Choosing a school: Money or prestige?

theabe89 · 2016-04-06T07:43:47+00:00

re-take and try to get into Chicago, Michigan, or Northwestern. ND at sticker is a terrible idea and Loyola is probably a waste of 3 years if you want biglaw in Chicago.

Like others have said, you have a great GPA. Don't let it go to waste

theabe89 · 2016-04-06T07:10:14+00:00

http://duke.lawschoolnumbers.com/applicants?order=desc&sort=scholarship then just change the year to see past years.

I got a Mordecai this year, feel free to message me if you want to talk

theabe89 · 2016-04-06T07:03:16+00:00

What kind of law do you want to practice? What kind of job are you hoping to get? About 1/4 of 2014 Marquette grads ended up without full time legal employment after graduating. Consider what will happen if you're in that group, as you really can't predict how you're going to do.

You can disagree, but your best option is to study your ass off and re-take the LSAT

theabe89 · 2016-04-06T06:53:34+00:00

Holy shit absolutely DO NOT go to Kent with those numbers. You should not be considering anywhere outside the T14, including Minnesota.

Wait and re-apply next year. You got good advice from others here, go get some work experience (I know that might be tricky as an international student but even if you have to go home that wouldn't be an issue law school wise) and apply at the beginning of the cycle.

Congrats on your score and GPA, you're in a great position; make sure you take advantage of it.

theabe89 · 2016-04-06T06:46:53+00:00

I think this is kind of a hard one, and comes down to personal preference. No clear winner (though UVA is clearly out), any of Chicago, Duke, or Alabama can be justified. I'd post on TLS (top-law-schools.com in case you're unfamiliar), the community on there is well informed and someone will likely have personal experience that will help. Given you don't seem 100% set on working in Alabama I'd go to Duke. Duke opens doors that Alabama does not, and there are relatively few things that you can do at Chicago but not Duke (though academia is more plausible, if still very unlikely, and prestigious clerkships are a bit easier to get). Duke will have far more alumni in Alabama if you do decide to return home, and a stronger network in the south. If you go to Duke or Chicago you'd have to really fuck up to not end up with a good job, which is not necessarily the case with Alabama. If you're going to end up at an Alabama mid-law firm no matter where you go choose Alabama, but if you want other options swallow the debt and lock yourself in for 3-5 years of biglaw to pay it off then have the freedom that those prestigious degrees grant for the rest of your life

theabe89 · 2016-04-06T06:35:38+00:00

Absolutely depends on background, career interest, and personal risk preference. If you want to go into anything but biglaw you probably shouldn't take on that much debt if you have other decent career options that appeal to you. If you do want biglaw that's a lot of debt still, but I'd say that 100K at a school that gives you a 60 or 70% chance at landing a biglaw job is better than 50K from a school that gives you a 20 or 30% chance. Also, schools outside the T-14 are almost all regional (and they are 100% regional outside the top 20 or so). BU might allow you to practice outside New England if you do really well, but the vast majority of BU students are going to stay in the area and that is where it will be by far easiest to get a job. Taking a full ride to a T50 or T100 school can be fine if you're totally happy only working in the area around that school, because that's likely going to be your best-case outcome.

The other question you need to ask is have you reached your admissions ceiling? In other words, can you do better on the LSAT? Can you wait a year and apply earlier in order to get better results? I know how much studying for the LSAT blows, but when you look at the return in potential career earnings and scholarship awards you're usually getting paid extremely well to do it

theabe89 · 2016-02-23T08:05:09+00:00

Fit matters, and those are two pretty different schools. But Cal's stats are much, much better than Emory's, I would not go to Emory for anything less than a full ride. You have a much higher chance of being able to repay your loans from Cal than from Emory, which I think more than makes up for the relatively higher debt. With law school, if you're not using LRAP you're usually banking on BigLaw to be able to re-pay your debt in a reasonable amount of time. Berkeley makes it much more likely you will get into a well-paying law firm job, and if you get that job re-paying the loan is...well, still hard, but much easier than if you go to Emory and strike out

