169 LSAT, 3.89 GPA, Hispanic URM, non-trad. (32 yrs) Forum

[hyphenated_]

Hi ya'll -- thanks ahead of time for looking over my stats, I'd definitely appreciate any input that could be offered to help me gauge admissions (and/or scholarship) chances.

LSAT: I took the LSAT back in January 2022, got a 159. My own neck injury disability, and my mom's cancer, meant I couldn't devote much time to studying. I just received my 2nd LSAT score, 169, and will be sticking with it.

GPA: 3.89 from Loyola Chicago. 2 international MA transcripts, neither of which work on the 4.0 / American scales, so I'm not sure what weight/value they have for my applications in various admissions offices.

URM: Mother is Mexican-American, father is from Chile.

Non-traditional applicant: I'm on the older side, at 32 years old, and would be the first person in my family to go to law school.

I'm applying to: Yale, Northeastern, Michigan, Harvard, NYU, Wisconsin, Berkeley. I gather I'd be able to get into Northeastern and Wisconsin from what I see of the most recent cohort data. But I wonder about those schools that'd be in the T14 range -- especially Yale and Michigan. I wonder if my URM and non-trad. status would make up for my LSAT score and GPA being a reach for some of these top schools (though obviously I need to do my best in my essays and the 'softs' as well).

Again, any advice or helpful comments are welcome. Cheers.

[talons2250]

Hi ya'll -- thanks ahead of time for looking over my stats, I'd definitely appreciate any input that could be offered to help me gauge admissions (and/or scholarship) chances.

LSAT: I took the LSAT back in January 2022, got a 159. My own neck injury disability, and my mom's cancer, meant I couldn't devote much time to studying. I just received my 2nd LSAT score, 169, and will be sticking with it.

GPA: 3.89 from Loyola Chicago. 2 international MA transcripts, neither of which work on the 4.0 / American scales, so I'm not sure what weight/value they have for my applications in various admissions offices.

URM: Mother is Mexican-American, father is from Chile.

Non-traditional applicant: I'm on the older side, at 32 years old, and would be the first person in my family to go to law school.

I'm applying to: Yale, Northeastern, Michigan, Harvard, NYU, Wisconsin, Berkeley. I gather I'd be able to get into Northeastern and Wisconsin from what I see of the most recent cohort data. But I wonder about those schools that'd be in the T14 range -- especially Yale and Michigan. I wonder if my URM and non-trad. status would make up for my LSAT score and GPA being a reach for some of these top schools (though obviously I need to do my best in my essays and the 'softs' as well).

Again, any advice or helpful comments are welcome. Cheers.

From what I've seen from applicants with similar profiles: accepted everywhere except Yale. Significant scholarships at Northeastern and Wisconsin, but not at any T14s.

[namefromplace]

Could you explain how you made your application list? It seems like it's all over the place geographically and across school rankings. As the above poster said, you've got a decent shot at your whole list aside from Yale, but not a great shot at $$$ at T-14 schools. But given your list, why not also apply to Columbia? Or Cornell? Might as well apply to the whole T-14 so you can leverage any scholarship offers you get elsewhere. You should also apply to good regional schools in areas you're interested in. I assume from Northeastern being on your list, you're interested in Boston. Why not also apply to BU and BC? If you're interested in the Midwest, why not also apply to U Chicago and Northwestern?

[the1andonlytruth]

Hopefully your first few applications, non-binding, are close to being ready to go. I can tell you that I personally know a good friend of mine who was an African-American male. I helped him in with his application. He talked with Wisconsin officials in the mid 2000s early on in the process and they said they would love to have him but he would probably get into several T14 schools. He scored mid 160s LSAT with a 3.75+ Undergrad, 3.9+ MBA going back after some work experience. He got into 9 of the 11 schools he applied to, all T14 schools plus Texas (which was 15 then). Waitlisted at the other two, Harvard and Stanford; he did not apply to Yale or Berkeley. Got various money at some schools based on his background/work experience over a wide range from $25K for 3 years to 2.5 years tuition (NYU, Columbia, Penn, Chicago) and no money at others (Northwestern, Georgetown) and in between. LSATs have went up since then, and who knows the other extracurrciculars you have but I say apply broadly to at least 3-4 T14s if you want that option. Especially if you can get some diversity fee waivers. And apply non-binding so you can negotiate the money between similar schools (NYU, COLUMBIA, PENN & CHICAGO negotiated). Consider Wisconsin, maybe BC (for Boston/Mid-Atlantic), Minnesota, and some other schools. Also explain to the schools briefly that your second score is more indicative of your work (asking them not to average it).