Chances of scholarship at UCLA?

[humblehopeful]

I'm a double major philosophy/legal studies at a pretty good college with a 3.82 UGPA.
What score on the LSAT do you think would get me at least a half scholarship at UCLA? I'm very blessed to have been studious during undergrad, I'm just worried about all the debt I'd have to take on for law school. I'm testing at 155-158 LSAT (150 diagnostic), one and a half months in

Thanks guys for the feedback!

[cavalier1138]

Why are you settling for UCLA with that GPA? A high enough LSAT will get you a full scholarship at a T13.

[decimalsanddollars]

Agreed w/ Cavalier that a high LSAT will give you better options and that you should aim high with your GPA/work ethic, even if you're debt-averse.

As for your questions, it looks like UCLA awards at least half tuition scholarships to about a quarter of their students, according to the ABA 509 forms I've seen. Because you're between the median and 75th percentile for GPA among UCLA's most recently reported 1L class, to ensure a scholarship given to a quarter of students, you'd probably need to be above the 75th percentile of LSAT scores---or 169. That said, if you do end up with a 170+, you'll have plenty of options (including possibly a full ride at USC) that may be equal to or better than whatever UCLA gives you.

[humblehopeful]

Agreed w/ Cavalier that a high LSAT will give you better options and that you should aim high with your GPA/work ethic, even if you're debt-averse.

As for your questions, it looks like UCLA awards at least half tuition scholarships to about a quarter of their students, according to the ABA 509 forms I've seen. Because you're between the median and 75th percentile for GPA among UCLA's most recently reported 1L class, to ensure a scholarship given to a quarter of students, you'd probably need to be above the 75th percentile of LSAT scores---or 169. That said, if you do end up with a 170+, you'll have plenty of options (including possibly a full ride at USC) that may be equal to or better than whatever UCLA gives you.

Thank you guys for the feedback. I'm new to the game, so I appreciate it. I'm shooting for UCLA because I'm not entirely confident in my abilities yet and want some sort of baseline "north star" to look forward to and be at least content with if achieved.

Question: Do you think applying straight out of undergrad will affect my chances negatively?

[decimalsanddollars]

No, although the conventional wisdom is generally that work experience between college and law school can help your chances slightly as a "soft" factor (maybe a bit more for Northwestern) and a modest boost for OCI. Working between college and law school also gives you more time to retake the LSAT as needed and evaluate whether you actually want to go to law school. Some people rush into it and regret it; my sense is that fewer people regret taking their time before the big commitment. It obviously depends on a bunch of factors, and if you have a good enough LSAT to go straight into a good law school with a good scholarship, you may decide not to wait.

[The Lsat Airbender]

Some people rush into it and regret it; my sense is that fewer people regret taking their time before the big commitment.

Most people I know/have heard of who regret taking time off picked things to do during that time that made them unhappy. (Depending on the person that might be enlisting in the armed forces, working in retail or i-banking, TFA, etc.) That's an avoidable problem, and even if you make a bad choice 1) it only lasts a little while until you move on to law school and 2) you learned something valuable about your own preferences/capabilities which can inform you choice of career post-law-school.