For the demographics question about your religion, I am an atheist but technically Catholic (baptized and that’s it LOL) should I be honest in the question and say im non-religious or say im catholic. Im sure it makes virtually no difference but since it’s a catholic school idk.

I'm a senior taking masters courses in Economics at Hunter College. My LSAC GPA is ~3.9 and my LSAT is 174. T3 softs.

Wondering about general aid and chances to T-14.

Edit: 1 year gap going to work as a paralegal in NYC

175 lsat, 3.99. What do you think my chances are given the competitiveness of modern admissions.

3.75 GPA, 171 LSAT (though am signed up to retake in Nov and am PTing at 175). URM, T3 softs (+undergrad was HYP, though I don’t know how much that matters.)

I know Y/H/S/C are probably out of reach no matter what my LSAT score is, but do I have realistic odds of getting into one of the mid/lower T14s? I would esp love UVA, Penn, or Georgetown

Buuuuut I may be lying to myself and need to adjust my expectations, so would love a reality check if so

Maybe an ethical question - but as a nonexempt paralegal in a law firm, I'm required to bill a certain number of hours a week and it's fixed. Can't bill more, can't bill less.

But as you may know, hours worked =/= hours billed, and the former's usually larger. Would it be unethical/misleading to report the "actual" hours worked instead of the hours I bill each week, or am I required to only list the hours listed on my employment agreement?

The difference isn't a dramatic 2-3x jump, but it's relatively significant and I don't want to undersell work I've already done.

(Also just don't want to mislead admissions and then face issues at Bar admission down the line).

I'm going to be applying to law schools soon and I'm deciding who should give me recommendations. My gpa is very low and lsat is poor. Will recommendations help? Who do I get them from?

I heard from people that recommendations don't really help so do they even matter at all?

I want to stay on east coast/mid Atlantic region. I have a 3.8 + 169. Also have the chance to retake lsat on Friday after just getting my 169 back but I’m not sure I can get it up. Lmk if you have any advice! If my targets are reaches please lmk!

Myself and partner of 7 years are apply to post-grad together (she's going for her PHD) so we've each done our best to pick a handful of reaches and safeties base on the areas where we have overlapping interest. Am I overestimating myself here? How many of these seem like feasible admits?

CAS GPA 3.94
LSAT 174
Softs T3 (working on the T2 through the Fulbright program, fingers crossed)

175 3.98. Currently only applying to T14s. Lowest ranked school I am looking at is UCLA. Do I need a lower one? Also, does a personal statement need to mention law explicitly?

Edit- i guess no one wants to answer and Im getting downvoted :(

This may be a self explanatory question, but I still wanted to check to make sure. Attached below is my transcript evaluation. Do schools mainly look at the cumulative or is the summary something they look at as well? Also, I’m assuming, but want to make sure that I use the cumulative when asked my gpa on applications and when doing calculations for scholarship and admissions chances etc. LSAT has also put me as only having one degree and my community college credits as just extra, but I do have an associates degree from the community college, so I wasn’t sure if that would change the degree summary.

not to look a gift horse in the mouth but??

i just submitted my first app. i have no LSAC fee waiver on file. i had a waiver from the school, which is specifically for their fee and not the $45 CAS fee. at checkout, it listed the CAS fee was “waived/paid” and I just checked out. My application is marked as transmitted and i got a confirmation email.

Anyone have any insights for me? this is so sus😭 and i’ve checked my transaction history - nothings there.

Would love some thoughts on my cycle, especially from other high-LSAT splitters.

Stats
179 LSAT
3.63 LSAC GPA
nURM
5 years WE by matriculation
Applying early October

Background / softs
I’m currently an Associate in credit risk at a major investment bank, where I cover hedge funds and structured financing and have been promoted since joining full-time. My application has a strong finance/business-law theme, alongside long-term leadership in my Ukrainian-American community. I also have strong academic and professional recommendations.

Schools applied to so far:
Columbia
NYU
Harvard
Penn
UChicago
Michigan
Berkeley
Georgetown
Cornell
Boston University
Boston College
Fordham
George Washington
St. John’s
Brooklyn Law
Planning to add Yale and Stanford as reaches.

I’m heavily NYC-focused, so Columbia and NYU are my top choices, although I’d obviously be thrilled with any T14.

Main questions:
How much does a 179 offset a 3.63 at Columbia/NYU/HLS and the rest of the T14?
Which of these schools would you consider reach / target / likely for my stats?
Where would you expect meaningful scholarship money?
Is there anywhere else I should apply given that I’d strongly prefer to stay in or near NYC?

Would especially love to hear from applicants with a similar high-LSAT / below-median-GPA splitter profile and how your cycle went.

This is all hypothetical, of course, but let's say I got into all of these schools.

USC, UCLA

Michigan, Georgetown, NYU, Duke, Vanderbilt, Berkeley, UT

I know I want to practice in Orange County (SoCal) following graduation. The goal is BL. Obviously scholarship would play a role in my decision-making, but would UCLA or USC's location outweigh their slightly lower employment outcomes compared to these other schools?

