Top Law Schools

Hi all! Hoping for some opinions. I have a 3.58 GPA from a top 10 liberal arts school and scored 162 on my December LSAT. Not a URM. Will have 3 years of work experience upon entering law school. I'm retaking in June and know I need a big improvement. My "dream school" list so to speak in no particular order is:
UVA
Penn
Berkeley
NYU
Columbia
Vanderbilt
UT

With my GPA, about how high do ya'll think I need to score in June? Thanks in advance

Always shoot for 180.

Realistically, with a 170 you should be a good look for a number of those schools. 168 might get you in a couple of them. 175 and you'll be in pretty much everywhere on your list.

MYLSN literally exists for this purpose.

ab9315 wrote: about how high do ya'll think I need to score in June?

As high as you can.

With your GPA and list of schools, I would say at least 166/67 to get into some of the lower end schools and at least 174/75 for the high end schools. Good luck!

I would say at least a 169 to give yourself solid options. A 166 might barely get you into UT or Vanderbilt but those aren't places you want to be paying sticker at. With a 169 or above, you're looking at good money at those T20 schools and acceptances at mid-T13 schools. At that point you can make a choice between discounted regional or sticker T14 schools.

You're below the gpa median at all of them so it's more important to have a high LSAT score.

With all thats been said by the posts above, I strongly encourage you to think about your softs and how to streamline your application.

For instance, many people when they looked at my numbers alone didn't think I would be able to get into the top end of the T13/14... However, I've been accepted this cycle to Columbia, NYU, Penn, etc.
Feel free to PM for more details, but I really think my essays were what convinced these schools to accept me

I went to a Penn admitted students reception a few weeks ago and had a quick chat with one of the admissions officers. I was extremely surprised when she told me she still remembered my essay!

So the key takeaways are:
1) score as high as possible on your LSATs
2) BUT don't get too bogged down by a less than stellar score... think about your softs and how you can package them in your personal statement, diversity statement, resume, LORs, etc.

Thanks all! Yeah, thinking I'm going to do way better this time around as I'm PTing in the high 160s-low 170s. Only worry is that that's how it was before the first one, but of course, when your roommates decide to throw a party the night before and you have nowhere else to go I guess that affects your mental state more than you realize! Thanks to everyone for the insight.