Top Law Schools

Greetings All,

I'm in my late 30's and have a 3.1 (BA in English) from a fairly prominent New England university. Took LSAT once, scored 156.

Successful career in Litigation / Trial Technology, and now patent licensing. Previously worked as a paralegal in big law (worked on $100mil patent trials, pro bono parole hearings, etc). Also was a college lecturer. Tons of volunteer work, leadership position at my church, etc.

Very financially secure, so not super concerned on costs, although I do have a family so would like a school without super high costs of living (ie not SF or NYC...)

I have ties to the Southeast, so am looking at schools there, and am wondering what people would think of my chances at UF and Miami, and in general for schools ranked around 50-100..?

cheers,
NCOG

NorCalOldGuy wrote: NCOG

did you check mylsn?

lymenheimer wrote:

NorCalOldGuy wrote: NCOG

did you check mylsn?

yes, but not a lot of equivalent data points to compare to...

Just focus on the retake for now

NorCalOldGuy wrote:

lymenheimer wrote:

NorCalOldGuy wrote: NCOG

did you check mylsn?

yes, but not a lot of equivalent data points to compare to...

Dunno what you want from people here. We don't have a greater set of data points. If miami or UF have an applicant/admission chart that would be the best source of info. You should probably retake, though.

The charts show I probably have a 10% chance at UF and maybe a 30-40% chance at UM, based on the numbers.
I am curious as to how much people think my softs will push these % up for me.

NorCalOldGuy wrote:The charts show I probably have a 10% chance at UF and maybe a 30-40% chance at UM, based on the numbers.
I am curious as to how much people think my softs will push these % up for me.

Being older will allow you to push your gpa behind you, a bit. But your LSAT is still low. Softs will help you in your job search, but probably won't be a huge bump in admissions. If you want a quality bump, retake and get 160+

NorCalOldGuy wrote:Greetings All,

I'm in my late 30's and have a 3.1 (BA in English) from a fairly prominent New England university. Took LSAT once, scored 156.

Successful career in Litigation / Trial Technology, and now patent licensing. Previously worked as a paralegal in big law (worked on $100mil patent trials, pro bono parole hearings, etc). Also was a college lecturer. Tons of volunteer work, leadership position at my church, etc.

Very financially secure, so not super concerned on costs, although I do have a family so would like a school without super high costs of living (ie not SF or NYC...)

I have ties to the Southeast, so am looking at schools there, and am wondering what people would think of my chances at UF and Miami, and in general for schools ranked around 50-100..?

cheers,
NCOG

Those would be nice softs for college but law school doesn't care very much about softs, and those are not the kinds of softs that would really give you a huge edge (it seemed like about 10-15% of my section had previously been biglaw paralegals, for example, and I knew plenty of people who had previously done things like volunteer work, had been a college lecturer -- anyone entering law school after a few years or more of work will have built up a resume).

Retake.

I think the softs sound a bit more substantial than the usual college grad paralegal experience, and will help a little. But still only on the margins, which is why the LSAT is so important.

I got kids and a super busy career, I aint retaking. I'm likely going to apply 20-30 schools and hope 1-2 take a flier on me...

NorCalOldGuy wrote:I got kids and a super busy career, I aint retaking. I'm likely going to apply 20-30 schools and hope 1-2 take a flier on me...

I mean knock yourself out but please don't uproot your kids or throw away a successful career to go to some random law school for no reason.

NorCalOldGuy wrote:I got kids and a super busy career, I aint retaking. I'm likely going to apply 20-30 schools and hope 1-2 take a flier on me...

Good luck but you are just gonna end up wasting 200k for no reason. Don't go to law school.

Now, now. Lets not make blanket statements w/o knowing the details of my situation. Its dissimilar to probably 95% of yall. I'm already gainfully employed in the legal world, without the law degree. I've got a very close family connection to a couple law firms as well, so employment prospects for me arent a huge concern, even if my degree is from a "random" school, whatever that means.

I've obviously discussed this w/ my family, and they are supportive. I just confirmed w/ my 10 month old, he says he's cool w/ moving as long as we can bring his toys

Check out www.mylsn.info for chances

The sorts aren't special so I wouldn't really expect them to move the needle

Almost certainly need to retake to get into the types of schools you're talking about, low GPA and low LSAT is a bad combo and law school admissions are almost solely based on GPA and LSAT

Top 50-100 is a meaningless distinction, just go to the best school you can for free if you already have a guaranteed job. Going to some rando school ranked in the top 57 or whatever is nonsensical.

NorCalOldGuy wrote:Now, now. Lets not make blanket statements w/o knowing the details of my situation. Its dissimilar to probably 95% of yall. I'm already gainfully employed in the legal world, without the law degree. I've got a very close family connection to a couple law firms as well, so employment prospects for me arent a huge concern, even if my degree is from a "random" school, whatever that means.

