2.9 GPA/156 LSAT Mexican American Female

[alechen]

Hi everyone! I have my B.A. in Spanish Literature with a minor in business and classes in mandarin chinese,anthropology, sciences, and entrepreneurship. I have done work with refugee students and their community and I am interested in either immigration or international law. I don't know anyone going to law school and would like some advice on law schools for my gpa/lsat range. So far, I have been looking at:
New York Law School
SMU Dedman
Southwestern Law School
Drexel-Earle Mack School of Law
U of Florida

I went to a tier 1 undergrad ( its ranked 34th) and have significant student debt so I want to make sure I end up at a good law school for better job opportunities . Any advice about the schools in my list or others I should consider?? Also, since my gpa is low, I don't know if I should aim for other schools where my LSAT is on the lower range.Please help!Thanks in advance:)

[mexjd]

Quihubole...

sounds like you haven't looked at the "likelihood of admission" calculator provided by LSAC:

http://officialguide.lsac.org/UGPASearch/Search3.aspx?SidString=

[Ninja1]

Florida and SMU aren't going to happen, but the rest are all doable.

Is there any particular part of the country you want to end up in?

[alechen]

Thanks for the feedback, I prefer to be in NY, Texas or California. Any other suggestions of good schools to look into? I have looked at the lsac likelihood of admission calculator, but I don't know which schools within my lsat/gpa range are worth the tuition.

[Hope22]

I would still apply to SMU their median is 157-163.

[john4040]

I would still apply to SMU their median is 157-163.

You can apply, but both SMU and University of Florida are HUGE stretches.  Hispanics won't get much, if any, URM boost in Texas and Florida.  Last year's stats show that SMU and University of Florida only accepted those with 161+ LSAT @ 2.9 GPA.

http://smu.lawschoolnumbers.com/stats/0910/
http://fsu.lawschoolnumbers.com/stats/0910/

[louiebstef]

John,

Her posts were from January of this year.  I wonder what happened.

I am still wrapping my head around the URM thing.  It just pisses me off that with my GPA, and (yes I know) LSAT practice scores, URMs
are getting into HLS, and receiving BIG BUCKS from other T-14s.  Here I am crossing my fingers and toes to even approach T-1......whooopeee

WAIT!  I am old and bald.  I would say my type is seriously under-represented, LOL.

[john4040]

John,

Her posts were from January of this year.  I wonder what happened.

Haha.. guess that's what I get for posting late at night   .  Oh well, maybe someone can review the archives some day and get some valuable information.

[Arty Ivy]

[quote author=louiebstef link=topic=4022486.msg5385786#msg5385
I am still wrapping my head around the URM thing.  It just pisses me off that with my GPA, and (yes I know) LSAT practice scores, URMs
are getting into HLS, and receiving BIG BUCKS from other T-14s.  Here I am crossing my fingers and toes to even approach T-1......whooopeee

WAIT!  I am old and bald.  I would say my type is seriously under-represented, LOL.
[/quote]

In my 20s, I didn't bother to apply to law school because my grades were so-so, I was unsure overall about that path, and I was told I should "use" my minority status. I'm actually more white than black, which is why I refused to do that. But, having spent the next 20 years in the US  being treated as a black woman, facing constant efforts to put me in my place, I have no qualms about checking off a URM box. Like Louie, I will be over 40 when I enter law school. When I went back to school in my 30s, few who knew me before were shocked I got into great schools. Once at those schools, however, I was shunned, gossiped about, bumped into and told I was black everyday. I don't go around telling other people what race I think they are, so I can only guess that's to remind me of my place or because I'm the first brown person that peer ever had to deal with as an equal, or both. Actually, black students had it easier. Having come from segregated backgrounds, they were well practiced in acting dumb/inferior/non-intellectual/fake-friendly, because "that's how you talk to white people." It's not that I went out of my way to be unfriendly, but I had little patience for the disrespectful manner with which I was treated everyday and the racist cherry on top. The difference being that as a biracial person, I have been around white (and Asian) people my entire life and do not have a different/subservient way of interacting with whites. For whites accustomed to being deferred to by minorities, that's  highly offensive. Ironically, had I come from a more segregated background (or had a different texture of hair and been seen as Hispanic), my experience would have been very different.

I don't know what kind of person isn't affected by such daily abuse and racism and I expected more from the so-called best and brightest. My GPA is less a reflection of my talent than it is not having enough money for food and rent for most of my on and off undergraduate career. With the exception of one semester with a financial aid glitch and no funds to treat medical issues, my grades in grad school are all A/B, even with a double courseload and activities, in spite of an extremely hostile environment as the result of a clique conspiring to file false complaints against me in an attempt to get me kicked out of school. It almost worked.

I don't know of any bald men who face that kind of hostility, just because they wanted to go to good schools. I used to brush off claims of racism and think URM programs were outdated in the '90s. But, having seen the impact of racism on my life, particularly since going back to school in my 30s, I see it differently. Bald men hold positions of power and get married to women who should be out of their league. It's ignorant and ridiculous to compare that to being an URM. Just the fact that minorities are still underrepresented in this day and age should tell you we're not where we should be as a country, not quite yet.