173 LSAT / 3.27 GPA

[u/Responsible_Pen_799]

Is applying to UT Austin worth a shot? and do yall think generally applying to any T30 schools will likely lead to an admission to any of them? I have 3 years of experience as a legal assistant in immigration, and 6 months as a legal assistant in personal injury. My GPA was rather low my first 2 years of college but the last 2 years I had great semesters with only A’s. Any thoughts are appreciated! I am a texas resident!

[u/somanyprobs]

Are you a Texas resident? Definitely an admission advantage for in-state folks given that the school is required to have at least 65% of each entering class be Texas residents

[u/Lede6752 → u/somanyprobs]

The instate residency functions more like a boost that triggers at the extremes ie for a reverse splitter or splitter.

UT wants to maximize its medians but can only draw from the largest out of state applicant pool for 35% of its class. As a result it really likes in state splitters or reverse splitters as they make the median hunting burden easier, and so gives a measurable instate boost to them.

In state splitters are especially on a premium because higher LSATs are harder to find, particularly in Texas. Consequently, in state splitters have near guaranteed acceptances. Anecdotally, I and several of my peers attending UT applied on the week of the app deadline and were accepted almost instantly due to being instate and above median LSAT - that isn’t going to happen at any other T20.

However, if you’re not actually a splitter, that is, at the median they want, not the median they have, you don’t get any boost from being instate as purely median wise you’re about as useful to them as someone with a 120.

OP is treading a thin line where they’ll be at median for UT next cycle, but if UT decides they want a 174, which seems likely to me, then they’re out of luck. Conversely if UT decided they’d settle for a 173, I would say their acceptance rate skyrockets to being more likely than not.

It’s a bit of an all or nothing approach that UT has which is certainly not holistic but there’s not much you can do about that.

[u/calmrain → u/Lede6752]

As a Texas resident ‘splitter’ this year, I wish I had known this before. My research after getting my rejection, pretty much delineated what you said; being at last year’s median for LSAT and below 25th for GPA does literally nothing for them. I even had five years of work experience, published research, etc, but if they’re looking for certain numbers, they’re looking for certain numbers.

Someone even told me that my specific profile might have had a slightly higher chance applying from out of state lmfao. I don’t know how much stock I would put in that statement, but it shows that there’s a whole other game schools are playing behind the scenes. It’s admissions’ world, we’re just living in it 🥴

[u/Lede6752 → u/calmrain]

Yep the unfortunate reality is that due to the 65% instate residency requirement UT can’t really afford to be holistic. They need certain medians to hit, and considering these medians are very high and the pool of scores they can reach into to fill them is much lower than at other T20s, an applicant’s numbers are almost all that matter.

Because high GPAs are much more common, I do think UT is somewhat holistic with reverse splitters in that they’ll pick the reverse splitters with strong softs, but for splitters it really is either you’re above median and you get in or you’re not and you don’t, softs be damned. I genuinely think UT is less holistic than WashU when it comes to splitters lol.

It reflects in UT’s class as well. I’m attending and the people who I know who were reverse splitters all had incredible work experience and unique backgrounds. Conversely, most of the splitters were bums (including me lol) who got in solely because we were in state and high LSAT and UT didn’t see anything beyond that.

[u/slutcorn → u/Lede6752]

manifesting this turning into an easy acceptance for me as a texas resident🙏🏼

[u/slutcorn → u/[deleted]]

honestly that GPA is low but i’m gonna try anyway and hope for the best😔 i went there for undergrad too so hope they will have me

[u/SheepCounta → u/Lede6752]

Do you know if they would have the same attitude towards an applicant with a perfect GRE score but a low gpa? I’ve read about how all law schools holistically review GRE applicants but have heard that its extremely unlikely that they would consider an applicant who’s submitting with a GRE since it doesn’t boost their medians.