buyers remorse

[where to go]

where to go

school where I am at the 75% for both

 0 (0%)

school where I am at one 75% and close to the 25% for LSAT

 1 (100%)

Total Members Voted: 1

[northwood]

Ive narrowed down my choices to two schools. Both are well respected, and in cities where i know I will be happy living and working for many decades. theo nly hang up is that at one school my lsat is at the 25% and my gpa is slightly below the 75%, while at the other one my lsat is at the 75%. and my gpa is exactly the 75%( this school is offering me a nice scholarship, but no grant money, and the other school which at sticker is slightly less money is offering me grant money- which makes the price roughly the same( minus 5k/year). Are there any coorelation between gpa + Lsat and law school success? Would i have more sucess at the school where i am at the 75%'s than the other one? I have been out of school for 3 years, and I really like both schools. Both place well in their respective cities, and i like both cities a lot- and know i would be happier there ( COL is very similar). If I go to the school where my lsat is low, am i setting myself up for failure? or am I looking too much into this? Thanks for your help!

[bigs5068]

I guess the competition might be lower, but law school grades are highly unpredictable. No matter where you go everyone thinks they will be in the top 10% the first week. Students at any ABA schools  are smart and hard working enough to do well on the exams. Realistically scoring 3-5 more points on the LSAT, which lets be honest some choices are nothing more than guesses is not much of an indicator for law school success. GPA measurements are somewhat misleading as well. A person that gets a 3.0 in Molecular Biology is probably working harder than someone that got a 4.0 in Basket Weaving. 

Realistically law school grades are somewhat of a crapshoot no matter where you go. It is a 3 hour exam and just forgetting one issue out of 16 on an essay can be the difference between being in the top 10% or top 25%. The curve is very strict and one MC problem can boost or drop you so there really is no way to determine how successful you will be at any given school. Whether you go to the lower or higher ranked school there is a 50% chance you will be in bottom half of the class and a 50% chance you will be in the top half. Again, it is just a crap shoot and almost every student at an ABA school is pretty smart and hard working. Therefore, it will be very difficult to determine how well you will perform at any school. 

If they are roughly equal schools just go to the cheaper school. Check out the tuition rates and consider any scholarship money.  It looks one of them has offered you money, but be wary of the conditions on these. Generally a school will require a 3.0 GPA to keep your scholarship. Anyone that was offered a scholarship to an ABA approved school had a pretty easy time obtaining a 3.0 in undergrad and generally assume law school will be the same. This is NOT the case, my school for example only allowed 35% of 1st year students to achieve a 3.0. So there was a 65% chance I would lose it for years 2 and 3. Thankfully I didn't, but the conditions of the scholarship are always something to be wary about.

[MikePing]

LSAT and UGPA correlate with first year law school success.  After that, people start to figure things out so the correlation drops into the unreliable zone. 

If you really prepare for law school and get the right advice for how to tackle law school, I think you could erase that advantage.  IMO, you should go to the school you like more.  Don't worry about your competitiveness so much, you will do fine.
 
The fact that you have framed your question as you have, tells me that you will quickly figure out how to succeed.  The correlation is statistal--which means it predicts the success of a random student.  You are not random, you are out there educating yourself and preparing for law school.  I was random, I did nothing to prepare.  I had average numbers for my school and no scholarship.  Nevertheless, I did much better than virtually all of the scholarship students.  So, even if you were random, it still wouldn't be set in stone.   

[northwood]

still cant make up my mind. Im going to wait for the final numbers- and visit both schools again ( i am considering putting a deposit down at both to give myself more time to make a decision). thanks for the responses. I put a poll up so those that dont want to reply can voice their opinions. If you would like to, write a short summary of why you voted that way. THANKS!