What should I do

[maria07]

I wanted to preface this by saying that I'm a first-generation student with practically no guidance throughout this process, so any help is greatly appreciated.

I applied extremely late in the cycle for this upcoming year since I retook the LSAT in January (not happy with my November score) and applied to schools after receiving my score. I was not aware of the gravity of the situation and the huge impact that timing has on a law school application. I applied to schools in March and was priority waitlisted at Fordham, and waitlisted at UMiami and Columbia. I am interested in corporate law, international business law, and biglaw. I graduated from undergrad 1 year early because I wanted to start my legal career early to help support my family. I had an interview with admissions from UM this week, but the interviewer mentioned that the interview was to line up candidates in case there were any openings. And, that there were no open positions at the moment. I also know that there will be little to no financial aid if I do get accepted. I don't know what I should do moving forward. I have graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in Business Administration specializing in pre-law. I am considering working in the business field between now and going to law school next year potentially (mainly for financial reasons because there aren't any high paying jobs working as a legal assistant or front desk). For reference my stats are 3.5 GPA from UF (didn't take the hard classes at community college like most people do) and 166 LSAT. I am considering retaking the LSAT as well because I was able to achieve a 9 point increase last time just with my own studying.

Thanks again

[Dave Killoran]

Hi Maria,

Thanks for the message! Irrespective of when you applied, let's look at your numbers vs the 50th % median at each school:

• You: 166/3.5
  
  Columbia: 173/3.87
  Fordham: 166/3.7 (last year)
  Miami: 161/3.63

As you can see, those schools really cover a wide range of numbers, and getting onto the WL at Columbia is really impressive. Fordham was a borderline call I'm sure, and at Miami the theory would be they needed higher GPAs in their pool, not higher LSATs (unfortunate for you, but it happens, and that might have been a factor at Fordham too). It's probably the case that applying in March affected you as well there (although not at Columbia, so you can see how each school has their own rhythm and needs--it is not uniform at all!).

Given that you are indeed looking at a situation where any acceptance is likely to not be accompanied by substantial aid, I'd follow your plan of delaying apps for a year and retaking the LSAT. Every point counts in the range where you are, and even if it doesn't elicit an acceptance offer from a T6 school like Columbia, it will erase tens of thousands of dollars of debt for other schools (see the comments section in this blog for repeated discussions of debt vs employment/prestige outcomes: https://blog.powerscore.com/lsat/schola ... y-and-run/). You can't change your GPA now but you can change your LSAT, so I'd focus on that!

Thanks!