Should I retake or do I have a fighting chance? Forum

[bhaustin92]

I have only taken the LSAT once and received a 167, and my current GPA is a 4.1 in nuclear engineering. My dream school is Stanford, and I am wondering if that is still a realistic option given my LSAT score. I do have a fair amount of extracurricular activities and leadership roles outside of the classroom if that helps any. I am just wondering what my next step should be because I know that Stanford is likely to look at all of my LSAT scores, and I don't want to go take another LSAT if it won't do me any good.

To make the decision more difficult, I have recently been offered a part on a 5-year research project for nuclear nonproliferation that would require I go to grad school for nuclear engineering instead of law school. The professor has been kind enough to let me make up my mind, but he is going to need an answer sooner rather than later.

Frankly I am a little scared as to what I should do because I could be letting my best option die on the table while I chase a dream I might not be able to reach. Obviously this decision is one that only I can make, but any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

[PeanutsNJam]

You have a very low but still existent chance at admissions to Stanford. But I mean like really low. Like 10%. And your alternative sounds better than law school. (assuming your 4.1 is LSAC adjusted). Their bottom 25th percentile is 169, so they probably take a few 167's.

[banjo]

If the only thing keeping you from grad school is the dream of SLS, you should go with grad school. If you actually want to be a lawyer and are willing to consider other schools, a 167/4.1 is a great start and a retake could help you get more money (and a better shot at SLS).

[bhaustin92]

Yeah the 4.1 is LSAC adjusted, I had to run the numbers myself because my school caps all GPA's at 4.0 even though it does allow A+'s. Would the school's index be a good indicator? I ran their medians for GPA and LSAT and they had just over a 3.46 while mine was just over a 3.48. I am not sure if that is helpful at all, but I have been fairly worried so running any form of numbers has been a decent distraction.

No the thing keeping me from grad school is that it simply isn't my dream; I did research before and it wasn't what I would call my life's ambition. I really have been wanting to do environmental law because I sincerely feel like I could help a lot of people that way.

I suppose I could consider other law schools (though I was fairly captivated by Stanford), but do you think that retaking the LSAT could land me a real chance at Stanford? I am not sure how strongly they would lean on my current score.

[Mullens]

Retaking is your best shot at Stanford. Your chance without retaking is low and it would be a shame to waste your GPA.

What exactly do you envision doing in environmental law? Who hires lawyers who do specifically that?

[bhaustin92]

Would retaking significantly hurt my application? I just want to get all of the information that I can before I make this decision on grad school.

Personally I would like to advocate for energy policy concerning zero-emission sources, and I would like to fight for it from the perspective of nuclear energy. Environmental lawyers are hired by various firms, though given my background it would likely be a firm that specializes in nuclear energy. I have talked to multiple lawyers in firms associated with nuclear energy, and their work does seem very interesting. However, since I want to influence policy I would most likely be looking in the direction of D.C. for my future employment.

Alright, well that isn't the answer for which I had hoped, but I came here for honesty rather than assurance so thank you guys for your help.

For future reference, was that index calculation useful at all? I mean obviously to a degree it is nice or they wouldn't post it, but should I swear by it or simply acknowledge it?

[banjo]

A better score will improve your (currently very low) chances at Stanford, but nothing is guaranteed there. Stanford is small, picky, and hard to predict. Play around with the graphs on LSN: http://stanford.lawschoolnumbers.com/

A better score will definitely net you a lot of money at other schools, so there's huge upside to retaking. Downside is minimal, especially since only your highest score is reported to USNWR for ranking purposes.

[baal hadad]

Great info ab your chances here