Which Law Schools Should I Apply To?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I got my LSAT score yesterday, and am trying to narrow down the list of schools I should apply to. I have fifteen on my list so far, and it would cost $1100 to apply to all of them. I’d like to get the list down to 8. I go to Johns Hopkins, my gpa is 2.8 (yes, it sucks, but please remember that we don’t have grade inflation), and my LSAT is 163. Here’s my tentative list. I’m wondering if I’ll get in to any of them, and if all of them are worth going to? I don’t want to spend 100k and 3 years of my life and find out that the school’s reputation is bad/non-existent.

Boston College
Boston University
Northeastern
New England
Suffolk

University of Connecticut
Quinnipiac

Fordham
Seton Hall
Rutgers-Newark
NYU
Columbia

American University
University of Maryland
George Washington

2

Not to be a dick or anything, but you’re got zero chance of getting into most of those law schools with a 2.8 GPA and a 163 LSAT. NYU? Columbia? Ain’t gonna happen.

Get yourself a good guide to law school admissions–the Princeton Review’s guide was pretty good when back when I was applying. That’ll give you a pretty good idea of what the admissions criteria are like. Don’t even think of applying to a particular school unless you’re at least in the middle of the bell curve of admitted students, unless you’ve got some spectacular story of personal achievement and humanitarian goodness that we haven’t otherwise heard about.

3

US News and World Report always has a ranking issue (Grad Schools) on the stands. Grab a copy of that. They sell it at most large newstands. LSAT is more important than GPA, so at least you are well above the national average. Make sure you apply to a safety school.

4

Whatsamata U.

5

Like minty green said, in much more explicit words, you’re setting your sights a tad too high. But don’t sell yourself short either.

Last year around this time I was in your shoes. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to go to law school. I applied to six of them at various academic levels figuring that, best case scenario, I’d get into two or three and I could figure out my plans from there. I was accepted to all six. This astounded me. I joked with my parents that I might have considered trying for Harvard or Yale with this track record.

My GPA sucked and my LSAT was above average, but not extremely so. I think what got them was my entrance essay (which I thought was damn good and acctually garnered a personalized comment from two of the universities) and the fact that I was two years into the real world and not fresh from college.

Which brings me to my advice on getting into the schools you want to: be honest about your situation. Your grades (comparatively) suck. Tell them that. That kind of refreshing honesty is like a wake up call to the admissions committee to read your essay. Explain to them that you know your GPA isn’t as good as you would have liked, tell them why, and tell them what you will do in law school that is better than what you’ve done in college.

As for what schools you should go to, I dunno. I happen to like KU.

6

While NYU and Columbia are indeed out of the question, Suffolk is probably not. New England is pretty poor - I have a friend who got in there after failing out of Suffolk.

What’s your major? Why do you want to be a lawyer? If it’s really what you want to do, you might actually be best off to try to get a job as a paralegal for a year or two before you apply. A letter of recommendation from a “real lawyer” explaining from personal experience why you have what it takes to be a good lawyer is a big help - I think that’s what tipped the balance to get me into Harvard. (I’d been working as a patent agent for two years - a great track if you happen to have a science degree).

7

Oh sweetie, I must say it. LSAT is not more important than GPA.

But at this point, go for it. Apply to a few of your dream schools, you will only be out $50 or so for each application. Then check out the US News list, but take it with a grain of salt. They rank some odd things that may not be truly indicative of the quality of the school. Check the University of Texas rankings, they are very good. If you go by US News, stick to the 2nd & 3rd quartile schools.

This will probably sound horrible, but many law schools are still firmly entrenched in the “we have too many white male lawyers” thing. If you are an average white male, you may be in for an uphill battle, while if you are a woman or an ethnic or racial minority, you may have better luck. Sad and racist and sexist? Maybe, but still true nonetheless.

8

Ok, NYU, Columbia, and New England are off the list. This is good, only 4 more to get rid of.

I’m a white female, and I am handicapped, though I’m not sure whether to mention that to schools or not. I’m majoring in writing.

