1 wrote:

phillywc wrote:Wait, are you 19-20 or 23-24? With your stats and AA status you are probably ok regardless, but if you are 19 or 20, that can and will hurt you.

I'm 20. Why would it hurt me? Should I take a year off as a paralegal, or something in that vein to improve my chances?

I was 20 when I applied, just turned 21. I worked full time throughout UG so that probably helped offset it a bit, but people are going to think that you are too young for school and they aren't necessarily wrong. It will also hurt you during OCI to be so young. I'd normally recommend taking 2 years off, but with your stats you might get HYS or big money from the T6. If you don't get one of those though, I'd sit out at least a year. You can afford to be picky, and it will help.

This. If you wait a year or two, you're going to almost certainly get 2 of HYS and likely all three and be in the running for named scholarships at CCN.You might well be the strongest AA of the cycle. However, if you go as a 20 year old, it's going to hurt you since they'll see you as too young and many firms won't take you because of that age. If I were in your shoes, I'd take probably 2 years off, do a fun job, and maybe take the opportunity to travel if you're interested in that (It's hard to travel once you start the law school game).

I dont think you 0Ls get how much of a unicorn AA males are in law school admissions or legal hiring. Not that it's not smart to take some time off but I wouldn't be giving out OCI advice when you're not in the same shoes. You'll be fine no matter when you apply OP.

Dr.Zer0 wrote:

Aristogeiton1 wrote:

gentlemanscholar wrote:I just finished reading a URM thread. Other URMs were into H and Y with lower GPA and LSAT than you. I'd say you've got most of them on lock. You might get some yield protection waitlisting though.

What exactly is yield protection? I'm still unfamiliar with a little bit of the vocabulary used on this site.

Yield protection is when schools don't extend you an admissions offer because they're concerned that with your high stats you won't attend since you'll have offers from higher ranked schools. They do this because for every offer they extend and a student doesn't accept, it hurts them in the USNWR rankings.

UVA and UPenn are examples of schools that YP hard. Usually to overcome this you simply write a Why X law school addendum.

With your stats, I'd say you're a lock at H, YS are hard to predict but still apply. Also apply to the rest of the t-14 chances are good you'll get tons of money.

YP sounds terrible.

MistakenGenius wrote:

phillywc wrote:

Aristogeiton1 wrote:

phillywc wrote:Wait, are you 19-20 or 23-24? With your stats and AA status you are probably ok regardless, but if you are 19 or 20, that can and will hurt you.

I'm 20. Why would it hurt me? Should I take a year off as a paralegal, or something in that vein to improve my chances?

I was 20 when I applied, just turned 21. I worked full time throughout UG so that probably helped offset it a bit, but people are going to think that you are too young for school and they aren't necessarily wrong. It will also hurt you during OCI to be so young. I'd normally recommend taking 2 years off, but with your stats you might get HYS or big money from the T6. If you don't get one of those though, I'd sit out at least a year. You can afford to be picky, and it will help.

This. If you wait a year or two, you're going to almost certainly get 2 of HYS and likely all three and be in the running for named scholarships at CCN.You might well be the strongest AA of the cycle. However, if you go as a 20 year old, it's going to hurt you since they'll see you as too young and many firms won't take you because of that age. If I were in your shoes, I'd take probably 2 years off, do a fun job, and maybe take the opportunity to travel if you're interested in that (It's hard to travel once you start the law school game).

I wasn't quite sure how impressive my scores were, I know a few kids with *similar* stats just without the URM, I just want to make sure that if I take some time off, I'll be able to spend it doing something very worthwhile. I don't have a lot of money for out of country travel (I already studied abroad in Italy and would LOVE to go back), but I'll definitely take these varied answers into consideration.

Mal Reynolds wrote: I dont think you 0Ls get how much of a unicorn AA males are in law school admissions or legal hiring. Not that it's not smart to take some time off but I wouldn't be giving out OCI advice when you're not in the same shoes. You'll be fine no matter when you apply OP.

This is true, and I tried to stress it in my post but probably didn't do a good job. Even if you are hurt by your age, it doesn't really matter. I was more or less trying to say don't settle if your cycle doesn't turn out well.

I still think it's smart to take time off because you're fucking twnety. Don't ruin your life yet. Also if I would have gone to law school at twenty I would have failed out. And I go to a school where it's impossible to fail.

Mal Reynolds wrote:I still think it's smart to take time off because you're fucking twnety. Don't ruin your life yet. Also if I would have gone to law school at twenty I would have failed out. And I go to a school where it's impossible to fail.

You always struck me as someone who started school at like 19, Mal.

Mal Reynolds wrote:I still think it's smart to take time off because you're fucking twnety. Don't ruin your life yet. Also if I would have gone to law school at twenty I would have failed out. And I go to a school where it's impossible to fail.

Truth be told, school is a good 1/2 of my life. All I really do is go to school, work, blog and find volunteer opportunities. I have to commute a long way, so campus life has never really been my thing. Would I get that caught up? I just don't want to hold school off too long, BigLaw (I know, I'll ne'er have a social life) is a huge stepping stone for me, and I've been mentally preparing myself. Taking a year to just live does sound good though.

Aristogeiton1 wrote:

Mal Reynolds wrote:I still think it's smart to take time off because you're fucking twnety. Don't ruin your life yet. Also if I would have gone to law school at twenty I would have failed out. And I go to a school where it's impossible to fail.

