Yield Protection: Fact or Fiction? (Ep. 433)
Thinking LSAT
Nathan Fox and Ben Olson
4.8 • 868 Ratings
🗓️ 18 December 2023
⏱️ 71 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Feared by some, loathed by others, “yield protection” remains a steadfast reality in law school admissions. This week, Nathan and Ben discuss why law schools justifiably use yield-protecting strategies in admissions. The guys also share the story of a listener who successfully petitioned their college to expunge a semester of failing grades. They compare law schools’ debt-to-income ratios for recent graduates. And they offer practical tips to a student seeking ways to avoid underperformance on test day.
2:26 - Word of the Week - Avoid zoonotic diseases like the plague.
5:24 - Appeals - Persistence pays off. Ben and Nathan hear from a listener who convinced their community college to withdraw a semester of failing grades. They also discuss another listener’s successful appeal to LSAC for a fee waiver. The conversation then shifts to considering the chances of an international student procuring an extra test attempt.
18:48 - Debt-to-Income Ratio - In a recent blog post, a Notre Dame law professor compares the median debt-to-income ratios of recent graduates from different law schools. Nathan and Ben explain why the numbers are even more alarming than they first appear.
30:38 - Yield Protection - Ben and Nathan react to—and mostly agree with—Dean Z’s explanation of yield protection. Every facet of the admissions process is part of a negotiation over how much you’ll pay for law school.
56:26 - Scoring Below PTs - LSAT Demon student Katie scored significantly lower than her practice test average on her official test. The guys describe some common causes of underperformance on test day, and they instruct Katie to treat the official LSAT like any other practice test. This topic is featured in LSAT Demon Daily, Ep. 690: Don’t Let Test Anxiety Become an Excuse.
1:02:21 - Senior Year Grades - Yes, K-JDs have to maintain good grades in their senior year of undergrad.
1:05:52 - LOR Timeline - Listener Pat plans to apply to law school in 2025. Nathan and Ben agree that getting a head start on requesting letters of recommendation is a wise move.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to episode 433 of the thinking Elsat podcast I'm Nathan Fox. |
| 0:11.8 | With me is Ben Olson. We're the co-founder of Elsat podcast. I'm Nathan Fox. With me is Ben Olson. We're the co-founders of |
| 0:14.0 | Elsat demon demon.com and the Elsat demon daily podcast. You can be Elsat famous by |
| 0:18.8 | sharing news or asking questions on our website thinking Elsat.com. |
| 0:24.1 | We've got a test registration deadline coming up |
| 0:27.6 | in just a couple weeks, the Elsat, |
| 0:31.5 | the February 2024 registration deadline is the day after Christmas. |
| 0:38.3 | December 26, the Boxing Day is the day that you have to decide whether you want to register for the February test. |
| 0:45.7 | It's a simple calculus. |
| 0:47.7 | Do you feel like your practice tests reflect the kind of score that is going to get you where |
| 0:52.1 | you want to go at the price you want to pay, |
| 0:54.6 | then you should register. |
| 0:56.7 | And if not, then probably don't. |
| 0:59.6 | Pretty simple. |
| 1:00.3 | There's no need to register way in advance. |
| 1:02.2 | There's no need to decide what else that you're going to take months and months in advance. |
| 1:05.6 | You don't really know when you're going to be ready. So you should just watch your practice test scores and when they start getting into the range you'll know that they're |
| 1:14.6 | getting into the range and then you can register so between now and December 26th |
| 1:19.2 | you can think about whether you want to register for that February test you want want to say a bit about the games, Ben, for the February test? |
| 1:27.2 | Yeah, it's what, you know, February, April, and June. That's it's your last three attempts in clearing February. |
| 1:35.4 | Yep, not counting January because the registration deadline for that has already passed, |
| 1:39.7 | but if you're not taking the January test, then there are only three tests remaining where you do have a chance to take the logic games. |
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