Scholarships & Retakes

[pklopfen]

Hi!

I am currently evaluating scheduling retakes for Oct & Nov 2021 (I am scheduled for my first test in Aug 2021). Right now I am averaging a 162-165 and feel confident I can score in that range. I believe this is enough to get me admitted to the school of my choice. My question is, would it be worth it to use my first score (assuming it’s in my range) and apply early? Or wait for a retake score and then apply to get more scholarship money? I am hoping to be able to get up to a 170 by Nov.

Also, if you are admitted to a school can you retake the LSAT and use your higher score as leverage to get more scholarship money? Or do they base it solely on the score they used to admit you?

Thanks for any potential help!

[Dave Killoran]

Also, if you are admitted to a school can you retake the LSAT and use your higher score as leverage to get more scholarship money? Or do they base it solely on the score they used to admit you?

The quoted part here is the key to your question: the answer is that yes, you can use a later, higher score to extract more money from a school. and you could use that later score to perhaps get into a more highly ranked school, giving you even more options and leverage.

There is a long-held school of thought that suggests that you should apply when you can put your best foot forward, as long as that it not too late in the cycle. Using November would still be early enough to qualify here, especially since whatever medians you are looking at now are bound to go up due to the scoring bubble from the past year. Meaning, a 165 median for last year's class is likely to now be a 167 median, etc. This is something we've discussed on our podcast multiple times over the past year since it's such a big deal.

Thanks!