Advice

[dbrown89]

Hello Everyone! I'm a new member here at the board but I've been lurking around for quite sometime. This fall I will be a junior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I'm in the Pre-law program and I'm currently majoring in Political Science. I had a few questions I was hoping some people could answer.

1. Does anyone have any advice for which law schools I should be realistically looking at? Right now I have a 3.0 gpa( Which is low) but I'm taking summer school to raise it and I won't be working full time during the school year anymore because I need to focus on my grades. I have schools I've been looking at but I wanted to keep my search realistic. The areas I'm interested in are

*Chicago- I was interested in the University of Chicago's law school but I don't think that would be realistic?
*Texas-I was interested in the University of Texas-Austin Law school. My mother lives in Austin and I really like it there but I know this school is very competitive as well
*California-Anywhere in California would be nice I really think it would be a good area to start a career
*I also looked at some schools in Washington, Maryland and NY

**Another thing that may help with advising school is that I am an African American female who comes from a low-income family. I am one of the first in my family to make it this far through college and I will be the first to graduate from college. But I would like to attend a school that could possibly offer a generous amount of scholarships or financial assistance.

***Considering I won't take the LSAT until June next year I want to have a variety of schools picked out to apply to so I can know where I would need to score on the LSAT. I don't have a lot of knowledge about the ranking of the law schools (other than the very top schools) so I was looking for help from the board on this one so I could try to get into the best law school I can.

2. I've realized that I'm lacking in the gpa area so my LSAT will have to make up for it. I've decided to take the LSAT next june. I've already started preparing for it but I would like to know if me achieving a good LSAT score will outweigh my gpa even if I raise it to a 3.4 for instance? Do you advise I take a LSAT prep course?

3. Being that I will be junior this fall I need to start building various areas of my application. Where should I start? What are some things you advise I do to build my application all around?


If there is anything else you can advise I would really appreciate it! thanks!

[A.]

The LSAT is all you need to worry about right now.  Score a 165 or higher, and you have a good shot at all of those schools (except maybe Boalt and Stanford).  Score low, kiss them goodbye.  It's as simple as that.

As for building your resume, do some volunteer work this summer and next year (preferably with the same organization, to show you're committed to a "cause").  Become an officer of an organization or three if you can.

Delete your name.

Good luck.

[TruOne]

1. Delete your name.

2. Get 165 and you are Golden for Ivy League

3. Enjoy undergrad and don't any BS Pre-law courses (Law and Society, Law and Business, Law and Pink Elephants).

4. Do an internship with a lawyer that does the type of law that you might be interested in doing once you graduate.

5. Get involved in a student activity that you ENJOY being a part of. Don't waste your time joining PAD if you don't enjoy or support what they do.

6. Enjoy undergrad

7. Get the hell outta Nebraska ASAP!