- PowerScore Staff
- Posts: 9012
- Joined: Feb 02, 2011
- Mon Feb 12, 2018 2:54 pm
#43862
Below is a transcript of a conversation between PowerScore Vice President Jon Denning and a student, George, about applying to law school.
George: "Hello, I'm a Mexican-American from East Los Angeles and considering applying to law school at age 44. I was looking up on how to pay for law school online and saw your posts. I am married with 5 kids and my oldest 2 are twins that will be starting college Fall 2018. I've wrestled with the thought of whether I should even try to attend law school at my age and the same time how will I pay for it and what schools I should apply to. Can you give me any advice on this as well as on which schools in my area offer full rides and what I would need to do to get a full ride? Thanks!"
Jon Denning: "Hi George - thanks for the questions! Let me try to take them one at a time
First, as to your age and family situation, there's absolutely nothing that I'm hearing that makes me think you wouldn't be an excellent candidate for law school! You're what's considered a non-traditional applicant due to being a little older than the average 1L (first year student), but schools appreciate diversity so that won't be viewed negatively. It simply means you'll have some slightly unique choices to make when applying, like collecting your letters of recommendation from your professional career rather than your academic life--I doubt you're still in touch with college professors from your undergrad days, anyway--and whether you'd want to attend full-time in law school, or enter a part-time program which many schools offer.
Those are decisions only you can make, of course, but on the whole there's zero reason to think that you're not a qualified candidate
Second, schools in the LA area and scholarships. LA really has a wide variety of options nearby, from the quite prestigious USC and UCLA programs, to some great mid-range schools in Loyola and Pepperdine, to less highly-ranked but still attractive options like Southwestern.
Scholarships are available at each institution, however you'll find that a "full ride" is going to require very different, and sometimes unpredicted, elements at each. For instance, a full academic ride to UCLA is likely to require an undergrad GPA of nearly-4.0 and an LSAT score of at least 169+ (and probably more like 173+). You'll also need strong "softs" like a great personal statement, excellent letters of rec, and a compelling resume since you've been out of school for at least 20 years I suspect.
But a full ride to Southwestern is going to be far easier to attain--the LSAT score in particular can likely be at least 8-12 points lower than the UCLA numbers I gave and still leave you competitive--so it's an entirely different metric.
So here's your best bet right now. First, take a full, timed practice LSAT if you've never done so before (or if it's been a while, like more than 2-3 months ago). There's a free one you can download here: https://www.lsac.org/docs/default-sourc ... ptjune.pdf
Print it out, find some privacy, and then take the full test start to finish as four back-to-back sections of 35 minutes each. It'll take around 2.5 hours total.
Once you finish, create an account on our free self-study site so you can score your test: http://students.powerscore.com/self-study/index.cfm
You'll enter your answers and get comprehensive feedback on how you performed, so you'll know both your starting score as well as your natural strengths and weaknesses (and immediate areas for improvement). Based on that starting point, look at the local LA schools I mentioned and see how your starting score stacks up--you can easily google data on each--as that will give you a better sense of how far you are from being financially attractive to these schools (for instance, UCLA's median LSAT score is around a 167 whereas Southewestern's is a 152).
Then you can decide how best to prep to get your score up to a level to make you scholarship-competitive, depending on which school you'd like to attend and what's most realistic! Just check out our prep options on our main LSAT page http://www.powerscore.com/lsat/ and let us know if you have any questions!
I hope that helps!"
George: "Jon, Thank you very much for the information. It helps a ton!"
George: "Hello, I'm a Mexican-American from East Los Angeles and considering applying to law school at age 44. I was looking up on how to pay for law school online and saw your posts. I am married with 5 kids and my oldest 2 are twins that will be starting college Fall 2018. I've wrestled with the thought of whether I should even try to attend law school at my age and the same time how will I pay for it and what schools I should apply to. Can you give me any advice on this as well as on which schools in my area offer full rides and what I would need to do to get a full ride? Thanks!"
Jon Denning: "Hi George - thanks for the questions! Let me try to take them one at a time
First, as to your age and family situation, there's absolutely nothing that I'm hearing that makes me think you wouldn't be an excellent candidate for law school! You're what's considered a non-traditional applicant due to being a little older than the average 1L (first year student), but schools appreciate diversity so that won't be viewed negatively. It simply means you'll have some slightly unique choices to make when applying, like collecting your letters of recommendation from your professional career rather than your academic life--I doubt you're still in touch with college professors from your undergrad days, anyway--and whether you'd want to attend full-time in law school, or enter a part-time program which many schools offer.
Those are decisions only you can make, of course, but on the whole there's zero reason to think that you're not a qualified candidate
Second, schools in the LA area and scholarships. LA really has a wide variety of options nearby, from the quite prestigious USC and UCLA programs, to some great mid-range schools in Loyola and Pepperdine, to less highly-ranked but still attractive options like Southwestern.
Scholarships are available at each institution, however you'll find that a "full ride" is going to require very different, and sometimes unpredicted, elements at each. For instance, a full academic ride to UCLA is likely to require an undergrad GPA of nearly-4.0 and an LSAT score of at least 169+ (and probably more like 173+). You'll also need strong "softs" like a great personal statement, excellent letters of rec, and a compelling resume since you've been out of school for at least 20 years I suspect.
But a full ride to Southwestern is going to be far easier to attain--the LSAT score in particular can likely be at least 8-12 points lower than the UCLA numbers I gave and still leave you competitive--so it's an entirely different metric.
So here's your best bet right now. First, take a full, timed practice LSAT if you've never done so before (or if it's been a while, like more than 2-3 months ago). There's a free one you can download here: https://www.lsac.org/docs/default-sourc ... ptjune.pdf
Print it out, find some privacy, and then take the full test start to finish as four back-to-back sections of 35 minutes each. It'll take around 2.5 hours total.
Once you finish, create an account on our free self-study site so you can score your test: http://students.powerscore.com/self-study/index.cfm
You'll enter your answers and get comprehensive feedback on how you performed, so you'll know both your starting score as well as your natural strengths and weaknesses (and immediate areas for improvement). Based on that starting point, look at the local LA schools I mentioned and see how your starting score stacks up--you can easily google data on each--as that will give you a better sense of how far you are from being financially attractive to these schools (for instance, UCLA's median LSAT score is around a 167 whereas Southewestern's is a 152).
Then you can decide how best to prep to get your score up to a level to make you scholarship-competitive, depending on which school you'd like to attend and what's most realistic! Just check out our prep options on our main LSAT page http://www.powerscore.com/lsat/ and let us know if you have any questions!
I hope that helps!"
George: "Jon, Thank you very much for the information. It helps a ton!"