Did someone here actually say "but my daddy...." Holy F'n hell. Look littlegirl stop watching daddy and ask him not what he did today but what he did in (real hard here) LAWSCHOOL! Then come back and post what his outdated opinions on it were.

You fetus's remind me of all the idiot civilians when I got back to the states, "you couldnt of been in the service, my grandad was in the service and he told me people had to show respect and your a male private part....." Welcome back to reality people. Just because a bunch of undergrads tell eachother that day is night (and say "but my daddy") dosn't make it so. 

"but my daddy......."

You misunderstood.  To be fair, I did write  a grammatically confusing sentence.  (See how much grammar matters?)

My father is an attorney.  This means I grew up constantly discussing the law.  I also read the [state] Code when I was curious about what the law actually was.  It's not about "what my daddy told me" but rather the environment in which I was raised.

After college, I worked in BigLaw for 3 years.  I have been mentored by top attorneys and have assisted on major transactions.  I've drafted correspondence to top executives at Fortune 500 companies.  Maybe I don't know as much about law school as you do, but I think I know a little bit about the actual practice of law.


Apologies, marcus, for derailing your helpful and interesting blog-like application thread.

Please enlighten what advice (and for future reference, "probably" is the correct spelling, not probally) I have given that is unwarranted.  Saying that school 9 is no different from 90?  Wait, that was not me.  Someone with but vacuous space between the ears said that.  My lack of proper grammar?  Wait, that is not me either.

All of my advice (advise is a verb, you really cannot give it.  Have you ever tried giving run or walk.  It is not easy, let me tell you) has been from the countless of hours of research, the plethora of lawyers and admissions officers I have talked to, as well as a few judges.  So I am confident about my advice. 

The fact you are negative, misconstrue other's statements and assume things (Nealric was not a Harvard or Yale student, but you assumed he was when he defended him) and the fact you bring up irrelvant points that are outside the scope of the topic only demonstartes you lack of reasoning ability.  Hence, your unemployment or class rank is due to your own inadequacy at either research prior to law school or simply work ethic.

::begins slow clap::


Anyway, good luck on the Georgetown essay!  It should be a good winter project.

It's still early in my application cycle, and I know financial aid packages could change things, but I'm curious to get your opinions on what I should do.

Education: BA with an individualized major; AAS in Fashion Merchandising

Work Experience: 1 year as a legal secretary at a V50 in NY; 1 year as a secretary (who sometimes did analyst work) for the M&A group of a major bank in NY; 2 years in a research role at the same V50 in NY; 6 months+ (currently employed) as an analyst for a Fortune 500 retailer in the Midwest

Immediate goal post-law school: return to V50's Chicago office as an associate in corporate transactional (or possibly restructuring or IP transactional)
Long-term thoughts: Move into a recruiting or client development role at the firm; go in-house somewhere; lateral to a specialized firm;  lateral to an entertainment firm (I know that's extremely difficult); or partner-track

OSU
Pros:
*My husband's job is here (he's a 1st year resident)
*Even if no aid is offered, in-state tuition is super cheap
*I enjoyed the class I sat in on
*Hang On Sloopy is a really catchy tune
Cons:
*I don't want to stay in Ohio long-term
*There is only one firm whose Chicago office was represented at OCI this year (and it's not my old firm)

UIUC
Pros:
*Strong brand
*Places well in Chicago
*Scholarship $ makes up for OOS tuition
*Less than 2 hours from my hometown
*COL in UC is really low
Cons:
*My old firm wasn't represented at OCI
*Not sure about living in a college town

Fordham
Pros:
*Is the only school to which I've been accepted so far where my old firm participated in OCI this year.
*I have a really strong support system in NYC
*I love NY
*Decent brand despite its ranking
Cons:
*Expensive... really expensive
*They didn't allow me to sit in on a class when I visited as a perspective student
*It's neither NYU nor CLS


Sorry for the novel; thanks for your thoughts!

The posters above have both given you a lot of good information.

One thing you should do, though, is figure out what your LSAC GPA is.  I'm guessing since you haven't yet taken the LSAT, you haven't paid for the Credential Assembly service through LSAC either.  In order to make everything easier for the law schools, the LSAC standardizes undergraduate GPAs.  They will look at all grades received from colleges through the completion of your bachelor's degree (so if you took college courses in high school, those count, but if, like me, you got an associate's degree after your bachelor's, those won't count).  If you re-took a class and both grades appear on your transcript, they will count both grades.

With that in mind, here's a calculator you can use to determine your LSAC GPA:
http://www.lawpad.com/gpa_calculator/

Also, is the 2.9 only from your senior year and not your cumulative?  Because schools care far more about the cumulative.  You should still write a short addendum explaining the downward trend (heavy workload), but with a soft like PCV and a strong LSAT score, many will be able to overlook it.

If you want to get into patent law, I believe an engineering, physics, or natural science degree is required.  Your GPA will be very important.  So pick one of the above majors that you will do best in.

Exactly.  Top IP attorneys also often have graduate degrees in hard sciences.  I think it might be better to ask yourself what you're interested in in addition to law.  If you love both science and law, go the IP route; if you like finance/econ, go the traditional corporate route; etc.