PLEASE READ BEFORE ASKING YOUR CHANCES Forum

[lollypotter]

Hi guys,

Feel free to take this advice or not but it may help everyone in the What are My Chances (WAMC) thread if you do. I can understand that post LSAT many people's expectations are radically changed and they are seeking reassurance as well as knowledge. However there are some things you can do to help yourself and others in determining your chances at your dream schools.

1. Please check out the information out there already. I understand that it's too cumbersome to run searches for past WAMC so it means many many new posts asking similar questions. Please help yourself and everyone else by checking the numerous other sources out there for a fuller picture of your chances than can be given in a few posts.

- law school calculators -
http://www.hourumd.com/
--LinkRemoved--
http://officialguide.lsac.org/UGPASearc ... SidString=
http://www.chiashu.com

Don't just rely on these calculators though. I have seen a LOT of poor extrapolation coming out of hourumd percentages especially lately. You really want to bring a critical eye to all of the sources you find, not just trumpet one stat in a thread. Chaishu and http://www.lawschoolnumbers.com are gold mines of information. Look on lsn and search for people within your number range and look at their profiles. You can find a lot of EC information or URM information - maybe they had a phD, maybe they were war orphans, maybe they applied on Feb 1. This affects chances and you can't get that information by just punching your numbers into hourumd. And please don't expect other people to do the legwork for you.

Look at the schools on lsn - look at their profiles on lsac.org. Their class size, their matriculant information etc - all useful. It's really an insult to have a 3.9/174 post 'what are my chances at Harvard'. I mean, if you can't even be bothered to check the medians yourself, why should other people do it for you?

Another source of information is the accepted/deferred/rejected board. Look for a school you are interested in and read through the threads - it is gold. People tend to post their numbers, softs/URM etc, when they applied, and their results. You can see likely admittance times/deferral times. People post very detailed analyses there - for example determining (successfully) whether it was high lsats/low gpas or high gpas/low lsats who were likely to come off the Harvard waitlist first. It's a good model for this years admissions so read through it.

2. If you want to post, please post as much useful information as possible. For example, it's probably not necessary to post the name of your high school band counselor. Adcoms lurk these boards - it's been confirmed multiple times, to the point where a Harvard admit was told by an adcom that they 'enjoyed his viewpoints online'. So 'congressional internship' is fine - we don't need the name of your congressman. 'prestigious law firm', 'won international writing awards' - don't need the name and year and how you were the first woman to win X award. You are outing yourself to all the people lurking, some of whom may be adcoms, some of whom may be able to place you irl. Just a thought.

But we DO need all the relevant information. If someone has to post three times to get your GPA/LSAT and URM details, they probably aren't gonna bother to post a fourth time to actually give you your chances. Please don't waste people's time. LSAC GPA/ LSAT (all of them)/ URM / other stuff. As for URMs, please note in your initial post what kind of URM you are. It matters and it is very annoying to have to drag it out of you. If you are half Dominican, then say so in your initial post. Note any difficult socio-econ circumstances. Give a schools range or preferences. If you want California schools, say so... in your initial post.

3. Please be aware that people may not be able to help you. I know nothing about non t14 admissions because I'm not applying there. A lot of people posting have done all of the background work I mentioned earlier for themselves and are passing on what they've found. This is top-law-schools.com and the more specific and non t14 the search (t2 schools in Minnesota who do part time classes), the less people can actually respond. People are not ignoring your post but bad advice is worse than no advice. If you cannot get an answer, spend some time researching yourself and bring your information to the board. The more people who are actively researching, the better board advice is.

On that note, if your question is answered once, stop posting multiple threads and on multiple boards. It's very annoying. I think a lot of people are sick of spending time researching on lsn for someone's chances, and posting, only to see an identical thread 20 min later from the same person. If you want to obsess, spend that time on lsn - don't waste other people's time.

4. And one last thing. You get, at best, one 'hypothetical' thread. For the love of God, nobody needs to see six threads based on your six 'potential' LSAT scores. You are wasting people's time and you make it less likely that people will respond to your real dilemmas in the future. So few TLS regulars are posting on this thread anymore and this is one of the reasons why. Either post one thread with a range, or look it up yourself.

