Top Law Schools

Longtime lurker posting for the first time, looking for sage advice from TLS after taking the June LSAT! I am three years out of school, four years out of undergrad at a good university (did an accelerated dual degree program for a masters) and have been working since at a prestigious economic policy research center at a top university.

My dream school is YLS, but I know my stats are right under the median. Should I retake the LSAT this fall to potentially increase my score by 1-2 points? My PT average was 174.5, so I do feel like I could do better, but I don't think I'll be able to commit as much time to prepping as I did for the June test. Could it hurt my chances to retake for a potentially minor (or nonexistent) point increase? Could my softs/PS/LORs be enough of a boost to compensate for my numbers (what would they have to look like for that to happen?)

Retaking would help but you'd still have pretty low chances since everyone does. Might as well retake so you aren't stuck wondering if it was your LSAT that kept you out.

I mean if you have to ask then your softs probably aren't good enough to give you a boost over other equally impressive applicants, but you seem in the wheelhouse for Yale given your interests, work experience etc. So you have a shot. Then it just comes to how much you value your dreams - all else equal it certainly can't hurt to get even a slightly higher LSAT score. Just figure out if you're willing to put in the work to give yourself a better chance or if you'd be ok with your chances as they stand now.