Top Law Schools

Background info: 27 years old
3.0 undergraduate GPA (Have attended 3 universities, dropped out twice)
3.8 current school GPA, 4.0 Major GPA (unremarkable public school) (Poor grades are from 5+ years ago)
175 LSAT
Work Experience: 3 years of low level management experience (GM of two very different retail stores)
Non-URM
Ties to Tennessee/Kentucky/Missouri/Illinois area, but am open to any locale that will position me to participate in
Mergers and Acquisitions or other Business Law specialties.


I am definitely applying to:
UC-Boulder
University of Tennessee
Washington University (STL)
University of Washington
Vanderbilt University
USC

What is the likelihood of my acceptance to these schools, as well as potential for $$$? Also, are there schools not on my list that I should be reaching for? I am very flexible in regards to geographic location, and am interested in Business Law (particularly M&A). I currently have a 2.925, it will be 3.03 at the end of fall semester. Is there any advantage (to non-EC schools) to applying now or waiting until December?

Where do you want to work? Regardless, I would add UVA and Northwestern to the list.

http://mylsn.info/t7rxu9/

Edit out the club, personal statement, and other similar info. Doesn't impact your cycle and outs your identity unnecessarily.

For example:

3.0 undergraduate GPA
175 LSAT
Work Experience: 3 years of low level management experience (GM of two very different retail stores)

That's all that matters, the other GPA stuff you listed doesn't count if it's after UG.

Also answer:
URM?
What regions you have ties to and/or plan to target for jobs?

Manofthehour,

I am very flexible as to desired job market. I do believe I wish to avoid Washington, DC. I would be interested in working in an area with a burgeoning tech industry: Silicon Valley, Austin TX, Denver. This is not an imperative. I am interested in working in any market where I can be involved in large business deals.

Heidegger wrote:Manofthehour,

I am very flexible as to desired job market. I do believe I wish to avoid Washington, DC. I would be interested in working in an area with a burgeoning tech industry: Silicon Valley, Austin TX, Denver. This is not an imperative. I am interested in working in any market where I can be involved in large business deals.

Throw apps at Berkeley & NYU also.

Have you graduated with a Bachelor's degree yet? I'm confused.

Edit: NVM, seems like you'll be a December grad?

Fiero85 wrote:Have you graduated with a Bachelor's degree yet? I'm confused.

Edit: NVM, seems like you'll be a December grad?

Will graduate Spring 2015

Heidegger wrote:

Fiero85 wrote:Have you graduated with a Bachelor's degree yet? I'm confused.

Edit: NVM, seems like you'll be a December grad?

Will graduate Spring 2015

Gotcha. With the exception of the very top schools like HYS and maybe a few more in the top 6 or so, waiting until December/Jan is perfectly fine to apply. Pump up that GPA above 3.0, it just looks better to someone reviewing your app more than anything. Not gonna make a huge difference if you wanna apply earlier though.

You might be a good one to use an admissions consultant, if you have the money....

Not a lot of data out there on super splitters, but I agree you should def add these to the list:

UVA
Northwestern

Also Georgetown and Cornell

If you're set on M&A you'll probably need those caliber of schools. Still apply to WUSTL, Vandy, etc because you may get big enough scholly to make those a reasonable choice.

flawschoolkid wrote:

Heidegger wrote:Manofthehour,

I am very flexible as to desired job market. I do believe I wish to avoid Washington, DC. I would be interested in working in an area with a burgeoning tech industry: Silicon Valley, Austin TX, Denver. This is not an imperative. I am interested in working in any market where I can be involved in large business deals.

Berkeley

Why? It's known to be one of the least splitter-friendly schools.

tskela wrote: Berkeley

Why? It's known to be one of the least splitter-friendly schools.[/quote]

Yeah. All CA schools are very GPA whorish.

uva, nu, and gulc are op's best shot at t14
the others are very unlikely
not saying he shouldn't blanket the t14 anyways
but realistically if he's non-urm, wants corporate biglaw, and has a 3.0 ug gpa, i predict he ends up at uva, nu, or gulc

Fiero85 wrote:

Heidegger wrote:

Fiero85 wrote:Have you graduated with a Bachelor's degree yet? I'm confused.

Edit: NVM, seems like you'll be a December grad?

Will graduate Spring 2015

Gotcha. With the exception of the very top schools like HYS and maybe a few more in the top 6 or so, waiting until December/Jan is perfectly fine to apply. Pump up that GPA above 3.0, it just looks better to someone reviewing your app more than anything. Not gonna make a huge difference if you wanna apply earlier though.

Not sure where you get that from. I know some people on here and IRL who applied middle of Jan with better stats than me getting WL or rejected to many of the schools I was admitted to as a splitter. OP should definitely apply early, even if it is a marginal benefit it is still a benefit that splitters need.

Attax wrote:

Fiero85 wrote:

Heidegger wrote:

Fiero85 wrote:Have you graduated with a Bachelor's degree yet? I'm confused.

Edit: NVM, seems like you'll be a December grad?

