Top Law Schools

A friend of mine recently got married and her husband wants to go to law school. I've given her advice based on my numbers, but that's not really helpful. He has:

165 LSAT
2.23 GPA (hence the need for advice)
URM (hispanic)

He knows he's got an uphill battle, but does anyone have some advice for some decent law school options? He'll obviously submit a GPA addendum for what it's worth.

very few applicants like your friend's husband. adjusted the ranges considerably, and data still limited.

t14 is definitely out, but some decent regionals are in, although probably without much $$.

what are his goals? where do they want to live?

p.s. addenda don't do much, if at all.

Wow, thanks for doing that! He'd be happy at a t50, and $ is a consideration but not a deal breaker. Preferably a large market regional, he's undecided what he wants to do with it, but Big(gish)Law is a possibility.

what type of "hispanic"?

chimp wrote:what type of "hispanic"?

Mexican. I think I read Mexican and Puerto Rican are the two that get the URM boost, correct?

morningstar wrote:Wow, thanks for doing that! He'd be happy at a t50, and $ is a consideration but not a deal breaker. Preferably a large market regional, he's undecided what he wants to do with it, but Big(gish)Law is a possibility.

It's not a realistic possibility at the schools he would likely get into. Unless you can get into the very top schools (which he almost certainly can't), it's not a good idea to attend law school without a pretty clear (and reasonably realistic) idea of what you want to do with your law degree.

I would say don't go is TCR

Retake and score a few points higher, then go for NW.

Yeah, I think it's sound advice. I'm not sure he'll listen but I've put it out there. Because otherwise I'm pretty sure he'll end up with a JD he can't do anything with but chase ambulances. He's just finishing his applications now, so he's past deadline for just about anyone except the T999s. He's been calling around from what my friend says and getting exceptions to apply late, but with the late apply + low GPA, I don't think he'll have much luck.

morningstar wrote:Yeah, I think it's sound advice. I'm not sure he'll listen but I've put it out there. Because otherwise I'm pretty sure he'll end up with a JD he can't do anything with but chase ambulances. He's just finishing his applications now, so he's past deadline for just about anyone except the T999s. He's been calling around from what my friend says and getting exceptions to apply late, but with the late apply + low GPA, I don't think he'll have much luck.

A 165 compared to a 170 is usually 6-7 questions. It can definitely be made up, especially if he did it without much study.

But even if studying and retaking pushes him above 170, he's still in super-super-SUPER splitter territory with a 2.23 GPA. I know there are some schools that would be amenable to this probably (that list shows that much), but I'm guessing he's still going to be looking at sticker wherever he goes, right? In that case, does he go for the best school that he can get into in the hopes of leveraging that into a decent paying job? Or does he focus on finding a school with a lower COA and cost of living for the area?