180/"Superior" international Forum

[zetafunction]

Not really concerned about anonymity amongst my acquaintances as they all know I want to study law. I will be applying next year for 2020 entry.

Age: 25 now, will be 27 when I hopefully enter law school.
LSAT: 180
Undergrad: Imperial College London, 80%, Mathematics BSc First Class Honours (LSAC translated this to "Superior"), with expository thesis. (Completed 2014)
Masters: Cambridge, Part III Mathematics, Distinction, with expository thesis. (Completed 2015)
PhD: Oxford, Pure Mathematics, two publications. (Completed 2018)
Work Experience: Currently a quantitative researcher at a very well known (amongst finance people at least) hedge fund. I will be working here for ~2 more years, running this gig so I can graduate from law school debt free. Internships in software engineering and quant trading.
Softs: Multiple marathons and triathlons including one ultramarathon and one (full) Ironman triathlon. Fluent in French. LRSM Piano Performance (very roughly the level of performance one is expected to have by the end of their 3rd year at a conservatoire).

Target schools: Honestly, I really want HYS but will obviously apply to others, next preference would be Columbia/NYU (worked in Manhattan one summer and loved it).

Concerns:
1. International student, non URM.
2. Focus on mathematics so far in my studies, research and work. Hence the usual STEM -> patent law thing isn't really there.
3. In quantitative circles, research positions at hedge funds (e.g. DE Shaw, Citadel, Two Sigma) are more coveted than top tier software engineer and banking analyst roles in that they pretty much require a PhD in maths/stats/CS/physics/EE (unless you're some kind of genius). But most people haven't heard of these funds. I'm worried that adcoms won't respect my company (its one of the above) as they would respect someone from e.g. bulge brackets, Google/Facebook/Amazon, McKinsey/Bain/BCG, which is rather annoying as I had job offers from Google and Goldman among others before starting my PhD. At that time I had been rejected without interview for every single role comparable to my current job!
4. Main one: my softs are boring/unoriginal.

[BrainsyK]

You'll have a good shot at every school you apply to, but maybe someone of your background and credentials is too smart to go to law school?

You have ways of making more money than even most biglaw partners. If helping people is what you're after, you could do non-profit work or just start a business and donate your earnings? If you're just dying for intellectual challenge, I assure you that law school is not as challenging as a Math PhD. You've already gone to two schools with prestige on par with but HYS, Columbia, or any school that exists.

I just don't see why you'd go to law school.

[QContinuum]

IMO you'll do great across the board at the T13. You have a freaking 180, a Superior rating, a Cambridge Master's, AND an Oxford STEM Ph.D. You're literally the ideal applicant.

Do you have a financing plan in mind? The vast majority of T13 students finance their law school education with federal loans, which aren't available to non-U.S. citizens. If you don't have financing secured, your best bet may be attending CCN or another non-HYS T13 on a full scholarship (HYS don't award any merit aid).

I also urge you to make sure you actually want to practice law. Brainsy is right that you'd almost certainly make more $ in the hedge fund world (considering the caliber of company you're currently at) than as a lawyer (and this is true even without considering the opportunity and actual costs associated with spending 3 years in law school instead of working). It's barely been half a year since you finished your Math Ph.D., and it doesn't sound like you've done any previous legal/advocacy work. Your entire work and education history screams finance. What happened?

[zetafunction]

You'll have a good shot at every school you apply to, but maybe someone of your background and credentials is too smart to go to law school?

You have ways of making more money than even most biglaw partners. If helping people is what you're after, you could do non-profit work or just start a business and donate your earnings? If you're just dying for intellectual challenge, I assure you that law school is not as challenging as a Math PhD. You've already gone to two schools with prestige on par with but HYS, Columbia, or any school that exists.

I just don't see why you'd go to law school.

I have personal reasons (I'd rather not discuss them, but they're not particularly altruistic) which started developing early in my PhD years for wanting to pursue law. I'm well aware that I'm not going to make money comparable to a hedge fund career, but that doesn't bother me. Sure, I'm likely never gonna make "fuck you" money in law and am well on the way to do so as a quant, but I'm pretty sure that by say mid 30s I can be on something around 150k in NYC without biglaw hours. That's well above the household median income, so raising a family (especially with a working partner I'll hopefully find!) will be fine. I was raised off a hell of a lot less than that in London (not quite as expensive as Manhattan but still pretty high CoL). I still had a great childhood because my parents were more concerned with how they can fill my life with their time and not their money, and I guess I'm no saint but I think I turned out alright?

