Top Law Schools

LSAT 170
GPA 3.9
Majored in Political Philosophy at U of A

No impressive extra-curriculars. Did mock trial for 2 years, model UN for a year, worked as a writing tutor for 2 years, did a foreign exchange in high school and speak French. Pretty much it. No internships or anything like that. Can get decent letters of rec from distinguished philosophers.

I’m gunning for UT Austin but need financial aid. Won’t qualify for need based scholarships but my parents sure as hell aren’t paying my tuition. What are my chances of getting in w/ merit based aid?

You have good chances at getting substantial merit aid. I would strongly advise blanketing the T14 with applications (your numbers should get you some fee waivers) so that you either have 1) even better options that UT (your numbers qualify you for a full ride at some T14s) or 2) negotiating ammo.

Seconding. You should get a full ride to UT, but ultimately will receive a large enough scholarship to a t13 to make it worth attending a better school. Assuming you have ties to Texas going to somewhere like Northwestern with $180k makes a lot of sense

I third LSAT Airbender and Wubbles' advice to blanket the T13. UT is a very strong law school, but pales in comparison to the T13 when it comes to placement power. With your stats you're in line for substantial merit aid at the T13. (Don't worry about your lack of softs, law school admissions are notoriously and almost exclusively numbers-based.)

Stats: 3.9 GPA (political philosophy major), 173 LSAT...no impressive softs. Spent a year abroad in high school and learned French, considering taking a year off before law school to study Spanish or teach English in Asia. Member of my school's Honors College, senior thesis with a distinguished philosopher, and planning on doing an internship with a public defender next semester...honestly that's about it. I can count on good letters of rec.

Financial need is super important for me. I don't qualify for need based... does anyone have any idea of what I can count on? Any chance at a full ride from a t13?

zoehr wrote:Stats: 3.9 GPA (political philosophy major), 173 LSAT...no impressive softs. Spent a year abroad in high school and learned French, considering taking a year off before law school to study Spanish or teach English in Asia. Member of my school's Honors College, senior thesis with a distinguished philosopher, and planning on doing an internship with a public defender next semester...honestly that's about it. I can count on good letters of rec.

Financial need is super important for me. I don't qualify for need based... does anyone have any idea of what I can count on? Any chance at a full ride from a t13?

You'll get lots of dollars from many of the top schools, don't sweat it.

You should strongly consider taking time off to work after school, which will shore up your savings and also make you more competitive for marquee scholarships like the Darrow, but your numbers put you in a great position to begin with. I don't want to say a full-ride is guaranteed but you're as competitive as it gets for those offers.

You'll get a full tuition scholarship in the T14. Basically, apply to every T14 and then negotiate like hell once you get scholarship offers. After that, pick your favorite school that's free!

VirginiaFan wrote:You'll get a full tuition scholarship in the T14. Basically, apply to every T14 and then negotiate like hell once you get scholarship offers. After that, pick your favorite school that's free!

Full ride might be out of reach, but I suspect OP will get $$$ from Penn down.

OP for reference, I had a 173 / 3.97 and 3 years w/e, and received about 2/3 scholarships from Penn down and about 1/2 from Chicago and Columbia. I agree with others, work experience will significantly help your application.

Platopus wrote:

VirginiaFan wrote:You'll get a full tuition scholarship in the T14. Basically, apply to every T14 and then negotiate like hell once you get scholarship offers. After that, pick your favorite school that's free!

Full ride might be out of reach, but I suspect OP will get $$$ from Penn down.

OP for reference, I had a 173 / 3.97 and 3 years w/e, and received about 2/3 scholarships from Penn down and about 1/2 from Chicago and Columbia. I agree with others, work experience will significantly help your application.

I had nearly identical stats, no work experience, and had multiple T14 full rides. So, ymmv. But I think we all agree-- apply broadly, see how much money you can get.

VirginiaFan wrote:

Platopus wrote:

VirginiaFan wrote:You'll get a full tuition scholarship in the T14. Basically, apply to every T14 and then negotiate like hell once you get scholarship offers. After that, pick your favorite school that's free!

Full ride might be out of reach, but I suspect OP will get $$$ from Penn down.

OP for reference, I had a 173 / 3.97 and 3 years w/e, and received about 2/3 scholarships from Penn down and about 1/2 from Chicago and Columbia. I agree with others, work experience will significantly help your application.

I had nearly identical stats, no work experience, and had multiple T14 full rides. So, ymmv. But I think we all agree-- apply broadly, see how much money you can get.

I think it depends on the overall cycle as well. I applied in a year when LSATs, especially above 170, were all up by almost double digits, so that obviously has an impact as well. That said, OP is in a really good position regardless and significant scholarships throughout the T13 are definitely in play.

I having a really hard time believing I can get a full ride with just a good lsat score and GPA. I have no impressive softs. Mock trial, exchange student In high school and speak pretty good French, research with a philosophy professor my whole senior year....Female, white, upper class parents...still trying to figure out an inspiring personal statement :/ BUT, I have a 3.9 and my pts so far are going well...I'm aiming for a 173+ in October. Lets just SAY I got a 174-175 (I know it might not happen but for the sake of the question). Considering all this, how competitive would I be for a full ride to a top 10? Any chance at the Hamilton or Darrow? I'm thinking of taking a gap year to go teach English in Asia...would that help my application at all?