Will graduate Spring 2015

Gotcha. With the exception of the very top schools like HYS and maybe a few more in the top 6 or so, waiting until December/Jan is perfectly fine to apply. Pump up that GPA above 3.0, it just looks better to someone reviewing your app more than anything. Not gonna make a huge difference if you wanna apply earlier though.

Not sure where you get that from. I know some people on here and IRL who applied middle of Jan with better stats than me getting WL or rejected to many of the schools I was admitted to as a splitter. OP should definitely apply early, even if it is a marginal benefit it is still a benefit that splitters need.

Fair enough since you know from experience. I guess WUSTL is the main one that doesn't care about December vs October. I noticed people applying there and Georgetown and Michigan for example in December and doing as well as the earlier groups. I guess splitters gotta show up early some places. I'll say again that 3.0 is really only an aesthetic improvement over 2.95 so the OP can certainly go ahead and apply in the fall if there's a benefit. Thanks for the insight for the OP and education for me lol

Cornell and especially NU seem to be your best options at getting possible money from T14. Even then it will all ultimately depend how many high LSAT scorers are applying next cycle and a large degree of luck. If you are super lucky some schools will be hard up for high LSAT scorers and admit you late with good money. You will probably receive money from a non-T14 school but it will be very difficult to obtain a decent M&A-type job from anywhere outside the T14. Because of the unpredictability of splitter cycles combined with the difficulty of law schools to maintain their medians (especially LSATs) I would apply to most of the T14 and hope you get lucky at someplace. I wouldn't bother throwing an app at HYS or Berkley since they all emphasize GPAs (T6 is also probably a waste but worth the chance to get lucky IMO).

Fiero85 wrote:
Fair enough since you know from experience. I guess WUSTL is the main one that doesn't care about December vs October. I noticed people applying there and Georgetown and Michigan for example in December and doing as well as the earlier groups. I guess splitters gotta show up early some places. I'll say again that 3.0 is really only an aesthetic improvement over 2.95 so the OP can certainly go ahead and apply in the fall if there's a benefit. Thanks for the insight for the OP and education for me lol

Yeah, I don't think WUSTL matters as much as the others since they seemed to not give a fuck about the GPA if you were above about a 165/166 LSAT. To be fair though, I think that the largest difference is between mid-December and mid-January. I think mid-January is when it really is getting too late for splitters, I was late November/early December on some of my apps and had decisions before Christmas holidays for 3 or 4 schools. I can't speak for GULC and Mich since I didn't apply there, but almost all of my dings/wait lists were to schools I waited until mid to late December to apply, only about a 2-3 week difference from my first batch of apps I sent out. Thank goodness I included WUSTL and Texas in that first batch

And, also, I totally agree on the 3.0 v 2.95. You'll be below median to 99% of all schools so it isn't going to matter anyway.

Brut wrote:uva, nu, and gulc are op's best shot at t14
the others are very unlikely
not saying he shouldn't blanket the t14 anyways
but realistically if he's non-urm, wants corporate biglaw, and has a 3.0 ug gpa, i predict he ends up at uva, nu, or gulc

This. With the caveat that op will probably only snag uva with early decision. Tons of $$$ from wustl though

Attax wrote: To be fair though, I think that the largest difference is between mid-December and mid-January...

And, also, I totally agree on the 3.0 v 2.95. You'll be below median 25th to 99% of all schools so it isn't going to matter anyway.

Yeah agreed, before the holidays is fine, after is consensus late. That seems like the overlap in our earlier points. For the OP, there's no point in waiting if your grades won't be posted until Jan or if LSAC takes awhile to re-calculate (both might not be true but seem likely).

I have looked into some of your suggestions, and it seems like NU is probably the school I want to target the most. Is it to my advantage to ED to NU? It looks like that would be my best chance at getting strong $$$ from a T14 as the last 3 years they have offered $50Kx3 to all accepted ED. Can anyone inform me on my ED chances at NU?

Heidegger wrote:I have looked into some of your suggestions, and it seems like NU is probably the school I want to target the most. Is it to my advantage to ED to NU? It looks like that would be my best chance at getting strong $$$ from a T14 as the last 3 years they have offered $50Kx3 to all accepted ED. Can anyone inform me on my ED chances at NU?

You could but it's very unlikely. Their ED isn't like the other EDs since it comes with that cash. Their ED is primarily for locking up people that would have attended better schools due to their superior stats. It's for people that are at both or above both medians.

Heidegger wrote:I have looked into some of your suggestions, and it seems like NU is probably the school I want to target the most. Is it to my advantage to ED to NU? It looks like that would be my best chance at getting strong $$$ from a T14 as the last 3 years they have offered $50Kx3 to all accepted ED. Can anyone inform me on my ED chances at NU?

Yep to the bolded

and yep to above answer: NU ED is unique and w/ full scholly so that ain't happening. But still your best option for your career goals and what not.

Good luck!

I would still ED to Northwestern. The other posters are right in that your odds are slim but no other top school is gonna give you cash if you ED them. Ultimately you only have one ED to burn so what's to lose? I actually think you stand a chance too because of your great LSAT.

Check if you can ED and then be considered for normal too, might be the right move.