Also, I don't believe that someone can ever be too smart to do something they're passionate about.

[zetafunction]

IMO you'll do great across the board at the T13. You have a freaking 180, a Superior rating, a Cambridge Master's, AND an Oxford STEM Ph.D. You're literally the ideal applicant.

Do you have a financing plan in mind? The vast majority of T13 students finance their law school education with federal loans, which aren't available to non-U.S. citizens. If you don't have financing secured, your best bet may be attending CCN or another non-HYS T13 on a full scholarship (HYS don't award any merit aid).

I also urge you to make sure you actually want to practice law. Brainsy is right that you'd almost certainly make more $ in the hedge fund world (considering the caliber of company you're currently at) than as a lawyer (and this is true even without considering the opportunity and actual costs associated with spending 3 years in law school instead of working). It's barely been half a year since you finished your Math Ph.D., and it doesn't sound like you've done any previous legal/advocacy work. Your entire work and education history screams finance. What happened?

Given my current performance and the firm's lenience towards new hires, its very unlikely that I will be fired in the next two years, which is enough time for me to earn enough to pay off my undergraduate/masters loans (they were minimal) and save up enough to pay for all of law school, so I won't be taking loans.

I am sure that I want to practice law. In my reply to Brainsy I explained why money isn't a huge driving factor for me. Admittedly you're right, I haven't done any previous legal work, but I have been dead certain about practicing law for a couple of years.

The software engineering/trading internships were to get through my undergrad and masters without putting financial strain on my parents. I finished the PhD because producing original mathematics has been a goal of mine for over a decade - I will be proud of it forever. The only reason I took this job instead of applying to law school for entry this year was to earn enough to put me through it debt free, the work is reasonably fun but I do it because nothing I know pays better at this age and I want to get to law school without loans asap. I didn't know what kind of scholarships I'd be eligible for/capable of getting, so it made sense to do this, as the other option would be to basically graduate with 200k-300k in debt. I don't care much for money, but I'm terrified by debt, especially at the crazy rates lenders offer to international students, so a 2 year delay will be well worth it.

[Lxwind]

Not really concerned about anonymity amongst my acquaintances as they all know I want to study law. I will be applying next year for 2020 entry.

Age: 25 now, will be 27 when I hopefully enter law school.
LSAT: 180
Undergrad: Imperial College London, 80%, Mathematics BSc First Class Honours (LSAC translated this to "Superior"), with expository thesis. (Completed 2014)
Masters: Cambridge, Part III Mathematics, Distinction, with expository thesis. (Completed 2015)
PhD: Oxford, Pure Mathematics, two publications. (Completed 2018)
Work Experience: Currently a quantitative researcher at a very well known (amongst finance people at least) hedge fund. I will be working here for ~2 more years, running this gig so I can graduate from law school debt free. Internships in software engineering and quant trading.
Softs: Multiple marathons and triathlons including one ultramarathon and one (full) Ironman triathlon. Fluent in French. LRSM Piano Performance (very roughly the level of performance one is expected to have by the end of their 3rd year at a conservatoire).

Target schools: Honestly, I really want HYS but will obviously apply to others, next preference would be Columbia/NYU (worked in Manhattan one summer and loved it).

Concerns:
1. International student, non URM.
2. Focus on mathematics so far in my studies, research and work. Hence the usual STEM -> patent law thing isn't really there.
3. In quantitative circles, research positions at hedge funds (e.g. DE Shaw, Citadel, Two Sigma) are more coveted than top tier software engineer and banking analyst roles in that they pretty much require a PhD in maths/stats/CS/physics/EE (unless you're some kind of genius). But most people haven't heard of these funds. I'm worried that adcoms won't respect my company (its one of the above) as they would respect someone from e.g. bulge brackets, Google/Facebook/Amazon, McKinsey/Bain/BCG, which is rather annoying as I had job offers from Google and Goldman among others before starting my PhD. At that time I had been rejected without interview for every single role comparable to my current job!
4. Main one: my softs are boring/unoriginal.

With your numbers and background Harvard should be a lock...and you have a very decent chance with Yale and Stanford as well. CCN with full scholarship is also foreseeable. You are really an ideal law school applicant!

[Npret]

If you put together a solid application I think Yale is a possibility. If you want to increase your chances and you have the money, you could consider hiring an admission consultant to make sure your application is flawless. Spivey, for one, has former admission officers from Yale and Harvard working with them.

Just a suggestion.

I think with your numbers and softs you will get in everywhere up to and including Harvard if your application is done correctly.

[nealric]

Enjoy Yale OP.