Financially, the only time I can go to law school is next fall. My family is very poor, so I’ve had to pay for most of my education with student loans, which I’ll have to start paying back after I’m out of college for 6 months. Law school will postpone that, and although it will add to my debt, it will also give me a reliable way to pay it back. Also, if I work for two years before going to law school, my income will count against the pell grants and government loans I’d otherwise be eligible for.

9

The relative value of GPA and LSAT actually varies from school to school. Many law schools actually use mathematical formulas for much of their admissions, and sometimes they make those formulas available. As a rule of thumb, though, you should probably assume that GPA and LSAT are each going to count about the same.

EJsGirl, the University of Texas is indeed a very good law. It is also a bitch to get into, especially for out-of-state students. 2.8/163 just isn’t even close, I’m afraid. I was significantly higher in both, plus I was in-state, and they still didn’t let me in. 'Course, by the time UT turned me down I’d already wrapped up a full-ride scholarship to a comparably ranked school elsewhere, so I couldn’t have cared less. :slight_smile:

163 is a solid LSAT score, so you’re definitely in the ball game. Get the US News rankings watsonwil mentioned, use compare the rankings to the Princeton admissions guide, and start seeing where your scores and grades will take you–I’m guessing mid-second tier to mid-third tier, on the US News scale. There are some pretty solid schools in there, including some that have outstanding specialized programs that may interest you. The University of Houston, for example, is (IIRC) a low second tier school with reasonable admissions standards, and it has also built an excellent intellectual property program. Also, a lot of the ones away from the east and west coasts have much less stringent admissions standards. So basically, keep an open mind geographically, find out where you stand, and start doing some comparison shopping.

10

Triumph over adversity! Law school admissions committees eat that stuff up. It’s a big help when the admissions committee is going through the stack of applications in the “maybe” pile.

11

Give a thought to what type of law you wish to practise, and see which schools specialize in that area.

Have a look at graduate placement rates and salaries, summer job placements, and in-school employment during school terms.

Hunt out the schools with the friendliest, most helpful profs, who will be able to mentor you and possibly assist you with employment.

Play the handicap, poverty and gender cards when applying – and check out which schools consider letters of reference. That might lift you up out of the miasma of the great unwashed, and if you are short listed, will make the difference if another person with similar grades and LSATs is competing against you for the same seat.

Check for admission preferences to local residents, and on a similar bent, think about where you want to settle down geographically (sometimes it is easier to find jobs if you are already in the area).

Have a long hard look at the various admissions standards, and apply to whose schools which weight more on personal considerations, and/or LSATs, than on grades.

Be realistic in your odds. Since your grades are relatively poor and your LSAT’s are good but not exceptional, be sure to apply to a handful “safety” schools where you have a strong chance of being admitted. If, at the end of the day, you are turned down by both a couple of dream schools and half a dozen superior schools, at least you can fall back on something. Remember that your alma matter will probably be a small part of your success as a lawyer. Get the degree, even if not at the best school. As long as it is not a matchbox school, if you are at or near the top of your class you will find a good job (for you will beat out many of those at the low end of their classes from top schools), and once you have landed that first good job, the world will be your oyster.
[DUCK AND COVER, MUFFIN, DUCK AND COVER]If in doubt, go to law school in Canada, where all the schools are first rate, and certainly far superior to anything in our southern colonies. :stuck_out_tongue: [/DUCK AND COVER, MUFFIN, DUCK AND COVER]

[sub]Hey, I’m only joking! Quit with the bricks and bats already![/sub]

12

Have you thought about somewhere like Mercer or Washington & Lee? Good, respectable law schools, with a really positive student atmosphere. Perhaps not as competitive as the ones some Dopers are worried you may not win admission to.

13

Here’s a site that lists law schools under a GPA/LSAT matrix, using the 25-75 percentile of students. Not a bad little resource.
Using your numbers (Box L, using GPA as the primary - you could also check Box H) you get:

Chicago Kent –IIT
Missouri (U. of) - Columbia School of Law
Akron (U. of) School of Law
Indiana U. - Bloomington
Pittsburgh (U. of) Law
Rutgers Law School – Newark
Campbell U. law
Georgia State U. Law School
Williamette Univ. School. of Law
Maine (U. of)
Northeastern School of Law
Marquette U. School of Law
Buffalo (U. of) State U. of New York
Seton Hall Law School
Brandeis School at Louisville (U. of)
Memphis (U. of) Humphreys School of Law
San Francisco (U. of) Law
Southern Illinois U. School of Law
Chapman U School of Law
New Mexico (U. of) Law
Catholic U. of America - Columbus
Suffolk U. Law School

