170 LSAT — 3.88 GPA Forum

[stvr]

Hoping for some insight from this community. I'll be honest — I've read a little on these forums, but I don't really know a lot about how law school admissions work.

LSAT: 170
GPA: 3.88 from Harvard undergrad (Phi Beta Kappa)
URM? Hispanic, Central American, so... no? Both personal statement and diversity statement talk about that background. But I'm guessing that won't help.
Non-trad? Sort of. Six years work experience as a political communications director.
My brother went to Stanford Law, and Stanford did ask about it, so IDK.
Letters? Very, very positive. (Unless I'm being gaslighted by the recommenders.)

Schools I'm looking at:
Harvard
Stanford
Yale?
Columbia
Berkeley
UCLA
USC

Basically, I'm wondering how many schools I should apply to to be accepted. And whether HYS is out of the picture because of my LSAT.

[cuzzydunlop]

URM = black, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Native American

Harvard - possible; shoot your shot... deadline is today
Stanford - possible; shoot your shot
Yale - doubtful
Columbia - good shot
Berkeley - good shot
UCLA - lock
USC - don't go here with your numbers; it's not a bad school, but it's not on par with any of the others (obviously) and you can do better

You're not really non-traditional, or a splitter, or a URM, so in general, MyLSN will give you a somewhat accurate picture of your odds.

[CanadianWolf]

Wrong question. The correct question, in my opinion, is how many schools should you apply to in order to receive substantial grant (merit) scholarship money ?

Consider applying to between 12 & 18 law schools.

[G_willy]

Harv - >50% since you did ugrad there and you have work exp.
Stanford - reject
Yale - reject
Columbia - lock
Berkley - lock
UCLA - lock
USC - lock but don't go, school isn't good enough for your #'s

[Colorless]

Harv - >50% since you did ugrad there and you have work exp.
Stanford - reject
Yale - reject
Columbia - lock
Berkley - lock
UCLA - lock
USC - lock but don't go, school isn't good enough for your #'s

I had identical stats and I got both YS as an Asian American with unimpressive softs.
Granted, it was probably an easier cycle when I applied, but YS are most certainly in the cards for OP.