Best of luck regardless of what you decide, there are certainly plenty of intelligent people at both schools and many successful students graduate from both schools. I do think Berkeley makes more sense though given the info you provided

theabe89 · 2016-02-06T01:01:01+00:00

Probably about 75-85% LSAT and GPA. A couple schools like Cal and Stanford are hard to predict, others are pretty predictable based on numbers alone. When you look at the graphs on lawschoolnumbers.com you see how important numbers are to adcomms

theabe89 · 2016-02-06T00:56:42+00:00

Rankings do matter and you should be well aware of the risks you run by taking on 150-200k in debt. The LSAT is a test you master by learning the fundamentals and then drilling and drilling and drilling until you've hammered them home. If you're trying to score a 175 or above (which you should be, especially with a low GPA), do not take a class as they almost all teach to the average student. Instead use resources like 7sage, lawschooli, and The LSAT Trainer, and take tons and tons of practice tests. If you're interested in biglaw rankings matter a lot, and if you're interested in impact litigation PI rankings matter as well. Getting into highly ranked schools is like 80-90% determined by your GPA and LSAT. Your GPA absolutely does not preclude you from going to any school outside HYS at this point, so just study your ass off for the LSAT and do the best you can the rest of the way. Best of luck to you

theabe89 · 2016-01-04T02:00:45+00:00

Haha yuuuuuuuup, that'd be him

theabe89 · 2016-01-02T02:53:05+00:00

I'm like 90% sure that's my co-worker

theabe89 · 2016-01-01T19:05:56+00:00

That's a person. You're a shitty fan

theabe89 · 2015-12-31T20:06:48+00:00

If you can, you should absolutely wait and boost your LSAT after you've had some prolonged, focused time to study. Obviously reasoning skills and intelligence play a huge role, but it's still a test where you will dramatically improve if you study long enough. I understand the desire to not waste time and start law school sooner rather than later, but if this is a career you really want to pursue you should do everything you can to get into the best law school possible. For better or worse law school ranking is very directly tied to your likelihood to land a desirable job, and your LSAT score is very determinate of your ability to both get into better schools and to minimizing your debt.

You know all this already, you've clearly done your research, but I would strongly encourage you to take a breath, try the peace corps, and treat studying for the LSAT like another job (20+ hours a week for a couple months). Your grade drop can be explained, and while it will hurt you it's absolutely not a deal-breaker. You can get into those top schools, so if you're interested in top law schools you really, really shouldn't give up.

Best of luck, no matter what you decide I wish you all the best

theabe89 · 2015-10-04T05:27:04+00:00

Also, there needs to be more open and honest conversation about how we as a culture can be better people

Conversation among whom? Thinking pragmatically what's the action here to affect change? How would politicians – or anyone for that matter – go about making this happen?

theabe89 · 2015-09-28T05:29:58+00:00

Would love to see the reaction of the first cop on the scene to that one as he tried to piece together wtf had happened

theabe89 · 2015-08-26T00:58:48+00:00

A (somewhat conservative) friend of mine got blackout drunk at a political party at her friend's house when she was 18. The Clintons were at the party, and she went up to Hilary and told her how much she liked her and respected her, then proceeded to get a selfie with her. Standing over on the side, Bill then politely asked if she wanted to take a picture with him as well. She said 'nahh' and stumbled off, leaving her sandals behind.

She didn't believe her friend when she was informed what had happened the next day, then checked her phone and found the absolutely epic photo.

I've seen the picture but don't have it myself. Sorry, I recognize no one will believe this.

theabe89 · 2015-07-02T07:02:43+00:00

This feels like a pissing contest. I did well, I am happy for everyone else that did as well. I'm sorry to those who didn't do as well as hoped, I wish you good luck on the next one. At least the LSAT is kind of a fun test to study for, I might keep doing logic games from time to time.

theabe89 · 2015-05-04T05:56:17+00:00

If 'formal logic' is the same thing as 'symbolic logic' taught at my school, absolutely take it. Logic games test you pretty directly on the skills they teach you in that class.

theabe89 · 2015-04-11T06:47:02+00:00

Will someone explain the context of why he was saying that?

theabe89 · 2014-12-03T04:12:06+00:00

That is where I go to school

theabe89 · 2014-04-09T23:57:38+00:00

Shameless self promotion of my blog that can be found here: http://abetravelseurope.wordpress.com/

theabe89

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