I am applying to top 20 Law schools: U.Penn, Georgetown, Duke, Boston
U.
Unfortunately I just found out that I did poorly on my LSAT's: 157. 
My score is 5-10 points below the average scores for these schools.

However, the rest of my application is very strong.  I had a good GPA
in college: 3.47 overall, 3.71 in my major.  My major was Materials
Science & Engineering, at Lehigh U., which is VERY strong in that
field.  I have a bunch of great work experience, internships.  I have
numerous academic honors and scholarships.

Since graduating in 6/02, I have been working for an engineering
consulting firm.  My company provides expert witnesses for product
liability litigation, mostly concerning automobiles, but we have
pretty diverse cases.  The point is, my background is VERY unique in
that I have exposure to a facet of the legal industry that most other
applicants will not have.

My reccomendations should all be shining (I hope) and I think my
personal statement is also fairly strong.  I just have this nagging,
low, LSAT score that is really worrying me.

My question is: will the schools that I'm applying to simply throw my
application in the trash when they see my LSAT score?  Or will I be
given extra consideration consdering my other favorable
qualifications?  I have heard that engineers are particularly sought
after...but to what extent?  Can my major cancel out a rotten LSAT
score?  To what extent will my unique legal-related work background
effect my chances of getting in?

I know this question seems multi-part, but it is actually quite
simple.  How do law schools weigh factors against LSAT scores?

The two most important factors that law schools consider in evaluating
a candidate are GPA and LSAT scores. Other main factors include your
work experience and reccomendation letters. But this is not all.
From your brief bio data it seems to me that you still stand a very
good chance of being accepted in one of the top 20 colleges. Nowadays,
more and more emphasis is laid on a complete history of a candidate
instead of just the LSAT. ( More selective schools are very careful
not to look at only one factor ). I think, the websites of individual
schools will proove my point.(Look at the admission process or
admission criteria). A sample of one of the top law school admission
criteria is available at:
http://www.career.cornell.edu/students/grad/health/humanmedicine/factors.html

Some of the following links will also provide you with LSAT admission
criteria and weight of individual factors:

http://www.napla.org/LSAT.htm
http://www.las.uiuc.edu/students/careeraids/pre_law/law_school/lsat_and_gpa.html
http://www.class.ewu.edu/class/GOVN/PreLawRoot/Admission.html
http://fp.arizona.edu/prelaw/Academics/Admission%20Factors.HTM
http://www.skidmore.edu/~tschmeli/factors.html
http://www.collegeboard.com/article/0,1120,4-22-0-http://www.admissionsconsultants.com/mba/mba_admissions_factors.asp

If you look at the mean LSAT scores of the top law schools, be very
creful how to evaluate the scorings. There are lot of students that
fall under the mean but are able to get admission because of the other
strong factors.

Useful search terms on Google:

"LSAT admission factors"

Regards,
leader-ga

---

Clarification of Answer by leader-ga on 30 Oct 2002 17:56 PST

I am not sure if the engineers are highly sought after but your work
history is itself a very strong factor as it is a combination of a
major and some aspects of law. If i were you, i will really be glad to
have this type of work experience.

not really giving an answer, just some advice.

im definately not at the age of applying for grad school yet, but just
a word of advice, dont worry about your lsat score.  it might be a
little low, im not sure of the scale, but speaking from experience, i
believe schools nowadays are making character judgements (ie.
motivation, entreprenurialship) along with looking at intelligence.

In short, I had the same situation getting into college as you have
getting into law school wth my low scores, etc..  Albeit its a whole
different world, I still made it to my top choice, and probably one of
the best schools of its kind in the world.  So, dont give up.  If you
feel confident, then only good things can happen.  If you worry, it
will only make trouble...

leader, what the hell was your first link in your answer??  It's a
link to med school admissions!
Unfortunately, I can tell you first hand that you will not get into
Penn with those numbers.  Encouragement is great, but it's time to be
real.  If you over shoot your target schools, you won't have any
options.  Unrealistically optimistic thinking will only hurt you at
this point because you cannot change anything that will influence
admissions.  Next year's class is already almost full with deferrals
from our class this year (overenrolled by about 100 students).  Your
gpa is fine, but not good relative to other applicants (3.6 average). 
Your lsat is far, far below average.  Despite what anyone tells you,
law schools are numbers whores.  They have to be because of the volume
of apps.  How else would you sort the candidates?  Nothing in your
resume will make up for this at top schools.  There are many people
applying with both stellar resumes AND numbers.  You won't get into
duke or gtown either, but bu is worth a shot.  The only resource you
really need is the lsac.org calculator and the admissions grids for
each school.  use the calculator to determine your odds and apply
accordingly.

anyglen:

I do not mind your criticism, I actually appreciate it.  It is so
difficult to get the "practical" information...admissions offices will
never admit that they are numbers whores.  I do not want to be
naive...I don't want to get my hopes up for a lost cause.

I did look at LSAC's website, the calculator and all.  Lets just say
my chances are not that good.  I have also looked for the various law
school grids.  I have found generic ones that give rough percentages
of admitance for various combinations of GPA and LSAT's.  However, I
have not been able to find grids that give the actual number
applied/number accepted for said combinations.  If anybody can guide
me to the grids for the schools mentioned above, I would appreciate
it.

I value comments from anyone that can help me gain perspective on the
law school admissions process, and where I stand...whether good or
bad.  Insight of the advantage of engineers v. non-engineers is also
desired, and whether any advantage exists at all.

Keep 'em coming folks!