The Turd in the Punchbowl (Ep. 128)
Nathan is back from his snowy golf trip to the north and Ben wants to know about his time in Portland before diving into listener mail. But more importantly, we’ve got some fun updates. You can now meet other Thinking LSAT members, find study partners, debate hot topics and more on our new Facebook page. And the guys talk about the patrons who are making a monthly pledge to the podcast through Patreon.
8:57 – Email 1—By now, it’s our most popular topic perhaps in the show’s history. And you know what it is. HALO. TOP. Halo Top (not) ice cream. Marjory writes in with a full-throated critique of this sad, sad “treat” from the perspective of a fitness junkie. While Halo Top was made popular in the health and fitness industry, Marjory’s got her own thoughts on the matter. The guys, of course, discuss.
15:56 – Email 2—Tino is writing in to give all you law-school hopefuls a morale boost. An active duty Green Beret, he’s got a 166 LSAT score, but a 2.2 LSAC GPA due to some poor grades before entering the military. Still, even with this tough LSAC GPA, he’s been accepted to some decent law schools, and is even waitlisted at George Washington. He wants to know what the guys think about the possibilities of transferring. The guys pull up some ABA 509 reports and take a look at the hard data on transfers.
25:31 – Email 3—John is from Brazil and graduated from college in the US in 2007. Now, at age 32, he’s thinking about a career in law. But at 32, and as an immigrant, John is wondering if he is a non-traditional student. Is he too old to start looking into this whole law school thing? Will his age and background help or hinder him when it comes to attending law school? Ben and Nathan agree that John isn’t that non-traditional (but they discuss who might be), and give him some long-proven advice: focus on getting a great LSAT score, and worry less about almost everything else.
31:16 – Email 4—Since starting his prep in December, Joe’s seen his score jump from the mid 140s to the high 150s. Nice progress, Joe! He’s been using the Manhattan Prep books to steadily improve, but recently discovered that the books strongly recommend approaching questions by reading the—get ready to gasp—STEM FIRST. Obviously not something the guys recommend. So Joe started to freak out. Is everything else the books say complete horseshit? Nathan and Ben let Joe know whether or not he should light up the bonfire. They also slam him for several glaring grammatical errors.
42:26 – Email 5—Vicky is a badass. A 3.89 GPA from Rice. A cold 160 practice-test score followed by a 169 on record. And she’s aiming higher. She wants to apply in the fall and sees three more opportunities to reach into the 170s now that she’s taking the guys’ advice of working one 35 minute section per day. She’s considering applying to Northwestern’s early decision program, which offers a $150k discount upon acceptance, but is a binding agreement. Vicky wants to know if she should try to get into this prestigious school, or play the field and hope for something better. The guys agree, Vicky. Don’t sell yourself short.
54:56 – Email 6—Jacob writes in with some interesting news! An op-ed from a law school dean recently came out that may reveal why the bar passage rates are absent from the new ABA 509 reports. It turns out that the ABA is requiring law schools to post this information on their school websites. Jacob is as clueless as we are, however, as to why the information can’t live on both the schools’ websites AND the 509 reports. Thanks for the scoop, Jacob!