Law School Discussion

I think some of you are being a bit presumptuous. A URM's chances for admission at any T-14 are just about the same across the board; either he's a good candidate or he's not...period.

Admissions is a much wilder game for URM's (especially African-Americans and Native-Americans/Indians).

Because "soft" factors are actually "hard" for them, it's much more difficult to predict which schools will want them, particularly when talking about top schools, b/c they intuitively place differenct weights on the intangibles.

At Duke and Harvard, for example, a URM's having overcome severe impoverishment might be worth 10-12 points on the LSAT,raising a 158 LSAT scorer to 168-170 (well within range for admission with $$$ at any top school), or a 163 to 173-175 (an automatic admit with $$$ at any school).

There's no real science to it, so i can see how a URM candidate might underestimate his chances of getting into Harvard. Besides, there are students every year who turn down Harvard to go to schools like Northwestern, Penn, Columbia, UVA, etc. Many of you may not want to believe this, but not everybody needs to drop "H-Bombs" for the rest of their lives to be or feel successful. 

It's only fair that people also read this article. It's two years old, but as relevant as ever...especially since nothing has been done to fix the problem.

http://www.abajournal.com/news/law_school_secret_bad_job_market/

Have you seen Fordham's new law building? Have you been to the site? It's trick! http://www.law.fordham.edu/alumni/8452.htm
 
It got me thinking. With all of these law schools re-doing their facilities, which one has the best facilities? I'm talking technology, aesthetics, comfort, accessibility, size, location, convenience...everything.

Which one is worst?

N.D. finished theirs and it looks nice. UC-Davis looks like it's coming along, as does Berkeley. 

And when are Boston, Howard and USC going to get better?

2.6 is just way too low to realistically hope for T14 or even T-30, absent a killer LSAT score and softs and an upward grade trend in a tough major/courses. I don't think you have to hit 170, but the usual 160+ that works for URM's won't work for a sub-3.0 GPA; you'll need a 166+ to make the adcoms notice you.

You definitely need to explain your grades with an addendum. There's a reason schools evaluate grades and scores. And, although they want to be somewhat forgiving, they have to draw the line somewhere. If you can score 155+, you may squeak into the 1st tier, say Cardozo or Arizona State. But you are looking mostly at low-2nd tier through 4th tier schools.

What might also help you is to do some post-bac work and try to raise your GPA while getting some work experience.