For scholarships: apply sooner or score higher?

[misha.a.white]

I have a public service career and am looking to level up my impact by becoming a public interest attorney. My hope is to get a significant scholarship as I don't want to take on a lot of debt given that I will make less money in public interest than corporate law. My plan is to take the LSAT in September, but I worry my score in the mid 160s will limit the public interest and merit based scholarships I could get especially from t14 schools. Would it be better to wait to take my LSAT until October (could likely bring my score up to above 170) and apply in November to get more scholarships? I have heard the sooner you apply, the better, but also the better your score, the better. Would love your thoughts!

[Luke Haqq]

Hi Misha!

Sounds like you are thinking about all the right things as you prepare to attend law school. On the one hand, you are right that the sooner you apply, the better. On the other, the short answer to your question is that it wouldn't hurt and could be beneficial if you applied in November with a score in the 170s rather than September with a score in the mid-160s. That seems to be clearest if you, say, applied with a 175 in November versus a 165 in September. It's slightly less clear if, for example, you applied with a 171 in November versus a 166 in September, but those extra 5 points could still make a big difference.

That being said, there's some risk to banking on scoring higher. Many students believe that they will score higher on a subsequent exam, but that often doesn't happen, or they don't increase their score by as much as they'd like. You'll want to make sure that you don't let up the gas at all and keep studying as hard if not harder than you've been studying for the September exam.

Perhaps you are already aware of this, but there are options that make going into a public interest career more affordable. In particular, many people opt for a loan repayment assistance program, under which they pay 15% of their salary for 20 years if they're in the private sector, or the same percentage for 10 years if they're in the public sector, and once they've done that, the remainder of the loan is forgiven. One reason for being aware of that option is that merit-based scholarships are quite competitive at T14 schools. You'll want to have an undergrad GPA probably at least in the 3.8 range and an LSAT score well into the 170s. It's very likely that, if you get admitted to some T14 schools, you may be forced to choose whether or not it's worth paying full tuition (or perhaps you will have to make a choice between getting some aid from a lower ranked school versus no aid from a higher ranked school).

Finally, it's not a bad idea to add a handful of safety schools outside the T14 range. That can help maximize the chances that you'll be offered merit-based scholarships, potentially up to a full ride. Hopefully you'll get into the T14 schools that you want to get into and will additionally get aid from them, but adding some safeties can increase your array of options.