Top Law Schools

Hey folks,

With my applications sent and no interviews pending at the moment, I’m writing this message in an honest attempt to curb my anxiety.

Cutting to the chase, I’m applying with a 171 LSAT, 3.93 GPA from an Ivy League undergrad. I’ll have been out of school for two years by the time I begin law school. In the interim, I’ve been working as a quantitative analyst at a small firm in DC. I’ve done consulting work for dozens of publicly traded corporations and have what I’d like to think are some solid points on my resume because of it.

As far as softs are concerned, while I know most everyone believes they’re above average, I’m pretty confident in my portfolio. I speak three languages and my senior year did international legal research using each of them. The honors thesis that derived from this work won a departmental award for best thesis that’s yet to be given again. I’ve also been honored by the Japanese consulate for a speech competition I won freshman year, in addition to more standard activities/honors (student government, a cappella, phi beta kappa, Latin honors, etc.). My thesis advisor—with whom I met for hours each week for a year—wrote one of my LORs; the other came from a language professor with whom I’m very close.

I’m hoping to attend a top-5 school this next year. However, I’m writing to see what your thoughts are on the subject.

Thank you very much for your consideration!

Be reassured:

Apply across the T13 and you should perform very well, with substantial $ from Michigan and down (and likely $ at CCNP). Admission to Y/S is - as it is for everyone - challenging, but even there you have a fighting chance.

Are there any T13s you haven't yet applied to? If not, it's not too late by any means - apply! It's only 13 schools total; now's not the time to try to save money on application fees. (And if finances are an issue, you can always reach out to schools for a fee waiver.)

Otherwise, if you've already blanketed the T13, nothing to do now but wait and relax. You'll do great.

With my cycle at an end, I wanted to share my results so that they might be useful to future applicants.

In at Chicago through Berkeley as well as Georgetown and WUSTL.

Waitlisted at Harvard (after interviewing) and Stanford. Subsequently accepted at Harvard.

Rejected at Yale.

Will attend Harvard this fall and couldn’t be happier!

Congrats on HLS! And many thanks for checking back in to update us.

Looks like your results were 100% in line with MyLSN's predictions based on your LSAT and GPA. You had a low "red" shot at Yale, and were rejected; an "orange" maybe at Stanford, and were waitlisted; and a solid "green" chance at HLS and down, and indeed were admitted to HLS and down.