Undergrad needing advice, ok to take lsat in Dec.?

[KatieManley01]

Hello everyone.  I'm a regular poster on the Pre-law board, but thought the experienced students might be able to help with this:)  I am a senior at KU with a 3.87 gpa and psych and soc major.  I had been practicing with lsats around 170 and 171 for the past month.  However, I screwed up on Sat.  It really, really sucks.  My top schools are UT, Georgetown, Duke, and Virginia.  With the lsat score I would receive, there is no way I could make it to one of those schools.  So, I am thinking of canceling and retaking in Dec.  My score will not be available until Jan. 4th.  I can have all of my apps ready besides that.

However, I am worried that applying that late will really hurt me.  I have heard that some schools might have as much as 75% of their class chosen by then.  I was wondering if anyone had any insight on this.  Any advice would really, really help.  I am so worried that I won't be able to get into those schools applying so late.  I will be focusing on the lsat for the next 2 months and hope to be able to push my average up to the mid 170s, but everyone seems to score a little lower on the real thing. 

Please help:)  And thanks in advance. 

[holla_bread]

Katie,

In general you are always better off getting your apps in earlier, although 75% sounds almost absurd. The schools won't take action on your application until they have the lsac report, so a late lsat will make a difference.
 
As far as the test itself, unless you are fairly secure that your next one will be 10 points higher, you may want to cancel. If you get say a 162 and 169, they'll still average the results. Some schools average your lsats regardless of any disparities between scores. Bear in mind though that most people suffer a drop-off from practice to the real thing, so if you end up with say, mid 160's, it might be worth keeping. It'll still give you a shot at UT and VA and other really fine schools like BU, UCLA and so forth. Best of luck.