I've obviously discussed this w/ my family, and they are supportive. I just confirmed w/ my 10 month old, he says he's cool w/ moving as long as we can bring his toys

I do not think your chaces to get in are any higher than folks with similar numbers. In any event, Sounds to me like you've already got it figured out, so good luck to you.

NorCalOldGuy wrote:Now, now. Lets not make blanket statements w/o knowing the details of my situation. Its dissimilar to probably 95% of yall. I'm already gainfully employed in the legal world, without the law degree. I've got a very close family connection to a couple law firms as well, so employment prospects for me arent a huge concern, even if my degree is from a "random" school, whatever that means.

I've obviously discussed this w/ my family, and they are supportive. I just confirmed w/ my 10 month old, he says he's cool w/ moving as long as we can bring his toys

It's always prudent to make life altering decisions based on the ramblings of a ten month old. Have you considered running in the 2016 election? Your odds aren't much worse, and the salary is much higher than what you'll get in law and you clearly think like our last two presidents.

NorCalOldGuy wrote:Now, now. Lets not make blanket statements w/o knowing the details of my situation. Its dissimilar to probably 95% of yall. I'm already gainfully employed in the legal world, without the law degree. I've got a very close family connection to a couple law firms as well, so employment prospects for me arent a huge concern, even if my degree is from a "random" school, whatever that means.

I've obviously discussed this w/ my family, and they are supportive. I just confirmed w/ my 10 month old, he says he's cool w/ moving as long as we can bring his toys

I have two kids -- I didn't start having them until right after I graduated law school, but I had six years and a career in between undergrad and grad and was already married. As such, I'm especially sensitive to financial risks, as you should be too.

Again, being "gainfully employed in the legal world" prior to law school is a VERY common situation among law students, so I wouldn't overestimate your specialness. Now if those "family connections" are really that strong, as in you're more-or-less guaranteed a job when you graduate, AND that job would be at a starting salary significantly more than what you make now, then by all means go to law school wherever you can get in. But remember that you're probably going to pay full price, because those numbers aren't getting you much scholarship money, and that that can easily mean $150-200K in debt. That's on top of three years lost salary. You just bought a house that you can't live in, but you still have to pay the mortgage.

Now if you are really deadset on doing this, I would suggest: (1) go part time and continue to work or (2) do a two-year JD to minimize tuition and lost salary.

The more I think about it, though, you're probably a troll. Any "biglaw" paralegal would know better. You'd have good info from your colleagues.

Also, if you think your "kids and super busy career" are reason enough not to retake, how the hell do you think you're going to handle law school, which is a lot more work?

And anyway, your thread is a waste of time and energy. You'll see when you apply that your softs don't make much difference. You're going to get into the schools that your numbers get you into.

Jeeze people , i am not a troll and stated that I previously worked in biglaw. The attorneys that i've worked with all have a super biased view of me, because they've seen the high quality of my work, over a number of years-- and their situations were completely different-- ie they went straight into T14s directly from undergrad. I am aware that some others do have similar softs. My personal finances have no impact on admissions, but it means that my debt load can be minimized more than some others, without the use of scholarship $, which wont be there for me anyways.

Anyways, I'm not interested in defending my motivations for a law degree, or my ability to pay for it. I'm simply interested in talking admissions for me and others similarly situated...

If its a "waste of time", why reply?

PS-- some of you clearly have reading comprehension/personality issues... I definitely would NOT want you to be my lawyer.

PPS-- a friends mom works in a T14 admissions office for about 20 years and was impressed w/ my softs and said they would certainly help, but its tough to quantify exactly how much-- which is why I've attempted to engage with this community.

NorCalOldGuy wrote:If its a "waste of time", why reply?

PS-- some of you clearly have reading comprehension/personality issues... I definitely would NOT want you to be my lawyer.

PPS-- a friends mom works in a T14 admissions office for about 20 years and was impressed w/ my softs and said they would certainly help, but its tough to quantify exactly how much-- which is why I've attempted to engage with this community.

Personality issues? That's kind of a pot/kettle situation my man.

I think that listening to adcoms is a T3 mistake someone can make when applying to law school. It's nice that the person is a friend rather than a recuiter, but I'd still take it with a couple grains of salt. There's not really anything out there to suggest that the stuff you listed will help. But maybe they will. I'd still let http://www.mylsn.info be your guide but feel free not to.

Enjoy Stetson. Unlike another poster on here, it will probably not be the best decision of your life to attend.

I dont think I'll end up at Stetson, but if I did, the nice thing about it is we have a beach house not too far from there...

NorCalOldGuy wrote:I dont think I'll end up at Stetson, but if I did, the nice thing about it is we have a beach house not too far from there...

You're very smug. And very naïve for a guy in his late 30's.