Truth be told, school is a good 1/2 of my life. All I really do is go to school, work, blog and find volunteer opportunities. I have to commute a long way, so campus life has never really been my thing. Would I get that caught up? I just don't want to hold school off too long, BigLaw (I know, I'll ne'er have a social life) is a huge stepping stone for me, and I've been mentally preparing myself. Taking a year to just live does sound good though.

School is not work. You should work because you'll realize it's a lot different than school. So general life advice from me would be to work for a little while. Your LSAT score will still be there. I like work more than school but it took some years to get there. Being a K-JD -> Biglaw is ill advised IMO. But people do it all the time.

Mal Reynolds wrote:I still think it's smart to take time off because you're fucking twnety. Don't ruin your life yet. Also if I would have gone to law school at twenty I would have failed out. And I go to a school where it's impossible to fail.

I endorse this wholeheartedly. Seriously, do some other shit before going to law school. Travel, play music, work for an investment bank, whatever gets you off (if you're broke like I was when I graduated college, then work for a while to save up some money). Can't say it enough, you won't have the opportunity again: once you're on the law school to big law train you can't really step off. Also, the people who had other post-collegiate experiences before applying to law school tended to perform better and be happier during 1L IME (of course there are crazy k-jd exceptions).

jbagelboy wrote:

Mal Reynolds wrote:I still think it's smart to take time off because you're fucking twnety. Don't ruin your life yet. Also if I would have gone to law school at twenty I would have failed out. And I go to a school where it's impossible to fail.

I endorse this wholeheartedly. Seriously, do some other shit before going to law school. Travel, play music, work for an investment bank, whatever gets you off (if you're broke like I was when I graduated college, then work for a while to save up some money). Can't say it enough, you won't have the opportunity again: once you're on the law school to big law train you can't really step off. Also, the people who had other post-collegiate experiences before applying to law school tended to perform better and be happier during 1L IME (of course there are crazy k-jd exceptions).

This.

jbagelboy wrote:

Mal Reynolds wrote:I still think it's smart to take time off because you're fucking twnety. Don't ruin your life yet. Also if I would have gone to law school at twenty I would have failed out. And I go to a school where it's impossible to fail.

I endorse this wholeheartedly. Seriously, do some other shit before going to law school. Travel, play music, work for an investment bank, whatever gets you off (if you're broke like I was when I graduated college, then work for a while to save up some money). Can't say it enough, you won't have the opportunity again: once you're on the law school to big law train you can't really step off. Also, the people who had other post-collegiate experiences before applying to law school tended to perform better and be happier during 1L IME (of course there are crazy k-jd exceptions).

Yup.

OP, if you race through life too quickly, you'll someday understand why it wasn't a good idea. Unfortunately, by then it will be too late for you to do anything about it. Go have a few interesting life experiences; see the world outside of school for a bit. If you jump into law school at 20 and BigLaw at 23, you're going to wonder when you're 40 what point there was in going so fast.

There's much, much more to life than trying to collect every gold star as quickly as possible, and it will never be as easy again as it is now for you to wander off the main path for a little while.

Sorry I'm bringing back an old thread, but I've chosen to pick up a third major, and spend about a year in Teach For America, before I go off to school. My GPA has already gone up a bit +.1 and I think the experience(s) will help make the transition to law school a little easier. Thanks for the advice everyone!

Aristogeiton1 wrote:Sorry I'm bringing back an old thread, but I've chosen to pick up a third major, and spend about a year in Teach For America, before I go off to school. My GPA has already gone up a bit +.1 and I think the experience(s) will help make the transition to law school a little easier. Thanks for the advice everyone!

Smart, but do the two year commitment rather than dropping out a year early. The schools like TFA, but knowing you quit halfway through isn't going to be a good sign for them or employers.

penn278 wrote:

Aristogeiton1 wrote:Sorry I'm bringing back an old thread, but I've chosen to pick up a third major, and spend about a year in Teach For America, before I go off to school. My GPA has already gone up a bit +.1 and I think the experience(s) will help make the transition to law school a little easier. Thanks for the advice everyone!

Smart, but do the two year commitment rather than dropping out a year early. The schools like TFA, but knowing you quit halfway through isn't going to be a good sign for them or employers.

Yeah. Do the 2 years.

I think you could get all three HYS with that LSAT, those softs, and AA URM status.

EDIT: hahaha just saw original post is very old. Well, good luck with everything.

OP, do NOT do TFA unless you actually want to be a teacher (you don't, and you shouldn't).

Currently in my first year of TFA and it is an absolute shit show. I'm opting out of the second year, though it's possible my experience has been unusually bad (the TFA office in my city is notorious for not doing anything).

FWIW though, I have snagged most of the non-HYS T14 so far this cycle. Columbia and UVA were the only schools to even ask about the TFA thing, and I got in at both (UVA with the Deans Scholarship). I explained my rationale and they seemed persuaded. Not sure how this would look to HYS (I'm a 172/3.65), but given your numbers and URM status, I wouldn't worry.

But let me reiterate: DO NOT DO TFA UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE A TEACHER.

Hahahahaha OP you are going to dominate this admissions process. If you feel the urge to take time off, do so. You're awesome LSAT isn't going anywhere, and with your GPA and URM status, you should feel pretty good about your odds anywhere.