The Master (law school) List

I still remember the first time Jeremy and I sat down (on our sweet built-in couches of the old apartment) and began researching law schools. Hard to believe that wasn't quite two years ago... since it now feels like we've always known which were the top choice schools.

At the same time, this list has grown, shunk, evolved, and adapted many times over these last two years. And yet, since that first perusal many moons ago, the University of Virginia is still at the top of our list. Reality, however, of J's final LSAT score (which came yesterday and was happy), GPA, and everything else, has demanded that a few other schools be added to the list. That, and the fact that there are SO many factors that will ultimately contribute to where we end up going.

Because Jeremy wants to be an appellate lawyer, many of these schools has an appellate clinic (in which students who participate would be able to do hands on appellate work... some at the Supreme Court level). Generally, the higher the ranking of the school, the better the clinics and programs, and better the opportunity to get a judicial clerkship (another stepping stone to becoming a successful appellate lawyer). Other key factors for us include cost, proximity to family, and proximity to a temple. I also tend to like the schools in small towns. But regardless of the specific reason, the good news is, every single school on this list has a good reason for being there. I feel good about that.

According to the Law School Predictor (an online program that allows you to plug in your stats, and then gives surprisingly accurate statistics of your probability of getting into each of the top 100 schools), we know that our chances of getting into our top (TOP) schools are low, thus we also have included a wide range of schools where we stand a fair chance and schools that are a shew in. Better safe than sorry, right?

Anyhow, without further ado, here is the list of schools (listed according to our probability of acceptance on Law School Predictor) to which we plan to apply (starting, for some, as early as next Thursday):

Rank #	Name	Location	LSP Indicator
1	Yale	New Haven, CT	(<25%)
10	UVA	Charlotesville,	(<25%)
11	Duke	Durham, NC	(<25%)
15	Texas	Austin, TX	(25%-37%)
19	WUSL	St. Louis	(38-62%)
28	W&M	Williamsburg, VA	(38-62%)
42	BYU	Provo, UT	(38-62%)
42	George M	Arlington, VA	(38-62%)
38	ASU	Tempe, AZ	(63-75%)
38	Wake Forest	Winston-Salem, NC	(63-75%)
42	Arizona	Tucson, AZ	(63-75%)
42	Utah	SLC, UT	(63-75%)
52	Pepperdine	Malibu, CA	(63-75%)
64	Baylor	Waco, TX	(63-75%)
48	American	DC	(>75%)
56	USD	San Diego	(>75%)
78	UNLV	Las Vegas	(>75%)