This is all settling down anyway but I thought that I would put as much info as possible and hopefully this will be useful for the future.

[mallard]

Should be stickied with an additional link to LSN.

[teaadntoast]

This is such a great post!

[Feathers]

Great post. Thx!!

[joonbug]

lollypotter, all u now need is a tar.

[lollypotter]

I know!

I'm not sure any one picture can capture my overwhelming awesomeness.

[CWF V]

Nice overview. Bump.

[dresq]

Worthy of a sticky. bump.

[20160810]

Sticky this
Ban violators
God bless

[kiwislug]

Bump

[20160810]

Also "3.98, 179, URM - chances at HYS?" threads should be bannable

[lollypotter]

Also "3.98, 179, URM - chances at HYS?" threads should be bannable

please god yes

[kiwislug]

Does anyone have an opinion about LSAC probability calculator vs. LSN or the others? The percentages can vary if you're like me and somewhat a splitter.

[muddywaters]

what are my chances at a full skolly at yale? i have a 2.1 GPA, a 152 LSAT but my softs are REALLY good. like, president of sorority good.

[dresq]

Does anyone have an opinion about LSAC probability calculator vs. LSN or the others? The percentages can vary if you're like me and somewhat a splitter.

IMO, forget probability calculators. None of them are going to be very accurate. I think there's some evidence that LSN is skews the odds lower because of the non-representative sample of over-achievers. LSAC's would maybe be better, but who knows?

Just look at the median and 25/75 numbers to see if you have a realistic shot. Things like soft factors, class size, etc. skew the odds calculators, which are based only on GPA/LSAT numbers. Your application is not just a pair of numbers.

[lollypotter]

Does anyone have an opinion about LSAC probability calculator vs. LSN or the others? The percentages can vary if you're like me and somewhat a splitter.

IMO, forget probability calculators. None of them are going to be very accurate. I think there's some evidence that LSN is skews the odds lower because of the non-representative sample of over-achievers. LSAC's would maybe be better, but who knows?

Just look at the median and 25/75 numbers to see if you have a realistic shot. Things like soft factors, class size, etc. skew the odds calculators, which are based only on GPA/LSAT numbers. Your application is not just a pair of numbers.

agreed. i don't think most of the people plugging their numbers into hourumd even know the school medians. 25/75 tell you much more.

[20160810]

what are my chances at a full skolly at yale? i have a 2.1 GPA, a 152 LSAT but my softs are REALLY good. like, president of sorority good.

I have a 2.6 and a 159 LSAT, but I am a gay URM. Are my chances of getting into Yale as good as my chances of starting an affirmative action flame bait thread?

Edit: I forgot to mention I went to an Ivy League UG, so you should probably add a full point to my GPA.

[20160810]

Does anyone else think lawschoolcalculator.com might be a little stoned?

It gives me a 51% chance at Notre Dame and a 56% chance at Cornell. It also says that I am more likely to get into Vanderbilt than the University of Washington. While I'd like a 67% shot at Vandy and 56% shot at Cornell notwithstanding Teach For America, I just think this has to arouse some serious suspicion.

[dresq]

Anyone else get the feeling that no one is reading this?

[kiwislug]

Anyone else get the feeling that no one is reading this?

yup, link-em.

[ramblinwreck]

Anyone else get the feeling that no one is reading this?

yup, link-em.

Kiwislug has been linking everyone else to this.

[Squints]

Sticky this
Ban violators
God bless

Amen.

[lollypotter]

Anyone else get the feeling that no one is reading this?

yup, link-em.

Kiwislug has been linking everyone else to this.

i know. so impressed. just gonna start doing it to everyone else

[kiwislug]

i know. so impressed. just gonna start doing it to everyone else

I want the regulars to come back to the board

[mallard]

i know. so impressed. just gonna start doing it to everyone else

I want the regulars to come back to the board

Your offhand dismissal/link of post after post is oddly attractive.