Top Law Schools

FFF

Retake the LSAT. Get a 170+. ED to UVA. ??? Profit.

hoos89 wrote:Retake the LSAT. Get a 170+. ED to UVA. ??? Profit.

Enjoy the crippling debt if you do! Agree on the retake, I've known some people to get into T14s with GPA's like yours. Don't expect a scholarship, though.

sticker at uva is a ridiculous choice for the vast majority of students
$287k+
a total non-starter unless you have all or at least a significant amount of your way paid

Alright that's fair. Still retake, though.

Why go to law school if you have a seemingly good job and have had multiple promotions?

FFF

adbm29 wrote:I work in finance and am frankly sick of the industry. Always wanted to go into law and now feels like the right time.

So if we put the retake option aside, which schools on the West Coast do you think would be worth looking into?

With your current numbers there is no school that you could get into that would be worth leaving a stable, presumably well-paying job for.

@adbm29

well it depends on your goals
you have some decent options with your numbers provided you're okay with the outcomes from those schools

the schools in your range generally have an employment score of 50-65%
so do begin preparing for the possibility of never getting a chance to practice law
but you have a finance job to fall back on, so i'm sure that doesn't concern you

these are all regional schools, so start saving up so you can get by post law-school
expect salaries in the $50-$60k range, minus debt payments on anywhere between $200,000 to $300,000+
if you have family out there you can live with after law school, nows the time to start lining that up

adbm29 wrote:I work in finance and am frankly sick of the industry. Always wanted to go into law and now feels like the right time.

So if we put the retake option aside, which schools on the West Coast do you think would be worth looking into?

Only schools on the west coast worth attending are Stanford, Boalt, and UCLA/USC with substantial scholarships. None of those outcomes are feasible with your current numbers. Your GPA is going to hurt you, and the only way to put yourself in contention for law schools that will give you a reasonable shot at fining employment as an attorney is to retake and get a better score. Why do you not want to retake the LSAT? Why do you think law will be any better than finance?

Great info ab your chances here

Why the fuck would you wanna go to law school anyway? Stick to finance if you're doing well. Or go into something that doesn't suck (HINT: law sucks).

the grass is browner bro

op do you have any food service or retail experience?
might be time to add that back into the resume
some grads from these schools can only find part-time positions and rely on minimum wage jobs to survive
you'll want to have a legal resume for your legal job hunt and another resume omitting the JD for your food service/retail apps
let us know if you'd like us to look over your resumes

scottidsntknow wrote:Why go to law school if you have a seemingly good job and have had multiple promotions?

164 isn't really that awesome, although it is better than anything I have on record.

It's one of those scores that is going to put you in serious debt at a somewhat national school when really the smarter move is to probably go to the state flagship for in-state tuition and take a scholarship.

In your case... retake...

Brut wrote:sticker at uva is a ridiculous choice for the vast majority of students
$287k+
a total non-starter unless you have all or at least a significant amount of your way paid

I don't think a 164 is getting him in to UVA anyway. Definitely possibly because anything is possible, but not the standard here.

If you can score a 164 you can score a 170+ easily. It means you're already there, but just need some fine tuning.

I know a guy with a 162 and a 3.1 in at Berkeley. Stellar background though and just one example... + he's going for free

Nobody said OP was likely to get into UVa with a 3.14/164.

Louie none of that was helpful, please stop being a potato.

hoos89 wrote:Nobody said OP was likely to get into UVa with a 3.14/164.

That's correct

scottidsntknow wrote:Louie none of that was helpful, please stop being a potato.

Okay, thanks for the advice.

thanks for all of the responses here.

a few things

1) The debt is not a major concern for me. I come from a pretty well-off family that will assist with the payments.

2) I understand employment figures at some of these schools in my range are 50-65% but isn't that just for grads a year or two out of school?

3) Any opinions on UW?

ugh i was responding to hoos, who had posited 170+/π

1) good, but unless they're loaded loaded, make sure you're draining your future inheritance for a good reason. if you could save your folks a couple hundred thousand dollars, wouldn't you want to do that?

2) yeah, but at that point you're basically in dire straits. what a lot of people don't understand is that students usually find jobs during/shortly after school. by a year or two out, you're past the optimal hiring window. it's sad how many people i know personally who have struggled to find legal work after a year out of school and ended up having to start/continue non-legal careers. when you compare law to, say, medicine, it's actually amazing how many people end up in a field completely unrelated to law (and please don't say, "oh, that's because you can do so many things with a law degree!")

3) just posted this in another thread:

Brut wrote:rankings are absolutely meaningless as an indicator of post-graduate employment
but i will say that uw is an okay school
provided you want to work in a small PNW firm, AND
(a) you get a full ride, or
(b) you have someone paying your way, or
(c) you can live at home with zero cost of living, you get instate tuition and you get at least a half ride

adbm29 wrote:thanks for all of the responses here.

a few things

1) The debt is not a major concern for me. I come from a pretty well-off family that will assist with the payments.

2) I understand employment figures at some of these schools in my range are 50-65% but isn't that just for grads a year or two out of school?

3) Any opinions on UW?

No

Even if you don't take on debt, at any school you'll get into you'll most likely get a job making less than you're making now, and you have no idea if you'll like this better than the job you have now. This all makes no sense to me.

Ok. So every law school student not attending a T14 school and not getting a full ride scholarship is making a huge mistake?

adbm29 wrote:Ok. So every law school student not attending a T14 school and not getting a full ride scholarship is making a huge mistake?

quote the person who gave you that advice