Top Law Schools

Hello everyone, please allow me to preface this by saying that I am seeking admission in 2021. However, I gather that it is never to early to seek some advice. Here are my stats:

-3.54 Undergraduate GPA
-169 LSAT Score

I also have two years of professional work experience as a paralegal at a large law firm.

My goal is to practice biglaw in the Chicago, New York, or Texas markets. I am looking to apply to some T14s, and a few safety schools. So far, my top choice is UMich, also looking at UVA and Northwestern. Outside of the top 14, I am also really interested in the University of Texas at Austin (note however that I am not a Texas resident). I am planning on applying for ED to UMich. What are my chances, and should I look at maybe improving my LSAT score? Are there any schools outside of the ones mentioned that I should consider? Financial aid / scholarships will be important factors.

Definitely don't apply ED anywhere without a huge guaranteed scholarship.

You have decent chances at Mich/Northwestern but you'd bring more T14s into play, and (more importantly) tuition discounts, by

1) Applying to more of the T14 -- you can probably ignore HYS with your numbers but everywhere else warrants an application, if only to enhance your bargaining position for scholarships -- and
2) Increasing your LSAT score by even a point or two, which would put you on the sunny side of median at UVA and elsewhere.

Texas isn't a bad choice if you can negotiate a low price but you need to be willing to take the substantial risk of working non-biglaw in Texas.

Cosign everything LSAT Airbender wrote above. I'd also add:

The Lsat Airbender wrote:Texas isn't a bad choice if you can negotiate a low price but you need to be willing to take the substantial risk of working non-biglaw in Texas.

Be aware that legal jobs in Austin are relatively rare, and highly sought-after (i.e., you'd probably want to be top ~10-15% or so at UT to have a good shot at a BigLaw gig in Austin, and even then there wouldn't be a guarantee). And Austin's a tiny legal market more generally, even for non-BigLaw positions. So in TX you'd most likely be looking at a job in Houston (most likely; by far the largest legal market in TX), or Dallas (second-largest legal market in TX, but significantly behind Houston in terms of size). And out of UT, you should expect a 50% chance of not landing BigLaw anywhere.

Don't get me wrong: UT's a great school. I just want to be sure you're going into this with clear eyes, especially because you mention being a non-Texan who wants to work in Chicago/NYC, and generally, non-Texans who want to work in Chicago/NYC do not consider Houston/Dallas to be a good personal fit.