[bruinaphi]

I would completely disregard the specialty rankings and go to the best law school that you get into. Lawyers care a lot more about what school you went to and what your grades were than what the specialty is that the law school is known for. I went to law school thinking that I wanted to practice Environmental Law (my undergrad was Geography & Environmental Studies). When I took Env. Law in law school and would be happy doing that some day, but since graduating I've practiced Criminal and Corporate Litigation and Corporate Transactional Law. I never would have guessed that I would be doing what I'm doing now when I started or even graduated from law school. To make a long story short I would go to the highest ranking school you get into if you are planning on applying for firm jobs.

I applied to a lot of law schools compared to some people primarily b/c I was a really borderline candidate for top tier schools and my counselor told me to apply to a lot of them to increase my admissions chances. I also had a lot of extraciriculars going for me (I played lacrosse and was on student government at a large state school). They boosted my admissions chances as well. It was very interesting to see where I got in and where I didn't.

The only advise I can give on the LSAT is to do your Kaplan homework. I took Kaplan too and I just did workbook problems again and again. I figured I couldn't practice too much. Back in the day we didn't get our results for 6 weeks -- that was actually the worst part -- waiting for results. I had a recurring nightmare about bailing on the LSAT every night for 6 weeks. Of course after that it was that I didn't get into law school and then after that it was that I failed out of law school. It is always something in the process unless you are smart and do it the way Valkyrie did.

It's a very emotional process. I lived in the house while applying and there were six of us going through it plus my boyfriend. Talk about tough tension to deal with -- ugh!