While it's generally advisable to take (at least) a gap year or two between college and law school, the benefit is primarily to you as a person. The benefit for law school admissions is minimal to nonexistent (especially if it's a fairly common "gap year" position like teaching English abroad).

As hard as it is to believe (because college admissions certainly doesn't work like that, nor does med school, or b-school, or grad school...), law school admissions (except at Yale and Stanford) generally do track uGPA and LSAT almost perfectly. If you get a 173+ - which you shouldn't take for granted by any means - then you will indeed be very competitive for significant scholarships, up to full rides, in the T13. You'd probably need to hit at least a 175 for a good chance at the Hamilton, and even then Hamiltons are one of the rarer T13 full rides out there, but you'd definitely have great odds at a full ride somewhere in the T13, especially at the more "generous" T13s like Michigan or NYU.

Agree broadly with the above, but named scholarships (as opposed to $40k/year-type deals) do seem to care a bit more about subjective indicators of personal success. They're buying the numbers, sure, but for a variety of other reasons (keeping donors happy, convincing more 3.9/174s to show up in the future, etc.) they need the alumni of these programs to go on to big things more often than the average student.

I think that shedding OP's (reasonable, tbh) self-perception of a sheltered K-JD who's never had been behind the wheel for a sustained amount of time is definitely a good idea from that standpoint. Pulls the resume up from the bottom third of contenders into the middle third.

Again, though, agree that a gap year is well worth it in its own right. OP, there is a smallish chance you regret going to Korea or whatever but you're guaranteed to regret going straight to law school and wondering what that experience would've offered.

Thank you both for your input. Another Question: When I was applying to undergrad, a lot of the best scholarships were only available to students who went straight from high school to University (only juniors or seniors could apply). It's my impression that law schools aren't the same way, and taking a gap year doesn't disqualify you from most, if any, scholarships. Thoughts? Are there any fulls rides or other good scholarships only available to those going straight to law school?

zoehr wrote:Thank you both for your input. Another Question: When I was applying to undergrad, a lot of the best scholarships were only available to students who went straight from high school to University (only juniors or seniors could apply). It's my impression that law schools aren't the same way, and taking a gap year doesn't disqualify you from most, if any, scholarships. Thoughts? Are there any fulls rides or other good scholarships only available to those going straight to law school?

I could be wrong, but I'm not aware of any significant scholarships in the T13 that are only available to K-JDs. Rather, as LSAT Airbender notes above, as a general rule getting more line items on the ol' CV can only help your scholarship chances.

A lot of scholarships for undergrad were only available to those going straight to uni (you had to be a junior or senior to apply). It's my impression that Law School isn't the same, and taking a gap year doesn't disqualify you from any major scholarships. Thoughts? Are there scholarships only available to a K-JD?

I have never heard of scholarships available for only K-JD. The vast majority of people getting scholarship money are getting it automatically on the basis of their LSAT score and GPA. There are a few special situations where you might get some other source of money (e.g., patent folks with Ph.D.'s or scholarships for people with certain hometown/ethnic/alumni ties), but these are unlikely to apply.

With the exception of Harvard / Yale / Stanford, you can basically get a full tuition scholarship if you have GPA and LSAT score above the 75% percentile for a given school. For example, if you happen to have a 4.0 and a 175 LSAT score, you are likely to be offered full ride scholarships at Columbia, Chicago, NYU, etc.

For people with more "typical" scores, you might get partial scholarships, or you might have to make a choice between paying full price for a "top" school, versus taking a scholarship at a lower ranked school. Depending on what your numbers are and your career goals, there are pros and cons to either choice.

I don’t qualify for need based aid, but have a good lsat (lower 170’s) and GPA (3.9), and average softs. Could I still count on a decent scholarship from a t14?

Yes, at most schools. HYS only give scholarships based on need, but merit scholarships are the norm everywhere else. If your LSAT is 172+, you could potentially be looking at a full ride to CCN.

Edit: Just noticed that you've posted the same question multiple times. No one here is trying to mislead you. Focus on getting that high LSAT, and quit rephrasing the same hypothetical.

OP: Please consider this an informal warning. We are always happy to help answer questions from 0Ls, but please respect other posters' time by 1) being honest (you don't have an official LSAT score yet, so don't pretend you do), and 2) refraining from making multiple duplicate threads (you aren't going to get different answers by making 3 or 4 different threads asking the same question).

QContinuum wrote:OP: Please consider this an informal warning. We are always happy to help answer questions from 0Ls, but please respect other posters' time by 1) being honest (you don't have an official LSAT score yet, so don't pretend you do), and 2) refraining from making multiple duplicate threads (you aren't going to get different answers by making 3 or 4 different threads asking the same question).

Yikes, my bad. I’ve sorta been treating this page like reddit, posting whenever I felt like it and just hoping for some new insights every time. Just found out about user rankings, and am learning that a lot of people dedicate serious time on here. I’m more familiar with how the site works now. Sorry.

zoehr wrote:Yikes, my bad. I’ve sorta been treating this page like reddit, posting whenever I felt like it and just hoping for some new insights every time. Just found out about user rankings, and am learning that a lot of people dedicate serious time on here. I’m more familiar with how the site works now. Sorry.

No worries! Just wanted to let you know for future reference. Hope your application process goes smoothly and don't hesitate to ask any further questions. Generally you'll need to have an actual LSAT score in hand before we can provide accurate advice re: which schools you should target and what your chances are, but we are happy to answer any questions along the way.