Why do we all panic?

[fmihalic1477]

Hey everyone,

I had an interesting conversation with a professor of mine last night and wanted to share his insight. I'm preparing for the September 2017 LSAT and have done 3 three practice tests with scores of 157, 159, and 160 respectively. My initial goal was to score a 175 or higher on the test so that I could get a large scholarship from UPenn (I'm from the Philadelphia area). However, we all take the LSAT in order to get into a school that will allow us to get the jobs that we want.

My professor told me that a 162 will be in the 75% of accepted applicants into Temple Law, a top 50 school. In my area, for example those same Temple graduates compete for the big law jobs with UPenn graduates for jobs at firms such as Dechert LLP. The first year associates of Dechert LLP Philadelphia come with most frequency from UPenn, Harvard, NYU, and Temple, in that order. While the LSAT measures our raw capabilities as lawyers, the three years in law school are where skills are developed and potentially polished.

Obviously, the better the score is, the more options you have and so on. However, what I took from that conversation is that even if you don't reach your maximum goal for an LSAT score, it's not the end of world as long as you're still in a position to compete as if you did receive that score after law school.

What do you think?

Frank

[Kristina Moen]

Frank,

You have a great attitude about the test. Yes, it is important for getting into law school (and getting scholarships!), but there are many paths to get what you want out of life. There are some excellent schools in big cities that can offer a path to Biglaw (if that's what you want!). First-year grades really do matter, as that will determine where you spend your 1L summer, and things tend to follow from there. However, you will have bit more "wiggle room" with your grades at a higher-ranked school.

I say - do the best that you can do on the LSAT and take it from there. It's one of the few aspects to your application that you can still control (since you can't change your GPA or work history). You might think of it like taking another college class where the grade matters as much as your entire GPA. Of course you will want to do your best! But one of my fellow instructors posed an interesting hypothetical in another thread - if you had to take ten years out of your life to achieve a perfect 180... would you do it?

Probably not, because it is a means to an end - unless you become an LSAT instructor like me!