No Money Down Law Schools and Financial Aid?

[CenPrelry]

I'm a first time visitor to this forum - It looks great! I've been considering law school for the past few months, and wish I'd known about this site sooner.

I'm 26, and I have a BS in electrical engineering from Penn State. My undergrad GPA was around 2.9. I've been working in the engineering field since I graduated in 1999, but I've always known that engineering wouldn't be a career for the rest of my life. I'll skip the details of my motivation and rationale for deciding to pursue a career in law, but it's something I love and know I could excel at. I just wonder how difficult it will be for me to: A) Get accepted into law school with a 2.9 undergrad GPA and B) Pay for it with little existing savings. I've done very well on the practice LSATs I've taken so far. I haven't taken the actual exam yet, but if the practice tests are anything like the real thing, there's a high probablity I can come close to acing it. What kind of LSAT score do I need to get into a mid-tier law school? I'm not expecting ivy league, but I'd like to do better than Penn State's Dickinson School of Law

Assuming I gain admittance to a mid-tier school, is there any realistic hope of funding virtually my entire education with "no money down"? I'm willing to accept debt later on in life, but how much money can I expect to receive/borrow from the government or other aid sources? I assume any federal aid will be based solely on my income from the year prior to applying?

Also, do any schools offer 2 year programs? From my limited research so far, most law programs seem to be 3 years. Since I'm starting "late" in life, time is a valuable commodity to me.

I appreciate any insight! Thanks in advance.

[Latsclabbelia]

My short answer is that unless you blow the LSAT out of the water, I wouldn't count on attending Harvard. However, a low to mid range Tier 1 school is well within your reach if your LSAT score is in the 160s. In my experience, a large number of schools respect the difficulty of hard science majors and afford quite a bit of leeway to applicants with engineering backgrounds. I have no evidence to support the following claim, but I suspect you will have a better chance for admission at Tier 1s than Tier 2s or 3s simply because the lower ranked schools are pushing hard to boost their numbers in the USN&WR game.

Also, please don't consider 26 to be "late in life," unless you presently suffer from a terminal disease or are unhealthily fond of the film "Logan's Run." 26 is pretty close to the average age at most schools. Also, I wouldn't be afraid of a little (or a lot) of debt. You'll pay it back fast, especially if you go the patent route and live like an engineer for a couple of years out of law school.

good luck to you!

[devanbriazob]

We are in the same boat, man. I'm 27, an engineering grad, worked as an engineer since I got out of school but felt like conventional engineering for the rest of my life was like the Matrix and I needed to be unplugged and I look at Law School as the red pill.

My GPA, along with the rest of the engineering world, was in the 2's as well. You will see a lot of BS from Law Schools from that, b/c Law School admissions is very competitive. Some slack is cut for us engineers though. And if you can do decent on the LSAT then you should be straight.

I have two other friends who have done the EXACT same thing. We were all engineers and have all got accepted into law schools and start this fall planning to focus on Patent Law. Our LSAT's range from 152 to 162 and all three of us got accepted to 2nd and 1st Tier law schools so its definitely an option you should look into!

[Emrica]

Yes, I am a mother of a small baby who is looking for all possible ways to earn an income so that I can help support my baby. I am not interested for online business because I have neither credit cards nor checking accounts. I am literally living off pennies to pay for rent and other expenses at the moment and having too small baby it is near impossible to find a job willing to work with me. Please help me to get any business grant? Thanks.

[ravi158]

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