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3.15 Electrical Engineering from Berkeley and have a 173 LSAT. Want to get into patent law. I put in apps last week, but kinda want to know what people think my chances are. I blanketed T14 (minus HYS) and Emory, WashU,GW, and ASU. Ultimate dream would be at NYU or Columbia (I know kinda a stretch...), but Chicago/Northwestern and Gtown would be amazing at well. What do you guys think?? Chances??

Cheers!

Did you apply to Northwestern or Northeastern? Big difference.

Mullens wrote:Did you apply to Northwestern or Northeastern? Big difference.

Northwestern hahaha changed it in my original post sorry

I think it'll be a struggle for you to be accepted to T-14s, but the bigger concern is that your scholarship offers are going to be disappointingly low. Do you have engineering work experience? If not, are you willing to get some prior to law school? If you're on the K-JD track, it may be a good idea to spend a couple years in industry. I think it'll boost your resume enough that you can get into a good school with a good scholarship.

Admissions chances aside, consider becoming a patent agent for a bit before law school so you can get some pros experience while you're still cheap. Even with an EE background it is surprisingly hard to not get pushed extremely hard into IP lit. Additionally, I've heard some firms will pay for your law school after you spend a few years in their pros group (e.g. Fish).

totesTheGoat wrote:I think it'll be a struggle for you to be accepted to T-14s, but the bigger concern is that your scholarship offers are going to be disappointingly low. Do you have engineering work experience? If not, are you willing to get some prior to law school? If you're on the K-JD track, it may be a good idea to spend a couple years in industry. I think it'll boost your resume enough that you can get into a good school with a good scholarship.

I don't have any work experience, but I do have a masters degree in EE. Would that be any boost to my chances? I think if I don't get into a top law school I will take some time off and work and re-evaluate everything in a couple of years, but at this point all my apps are in so it's just a waiting game for a while

SplitMyPants wrote:Admissions chances aside, consider becoming a patent agent for a bit before law school so you can get some pros experience while you're still cheap. Even with an EE background it is surprisingly hard to not get pushed extremely hard into IP lit. Additionally, I've heard some firms will pay for your law school after you spend a few years in their pros group (e.g. Fish).

I've also looked into this, but it seems that most patent agent jobs require some years of work experience (mostly in the form of patent examiner at the USPTO). I looked through some job postings but most do require experience and will not take people straight out of school. But perhaps you know otherwise?

I have similar numbers (slightly higher GPA but way less useful, and challenging, major to mitigate it) - but have some solid softs/WE...

I'm also applying this cycle so it's not like I have a ton of wisdom for you - WUSTL already accepted me (like five days after I submitted) and gave a very generous scholarship offer (just short of full tuition - confident that if/when it comes time to negotiate they'll push it up to full).
I also submitted to a lot of the T-14 (Harvard for the lols, Columbia, NYU, Penn, UVA, Duke, UM, NU, GULC, still debating Cornell) as well as WUSTL, Emory, Vandy, GW and BU - all on waivers except H&GULC.

I'm hopeful about GULC and NU, cautiously optimistic about mich and uva, and probably dreaming about CLS/NYU and definitely H. Emory/Vandy/GW/BU I'm less worried about.

To be honest, my most realistic assessment (based on nothing but internet and intuition...) is getting into GULC without scholly, trying to negotiate them to something based on WUSTL's offer, and if that doesn't work out I'm pretty fine with free (I mean, only COL) WUSTL.
Most of my other apps are in case someone thinks I'm a special snowflake and I get lucky... we'll see.

Good luck!

This is easy. Apply to GW and take the boatload of money they give you. GW is a decent school but they really excel in intellectual property and patent law. Yeah you could go to a T-14 and take out a lot of debt, but I think you would maximize your marginal benefit by attending a great IP program (GW's is rated in Top 5) and the scholarship they would give you wouldn't hurt.