HopeIDidIt '22–'23 app cycle Class of 2026 class year

Pre-Application Notes:

Attend a university for undergrad that gives out A+ grades. As in a university that uses the LSAC’s 4.3 scale. Major in the easiest possible major you can think of. Look for something you like, are good at, and/or comes naturally. Most law schools don’t care what you majored in or if you took the easiest possible classes. They only care about your GPA’s value as this, alongside your LSAT, is what they report. A communications major with a 4.3 LSAC GPA will be more attractive to a law school than a 2.5 or even a 3.5 STEM major. Finish with a 4.00+ GPA and you’ll have an easier time dealing with the LSAT.

The LSAT - Start studying your junior year of college or even earlier if possible. Choose an LSAT learning program and stick with it. An overabundance of resources that all say the same in different ways will only cause confusion. Take the LSAT as many times as you need to. Most law schools only take your highest score so don’t be afraid to perform badly. The process can feel defeating at times and progress isn’t linear. Your scores will fluctuate, and you’ll have bad days and good days. Your practice test averages are the best indicator of what score to expect. The average of your last 5 practice tests is usually the best indicator. If you simulate testing conditions to the best of your ability during practice, you’ll likely score within 2-3 points of your average. Unless, of course, you suffer from severe test day anxiety or simply had a bad test day. Don’t be afraid to retest. I took the LSAT 3 times and almost didn’t the third time. If I hadn’t taken it a third time, I would have kissed law school goodbye.

Schools:

UMiami:
I applied to UM in December ‘22 but after underperforming on the October ‘22 LSAT I registered again for the Feb. ‘23 LSAT and had my application put on hold pending those results. I went under review in early March after getting my Feb. score back and received a decision around 3 weeks later. The day prior to getting a decision my application sub status went from “under review” to completely blank showing nothing. The next day I received the email with the acceptance and there was no mention of a scholarship in the email. The following day I checked my application portal again and saw that I received the Dean’s Merit Scholarship under the “Scholarships” section of the tracker all the way at the bottom of the page. The scholarship was for $40,000 per year for a total of $120,000 over the 3 years of law school (~70% of tuition). Unfortunately, UM’s tuition is $58,300 per year at the time of writing this. This adds up to be just about $175,000 for the J.D. This means that I’d still be left with $55,000 of debt from tuition alone and that’s without interest rates being added. Being very debt adverse and with little to no interest in big law, this debt is not something I’m even willing to entertain. I received a phone call the following week after being admitted congratulating me and I asked about scholarship reconsideration. UM does NOT negotiate scholarships, but I tried anyway. I was informed that my request would be communicated to the scholarships committee but that my chances were unlikely as most initial decisions are final. I was also told I would not hear from the committee at all unless a change was actually to be made. They never got back to me, and my scholarship offer never changed despite writing a long and detailed why UM email detailing why I wished to attend and including another school’s offer for them to consider. January 15th is the priority deadline for scholarship consideration. Maybe if I had applied earlier, I would have received a better offer. Maybe not. UM is not worth sticker, and I wouldn’t recommend attending without a solid scholarship at the very least.

FIU:
I applied immediately after receiving my October ‘22 score. Unfortunately, my score was way below the 25th percentile and my GPA was below the median. I was put on hold pending my future LSAT score, and I went under review the day right after I submitted my Feb. score which now put me at their 75th percentile. Being so late in the cycle and still being below their GPA median had me worried about scholarship money. I expected to be accepted because of my LSAT score but expected little to no money. 4 days later I checked the application status and it changed from “under review” to “decision rendered” and there was a new “seat deposit” fee of $200 under the “Fees” section of my application (this means you got in btw!). I received the email the following day congratulating me on being accepted and the email contained scholarship information stating I was designed a Dean’s Scholar and had my full tuition covered. The scholarship was contingent on staying in the top 70% of the class after the first year which is a small concern since no one can guarantee how 1L will go. Nonetheless, it was still a full ride, and I was thrilled! From speaking to other applicants, FIU is open to negotiations. I did not try it myself as they offered me a full ride very late in the cycle and I didn’t believe it’d be right to try to negotiate with them for a book stipend or something. However, I did try negotiating the scholarship’s condition to try to make it unconditional but was told that it was non-negotiable. They also sent a small box of goodies when you’re admitted which is a nice detail! (UM sends nothing lol).

Final Notes:
Will ultimately be attending FIU! Being debt adverse, I just rather take my chances at FIU with the conditional scholarship than guarantee myself severe debt by attending UM. I don’t know if I’ll continue checking this site in the future, but feel free to reach out if you have any questions, and if I ever happen to log back in, I’ll get back to you!

I hope my journey helps you. Good luck!