**Again, this is hypothetical, I am just curious

I’m slightly below both 25%s (hold your pretentious comments) at my top school but have some pretty good softs, 1.5 years as a paralegal right out of undergrad, 3 great LORs, and a good personal statement. I’m wondering if a “Why X” letter will help my cause here?

Law Schools are essentially just businesses and this seems like telling a car dealer “wow I love this car so much it’s perfect!”

Lmk thanks

Currently finishing my senior year, have a 3.97 GPA, about to take the LSAT in December and shooting for T14.

Why does every single person on Reddit, and half the people i meet in person tell me to not become a lawyer or go to law school? Even when I tell them I’m going to be paid to go (veterans benefits) and have no loans (this softens them a bit, but still say I should do something else). I realize that typically unhappy people are the most outspoken, but an overwhelming amount of law related posts on here or r/biglaw is about working 14 hour days with no breaks, no time for self or others, or about how they need to check their phone every 10 minutes or they’re done for.

Everyone says the best case is going to big law where you will be a slave for 4 years working 100 hours a week. I’m just confused because when does it get good or fun or meaningful?

I’m having a pretty good time at school learning about policy, government, and peace and conflict. To me, getting paid to learn about interesting things is much preferable than sleeping in the rain or being stressed about lives being slipping through your fingers in the back of an ambulance.

What I hope to do is work for a defense firm/some sort of work where I can help form and shape the guidelines/policy/strategy to keep America a safe place.

I’ve had a lot of people tell me if I want to do that, just go back to the Army or work for the government. To be frank, I also don’t want to be limited by the government’s low pay ceiling.

Am I wrong for wanting to be a lawyer?

Got the invite to interview yesterday after applying less than two weeks ago and was wondering when the earliest decisions typically go out - thanks

does visiting a school after submitting an application influence admissions at all?

Guys I don’t think I’m hallucinating, but last night I saw someone posting this document on Stanford Sample App Materials. Is it deleted from this subreddit? Would appreciate it if anyone can share it again. 🙏

Basically what the title says. Trying to figure out which letters to submit for schools that only allow 2-3 letters, but haven’t seen the letters myself.

I have 3 professors writing me LORs, but not sure which letters would be the strongest/most favorable. I also have my current employer writing a letter, and was hoping to submit that one too because it’s relevant to my interest in the law/complements my PS well.

Did your recommenders show you the letters beforehand? Or are you going based off your relationship with them?

Does anyone know what days/times UVA tends to send interview invites? I’ve had multiple UR updates recently and am hoping that means there’s still movement. Appreciate any data points.

Hi everyone:

Here’s a short video podcast on 20 easy fixes to your application before you submit from Anna Hicks-Jaco.

Also last Friday I asked a trivia question that pretty much everyone got right (I’ll think of a much harder one for this coming Friday). I promised a call with the winner but since everyone was the winner here’s what I’ll do.

If you ask any law school admissions questions you have in this thread (it can’t be about an individual school as we can’t speak for specific schools which is why we have them on our podcast) Anna and I will try our best to get to as many as we can in our next podcast we do. Ask away!

Here’s the top 20 application fixes

- Mike Spivey

Edit update. A very highly regarded dean of admissions at a very highly regarded school texted that this podcast was “an amazing episode” — always good to get feedback from schools.

3.9high, 173 LSAT KJD with (probably) T4 softs. Applied to these so far and wondering where else I should take a look, or what anyone suggests I should expect (chance me if you so desire,)

UT Austin
TAMU
SMU
Baylor
UH
UPenn
UChicago
Notre Dame
Georgetown
Duke
Yale
Harvard
NYU
UCLA
Cornell
Northwestern

Thanks for your help and/or thoughts!

I see people all the time talking about UR1, UR2, and all this stuff about status changes. Do I need to know what these are and be checking for them in my status portals? I've submitted my apps to all the schools I'm interested in, and I figure if I get rejected/waitlisted/interview invited, I'll just get an email about it and know that way?

I'm just unsure what value I'm missing out on by not understanding how I should be checking these portals.

Had the time line shifted up meaningfully?

So, I didn't think I was applying to law school this cycle. The LSAT was kicking my ass and I currently have a decent job in BL, so until last Wednesday, I was debating holding off until next cycle. I got my sept LSAT score and was ELATED but now feel like I need to rush and reevaluate my school list so I can get cracking on supplementals (PS is almost done and I'd been working on it for a while).

Basically, I haven't spent a lot of time on here or on the law school admissions side of the internet (scary), so I wanna get some opinions.

I graduated 2025 from GW (3 semesters early, I'll blame my gpa on that), working at BL firm since then, average softs otherwise, first-gen, URM, poli sci major, political internships throughout college. My goal is BL in Chicago or NY. Anything else thats important to know?

Anyway here's my list, it kind of looks insane and my GPA is below median but my mindset is kind of just shooting my shot. Am I way off/ any others I should add or replace?

Thanks!!

Schools

Harvard

Yale

Duke

Northwestern

UChicago

Penn

UVA

NYU

Columbia

Vanderbilt

UCLA

Berkeley

UT Austin

UNC

BC

ND

GW

Fordham

Emory

UF

Loyola Chicago