URM. AA Male. 3.15/172 Forum

[bobbyshmurdah]

Hi guys. I have a unique situation. I failed my first year at a lower ivy. I was kicked out for having a 1.6 GPA. Got diagnosed with ADHD about a month before I got kicked out. I went to a CC for a semester. After finishing the semester with a 3.7, I was allowed to come back to my college. I have since worked closely with my advisor (willing to vouch for my upward trends) to develop strategies for performing better in school. My gpa (post freshman) has been about a 3.4. My cumulative LSAC GPA (lower ivy + community college) is around a 3.15 because of my freshman year.

I hit 172 on the LSAT. My softs are decent (sports team + debate + 10 hrs work study).

What schools should I be aiming for? I'm applying this cycle.

[PoopNpants]

Hi guys. I have a unique situation. I failed my first year at a lower ivy. I was kicked out for having a 1.6 GPA. Got diagnosed with ADHD about a month before I got kicked out. I went to a CC for a semester. After finishing the semester with a 3.7, I was allowed to come back to my college. I have since worked closely with my advisor (willing to vouch for my upward trends) to develop strategies for performing better in school. My gpa (post freshman) has been about a 3.4. My cumulative LSAC GPA (lower ivy + community college) is around a 3.15 because of my freshman year.

I hit 172 on the LSAT. My softs are decent (sports team + debate + 10 hrs work study).

What schools should I be aiming for? I'm applying this cycle.

Seriously, apply Harvard and T14 down. That LSAT + being black male should get you good options. Shit might as well apply to Yale too if you got money to burn on apps lol.

[bobbyshmurdah]

Forgot to mention that I had a case of discipline against me for drinking in my dorm room freshman year. I'm not sure how much that'll harm my app.

[CanadianWolf]

Target any & all T-14 law schools which are of interest to you. You should receive several acceptances with scholarship money.
Also apply to a couple of law schools that place well in your targeted geographical region in hope of being offered a full tuition & fees scholarship.

Harvard, Yale & Stanford offer need based financial aid to accepted students. Georgetown does as well. You should receive scholarships from Cornell & Michigan & a couple other Top 14 law schools.

Check out lawschoolnumbers.com

Just underage drinking in your college dorm room several years ago should not be a problem unless destructive or other aggressive activity accompanied the drinking.

[PoopNpants]

Yeah who hasn't gotten caught drinking in a dorm before?
You'll be fine man

[bobbyshmurdah]

Thanks guys. Do you think I should try to boost my score by 1 or 2 points in October or should I focus on crafting the best personal statement/addendum I can?

[PoopNpants]

Thanks guys. Do you think I should try to boost my score by 1 or 2 points in October or should I focus on crafting the best personal statement/addendum I can?

If you think you can better on the LSAT and wouldn't mind prepping, I don't see any reason why not. The highest score is what matters. You should def write an addendum since your GPA is due to mitigating factors it seems. Personally, I wouldn't re-take a 172 by then again I'm not at that level (yet) lol. Either way you'll still have one of the highest AA scores and I'd be surprised if you didn't get H. A buddy of mine had similar circumstances (was on academic probation) n his GPA was in a similar spot. He had a 173 and got into H

[CanadianWolf]

Increasing your LSAT score by a point or two isn't going to result in any additional acceptances or higher scholarship offers in my opinion. But check lawschoolnumbers.com for URM results among the Top 14 law schools.
Unfortunately, your hurdle is almost "set in stone" once you are awarded your first bachelor's degree-- your undergraduate GPA.
The percentage of AA males scoring 170 or above is not high. Your application will get serious reads at all law schools.

[PoopNpants]

Increasing your LSAT score by a point or two isn't going to result in any additional acceptances or higher scholarship offers in my opinion. But check lawschoolnumbers.com for URM results among the Top 14 law schools.
Unfortunately, your hurdle is almost "set in stone" once you are awarded your first bachelor's degree-- your undergraduate GPA.
The percentage of AA males scoring 170 or above is not high. Your application will get serious reads at all law schools.

Yeah this. there is a thread on here somewhere that broke down AA LSAT scores and the mean AA score was a 142ish. So your probably like 3 standard deviations above that mean. Re-taking won't help you much.
Here's the thread, pretty interesting shit
http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... p?t=195443

[antiworldly]

Congrats on getting everything back on track. It sounds like you'll be a competitive applicant throughout the T14. You should, if financially able, apply to the entire T14 and see what shakes out, you may catch an addcomm's eye and score a decent scholarship from a number of schools.

[Dr. Review]

Increasing your LSAT score by a point or two isn't going to result in any additional acceptances or higher scholarship offers in my opinion. But check lawschoolnumbers.com for URM results among the Top 14 law schools.
Unfortunately, your hurdle is almost "set in stone" once you are awarded your first bachelor's degree-- your undergraduate GPA.
The percentage of AA males scoring 170 or above is not high. Your application will get serious reads at all law schools.

Yeah this. there is a thread on here somewhere that broke down AA LSAT scores and the mean AA score was a 142ish. So your probably like 3 standard deviations above that mean. Re-taking won't help you much.
Here's the thread, pretty interesting shit
http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... p?t=195443

the TL;DR of this thread for OP is that there are likely <20 AA test takers with an LSAT in his band.

3. A 168 will put you 3SDs above the mean, a level that less than 20 AA test takers (around 1-1000, to be more precise-only 15 or so likely pulled this off in 2009-10) will reach annually in a normally distributed sample. HYS is probably a given here barring a very poor GPA, and one should probably expect plenty of money.

[Clemenceau]

Apply to every school in the t14. Request fee waivers if needed. You'll do very well.

The way you rebounded should more or less make up for your bad start, especially since you returned to the ivy and didnt just finish out at cc or whatever. Good luck.

[OhBoyOhBortles]

Apply to every school in the t14. Request fee waivers if needed. You'll do very well.

The way you rebounded should more or less make up for your bad start, especially since you returned to the ivy and didnt just finish out at cc or whatever. Good luck.