Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Law School Spam

I had no idea so many law schools waived their application fees for high LSAT candidates. It was fun at first, but I'm getting a little sick of the fee waiver emails. I wish they'd all send their fee waiver notification on the same day so I can just sort them all into a folder for when I'm ready for them. So far I've received fee waiver emails from: Columbia (#5), Saint Thomas (Tier 3), U Virginia (#10), U Richmond (#77), and William & Mary (#31).

Monday, October 22, 2007

LSAT Scores are in!

171. 98th percentile. I can't decide if I should mark this as a success or a failure. This should guarantee admission to my first-choice school and should also win some scholarship money at my second-choice school, but I was hoping for the 99th percentile (or a score of 173). I wonder if a phenomenal personal statement can make up the lost ground here, or if scholarship money from my first-choice school is a lost cause.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Big Brother Update

My big brother just found out he passed the bar. He'll get sworn in in Virginia next week. I get my results on October 22--just a few short days away! Brother asked me when I'm throwing my "180 Party," but promised to buy me a celebratory bottle of 151 to be on the conservative side and prevent jinxing me.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

What's Next?

I've felt like I'm just playing the waiting game while I sit around wondering how I did on the LSAT, so here is a to-do list for me to systematically tackle the next time I am feeling antsy:

  1. LSAT (check)
  2. Request letters of reference from boss (check) and professor (incomplete)
  3. Update name with LSAT (incomplete)
  4. Register for LSDAS (incomplete)
  5. Order transcripts from three universities (incomplete)
  6. Write personal statement (incomplete)

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

LSAT Report

This past Saturday morning was the big LSAT day.

I went to bed around 9:45 the night before and set my alarm bright and early so I would have time to wake up before the exam. I had only done one practice test the day before and didn't score phenomenally on it (just a 169), but I chalked this up to stress and hormones.

I wore my favorite new shoes (known in my inner circle as "the ugliest shoes ever"), oatmeal legwarmers, my favorite old Seven jeans, and an old frat sweatshirt. I put my hair in a high ponytail, pulled my bangs back with bobby pins, and brought an arsenal of additional bobby pins to secure any renegade hairs.

I had a Naked juice en route and arrived comfortably early, as is my M.O. I was seated in the back right corner of the room and had plenty of time to arrange my four No. 2 pencils from sharpest to dullest and balance my watch perfectly on the edge of the desk.

When the tests were distributed, I was delighted to discover that Analytical Reasoning (my weakness) was the first section of my test booklet. As I dug in, I found that two of the four Analytical Reasoning sections were variations on Sequencing, the single type that I am a rockstar at. Whereas my original battle plan for the Analytical Reasoning was to complete as many as I could and guess "D" for the remaining questions, I was able to complete the section. Pressed for time at the end, I had to guess on two remaining questions; however, I was first able to reduce them down to two possible answers so I have a 50% chance instead of a 20% chance at those two answers being accurate.

The experimental section was one of two Reading Comprehension sections. Because the first section more closely fit the mold of the practice tests I had done, I believe the second section was the experimental section. Regardless, I'm confident I did well on both.

One of the two logical reasoning sections was tricky for me. There were four questions that I was not completely certain of the answers. I do think that I selected good answers, but I won't know if they were the best answers until I get my scores back in three weeks.

Naturally, as I worked through the test, I made note of how many I was confident I had answered correctly, and how many could possibly be wrong. Comparing this score to the past ten years' tests, I believe I scored approximately 173. I will be humiliated, but not devastated, if my results show otherwise. If my scores are particularly good, I may scratch a few of my lower choice schools and instead apply at a few of the dream schools that felt out of reach when I first began this endeavor.