California Resident Looking to Stay: Give Me the Dirt Forum

[LonelySprout]

Hello friends,

I am here to know what the stars have in store for me. I've done my research, but I'd appreciate multiple perspectives on my numbers. Before I do. here's a bit about my goals. I'm a California resident and would like to stay in California in order for my fiance and I to be near our families; I need to be close to help take care of my severely disabled brother. As such, I'm not interested in schools outside of California. Furthermore, my fiance will graduate nursing school in a year and will, assuming all goes well, be a licensed nurse in California. I'm applying to schools this fall. That being said, here we go.

Numbers: 165, UGPA 3.9, Philosophy MA GPA 4.0

My schools in what I perceive to be a descending order of unlikelihood with Berkeley being the least likely:

1. Berkeley
2. UCLA
3. USC
4. Irving
5. Davis

Beyond that, I might toss apps to USD, Pepperdine, Loyola, McGeorge, and Santa Clara; however, from what I can discern, that probably isn't necessary.

I'd rather settle for as little debt as possible; so, I'm ultimately aiming for the best financial aid package possible. Even if my stats were beyond stellar, I would not mind attending a solid (but not necessarily elite) school like Irvine or Davis over a Berkeley or UCLA (if the money were right). I don't have aspirations of grandeur.

I will take the LSAT again in June to try to up my LSAT to, hopefully, a 167-170. I teach undergraduate courses on top of my graduate work, so I was doing most of my prep during long grading sessions and final papers. I admittedly did not do as many practice tests as I should have leading up to the February LSAT. So, I'm confident that, with more dedicated prep between now and June, I can gain a few points. Obviously we'll see what the more detailed LSAT report shows. I'm hoping there are clear, evident gaps that reveal an easy place to make up points. I'll just have to wait and see. For now, I'm curious what you all think about my chances as my numbers stand.

Thanks in advance for your advice and insight! I appreciate it.

[Ru55e115p4r4d0x]

retake

I know you're already retaking, but seriously - if you aim for and get a 171/172+, there's no reason why Stanford shouldn't be in the running, and you'll definitely get substantial scholarships from the other schools (Berkeley might even give you as much money as LA/SC).