Out Of Curiosity (for Lawyer Types)
Q: I don't know if law school is a realistic option at the moment, but I'm
curious as to what sort of cutoff is considered to be fairly sure
admission to law school (yes I know, it varies by schools, so take a
middle of the road to lower tier "good" law school as an example).
Anyone know, or have a good idea?
A:You'd probably want a 155 or better. For example, according to U.S.
News, UNL's 2004 class had a 25th percentile score of 152 and a 75th
percentile score of 159. UNL is toward the lower end of the top tier,
so it's probably a good base line, given your criteria.
170 would be excellent and(assuming your gpa is good) probably makes
you a lock for any of the top 14 except HYS. 172-175 probably puts you
in a good position for HYS. I know one girl who didn't get into
Columbia(top 5-6) with a 170, but her gpa was only a 3.4. I know
another girl who got into UVA(top 8 or 9) with only a 165, but she had
a 3.96 or something.
People do "tiers" for law school differently. Technically the top 50
is considered first tier, but this is way too broad to be meaningful.
Many of the best firms in the country will recruit at top 14 schools
only, and if you have looked into law school I'm sure you know what the
top 14 are. For some reason that number serves as the cutoff. Usually
the top 14 is grouped into three or four different tiers.
I think a lot of state schools that are considered "good" and place
decently(though nothing like top 3 or even top 14) have an average LSAT
of 160-161 or so.
I got a 175 or 176, I don't remember offhand, and I got invitations
in gold letters from every school. I was accepted with scholarship
to Duke within a week of them receiving my application. Duke is
right around #10, depending on the rankings. I didn't apply to
any of the higher ones, because with two kids we couldn't afford
to live in any of those cities. Of course, I also had great grades
and good engineering job experience.
I turned them down about two months ago, and it still hurts. I would have
loved law school, but I didn't talk to a single lawyer in my chosen
field (IP, esp patent) who spent any time with their children after
graduation. They all talked about 65-hour weeks as SHORT work weeks,
and it only gets worse as you get more experience.
If you will e-mail me, I have about 12 books about getting into
law schools at home. I could look up the info, or even
A: They tell you to ignore rankings, but I did a TON of research, and employment opportunities depend entirely on school ranking. For the type of job opportunities and pay I wanted, I had to go top 10. A good regional school can get you a good job in that region. If you sort the LSAC list above by LSAT scores, you get a real good approximation of the law school rankings. Otherwise, use the US News or Princeton Review rankings.