14

A partisan reply: I went to Seton Hall Law (Class of '99). You didn’t say HOW you are handicapped, but Seton Hall’s building is brilliantly equipped (numerous elevators and an all-floors wheelchair ramp) for persons who use a wheelchair. I got accepted at Fordham (a “better law school”), attended a couple of classes, was mightily unimpressed by both the quality of teaching AND the snotty, superior attitude of the admissions staff. Then I dropped by Seton Hall, heard a professor expound brilliantly on Corporate Tax Law (“They can make THIS interesting?!?!”), and was treated respectfully by the admissions and financial aid guys. The prof who taught that Corporate Tax class is now dean of the law school. Lots of other great professors, too.

I also liked SHU because it was NOT white-bread-and-mayo. It had flavor, spice, and a broad range of student backgrounds, just like the clients you may someday have.

Writing is a GREAT background for the law, because huge amounts of legal work are about creating or interpreting language.

Good luck no matter where you wind up. Just remember, NEVER think about the years to get thru. Just think about what you have to do TODAY and TOMORROW, and pretty soon you’ll be taking the bar.

15

There is a huge oversupply of lawyers. Most new graduates fail in practice, because there are simply too many out there. in addition, many interviews of practicing lawyers reveal that most wish they had never become lawyers. Why not do something rewarding, and liable to be fun as well? Blowing $30-50 grand on a law degree doesn’t make a lot of sense, given the tremendous oversupply of lawyers.

16

Are you going to law school for the money, or because you want to be a lawyer? If it’s the former, I’d advise against it.

You will be able to get adequate financial aid (admittedly, it may be tipped more towards loans than grants) if you work before going to law school. And if you work, you’ll be able to make the payments on the college loans. If you can’t, there are a variety of programs to help you deal with that problem.

When I was working on my PhD, we had a sign on the wall that said, “Grad school is the snooze button on the alarm clock of life.” If that’s how you’re looking at law school, don’t do it. You’ll be miserable, and you’ll graduate with a truly unbelievable debt load. And lawyers from the schools you’re likely to get in to generally do not end up making big bucks at the New York law firms.

Does your current school have a guidance office? There should be someone there who can help you figure out your options.

17

Since you will be adding to existing debt, the school’s tuition is a factor you should consider. I know several relatively recent law school grads whose debt payments are greater than they have available to spend on housing. A second-third tier private school won’t necessarily open more doors than a second-third tier public school.

Another thing to consider is, do you know geographically where you wish to practice? There may be a local school which does not have a great national rep, but whose alumni make up a substantial portion of the local bar. When hiring, they will be less likely to look down their nose at a grad from their own alma mater.

Think long and hard about this one.

18

A lot of youngsters go into law not knowing what they want out of a career or out of life, and find themselves disappointed later on.

Others (inclusing myself who went in as a mature student) are having a blast!

It’s just a matter of knowing yourself and knowing what you are getting into.

As far as employment opportunities go, I can ony speak about my own alma matter, the University of Western Ontario, where last year the placement rate for graduates looking for articling jobs was 100%. On a similar bent, my office in Thunder Bay is having a very difficult time finding young lawyers, despite it being the hottest firm in the city. We pay less than Toronto (but we have more fun!), and Toronto pays less than New York, so attracting talent is difficult unless there are already ties to the community.

19

We may have been through this before; there is a fair argument that there are too many lawyers out there. There are way too many self-important toads and bill padding slime balls. There are not enough good lawyers.

If it is your wish to go out and try to serve your community, charge an honest fee for honest work and never be anybody’s mouthpiece, then, damn it, go find a law school that will accept you and that you can afford. If you don’t want to be in a high powered firm that charges for prestige and has offices in buildings that air planes fly into, then you do not need to go to a fancy pants law school.

The law is a noble and satisfying profession. Don’t let the ignorant and envious tell you any different. If a career in the law is what you want, it doesn’t make much difference where you go to school, just whether you pass the bar exam.