Biden Cuts Debt, Tuition Keeps Soaring (Ep. 450)
Thinking LSAT
Nathan Fox and Ben Olson
4.8 • 868 Ratings
🗓️ 15 April 2024
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Tuitions are soaring at U.S. colleges and universities, and short-sighted student loan policies may be partly to blame. This week, Ben and Nathan discuss the latest round of student loan forgiveness, which treats the symptoms of high education costs but won’t fix the problem. The guys also correct a common misconception about “test-optional” admissions. They consider the scholarship chances of applicants with low GPAs. And they advise a listener to pick a new personal statement topic.
3:48 - LSAT Optional - No, the LSAT is not “going away” in 2025. Law schools will continue to value the LSAT even if they aren’t required to use it.
15:32 - Low GPA - Applicants with low GPAs aren’t locked out of law school. Grade forgiveness may help some. But a high LSAT score is the real key to getting scholarships.
23:24 - GPA and Law School Rankings - An anonymous listener considers taking a course pass-fail to avoid hurting their GPA. Nathan and Ben approve. The guys explain why law schools are so invested in their GPA medians: it’s all in the rankings game.
31:40 - $100,000 a Year - Some colleges will soon charge $100,000 a year. Ben and Nathan bemoan the unhinged state of tuition hikes and student loans.
39:34 - Personal Statement - The guys advise an anonymous listener to avoid a vague personal statement.
43:00 - Graduate School - An anonymous listener wants to drop out of grad school but worries about what law schools will think. Nathan and Ben think the choice is clear.
46:38 - Extra Test Attempt - Leslie, LSAT Demon’s admissions guru, shares the story of a student who successfully appealed for an extra test attempt.
50:48 - Word of the Week - Listener Syd recommends Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Do you hear this from folks? |
| 0:01.7 | Because I get it from folks. |
| 0:02.9 | Every once in a while, you know, like my mom will be like, |
| 0:06.2 | well, aren't you worried that the L-SATs, |
| 0:09.1 | the L-SATs going away, isn't it? Hello and welcome to episode 450 of the Thinking El-Sat Podcasts, I'm Ben Olson. With me is Nathan Fox. We're the co-founder of |
| 0:26.2 | Elsat demon.com and the Elsat demon daily podcast. You can be Elsat famous. Share news and ask questions on our website. That's thinking else at.com |
| 0:35.9 | Nathan you have a class coming up in a couple days now on April 18th. That's at 6 p.m. Pacific 9 p.m. Eastern. |
| 0:45.0 | All levels, all topics. All you need is an L-Sat Demon free account. |
| 0:50.0 | It's the same class that I teach twice a week in Elsat Demon Live. |
| 0:55.0 | We're going to cover a reading comprehension passage. |
| 0:58.7 | We're going to cover a handful of logical reasoning questions and we're going to cover a game. |
| 1:04.7 | We'll do the game last because lots of people are going to take the L-SAT in August and beyond |
| 1:09.5 | when the games are gone. So come to that class and if you want to piece out on the games you can |
| 1:14.6 | piece out on the games if you want to hang out and talk about the game you are |
| 1:18.4 | more than welcome to do so just go to el-Sat demon.aman.com forward-slash free. |
| 1:23.7 | I'm super happy, Ben. |
| 1:25.3 | I'm super proud of what we've been able to do with El-Sat-Daman free. |
| 1:29.3 | We're just north of 53,000 free accounts now all time. |
| 1:35.0 | And there are so many resources there |
| 1:38.2 | that are built to actually help people. |
| 1:40.7 | It's not just marketing, it's not just bullshit. not just bullshit. |
| 1:43.0 | If you sign up for an El-Sat demon-free account, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Nathan Fox and Ben Olson, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Nathan Fox and Ben Olson and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.