Debt puts you in a hole before you even get started. Don’t take the LSAT without honestly trying your hardest.

Merit aid = a bribe for you to come to their school because of your stats.
GPA and LSAT make up 95% of an applicant’s desirability, which translates into the money they offer to attend their school. Others may tell you otherwise, but that was my experience.

Do not make the mistake of going through the USNews rankings to come up with your school list. Those rankings are truly useless. Literally nobody in the world cares about anything USNews has to say but somehow that doesn’t extend to their opinion on law schools.

To come up with my list, I identified which section of schools on Spivey Consulting’s GPA/LSAT median spreadsheet my stats fell into. My 3.5/157 falls in the 100 - 120 range. From there, I made my reach/target/safety list with an emphasis on schools with a desirable location and ones close to home. My list probably looks weird, but it makes sense in my shoes. Make one that works for you. 25 schools is a lot, but keep in mind that you’re likely only going through this process once, & it only gets more expensive from here. Make sure you have options when you get to the other side of this process. If you can swing it, spend extra bones on applications.

(Ohio State ghosted me)

Final pieces of advice:

LSAT Demon’s scholarship calculator is pretty good. - Do not blab to Reddit about anything related to your applications. Trust me on this one.

• Go where you are wanted.
• Getting a WL = 0% merit aid (most likely).
• I took a gap year after finishing undergrad. I do not regret it at all. Make the most of your time before SHTF.
• Don’t tweak.