gmoney05 '21–'22 app cycle Class of 2025 class year

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About me:
CPA with BS (2017) and MS (2018) in accounting- 4 years WE in big 4 consulting, first in compliance and investigations and now in M&A disputes / litigation consulting

• Midwestern small town native now in Chicago

Rambling thoughts from the cycle:
Once your app is submitted, you are just a row in some Excel file somewhere. Don’t get caught up in main character syndrome, and don’t take Rs or WLs personally. Schools do not care about you as a person.- But the homies on LSD do!

• I was ecstatic to get a 171, but if I could go back I would re-take. The LSAT Flex has made the test easier (making 171 less valuable) and the increase in applicants has diluted scores across the board.
• I underweighted how much LSAT/GPA matter and overweighted my relevant/legal-adjacent WE, thinking it would help me get into schools where I was right below median.
• My thinking was ~50% of apps are below median stats, so if you’re ~40th percentile stats and strong resume/WE, you should be good.
• I was wrong
• Some schools (look at WashU’s graph from this cycle as a clear example) get to their medians by taking everyone above a certain LSAT (regardless of GPA) and everyone above a certain GPA (regardless of LSAT).
• Takeaway: don’t assume you can overcome being below median stats–look at schools’ graphs on LSD to understand how their selection works. At some schools it’s better to be a splitter than barely below median on both stats. Other schools stack a ton of admits right at medians, so it’s not necessarily true that 50% of students are below median.
• I had a pretty narrow target pool with three moonshots. In hindsight I wish I had also applied to a few reasonable reaches (lower t14s) and a few safeties.
• Even if you don’t plan on going to a school, there’s still value in applying.
• It could help to have an offer for scholly negotiations
• A lot can change about your goals/desires/feelings in between submission and decisions, especially when cycles are this slow
• Get your apps in as early as possible!
• It won’t guarantee earlier decisions, but it will help. And every little bit helps, because the waiting game is wildly stressful
• I applied in November and wish I had applied earlier