Help Katie Study & Sit For the LSAT in This Abysmal Economy

Hey everyone! First and foremost, thank you for being here and for being my support system for the last few years especially. Your love and your words of encouragement mean the world to me. I mean it with my entire heart I couldn’t have gotten to this point without you.

You all also know I don’t ask for help often. You may say I don’t ask for help ever. My parents have already given me too much and I don’t want to ask them for more. But with so many unknowns ahead of us and with the current job market and its challenges (hint: it’s not good), I have finally reached my last resort. This is where the biggest ask of my life comes in.

I graduated this December with a post-baccalaureate certificate in paralegal studies. Not to toot my own horn, but I made dean’s list for the duration of my whole certificate. That’s a first for me, and it suggests that this is maybe what I was born to do — and maybe, just maybe, I should entertain law school.

The plan was to get a job as a paralegal first. So far, I have sent out at least 100 cold call emails to law firms and sole practitioners and applied to several jobs in the meantime. While all of the responses I received have been encouraging and many expressed to me they were impressed with my portfolio (https://sites.google.com/view/finlon-paralegal-eportfolio/), not many are hiring right now and even the ones who are hiring are looking for candidates with a lot more traditional legal experience than I have currently. As I continue my job search and do what I can to make ends meet for now, I want to use my time wisely and start studying for the LSAT (law school entrance exam) and eventually sit for the LSAT again. The goal is to sit for the June 2025 LSAT — it’s a lofty goal, but those who know me best know among my strongest traits are unadulterated persistence and an obscene work ethic.

Some things to note:

1. I currently have a bachelor’s degree with all-university honors (3.2 GPA), a master’s degree (3.6 GPA), and the aforementioned paralegal certificate (3.7 GPA).

2. The LSAT itself costs a few hundred dollars to sit for and this would be my second time sitting for it (the first time was traumatizing and I didn’t do well at all…which comes as no surprise, since there’s only so much I can do for myself without the help of a good tutor). I only have, for all intents and purposes, five attempts at this exam, which is still required/heavily considered for admission for most law schools.

3. A lot of the (good) lawyers in my life have urged me to get tutoring for the LSAT. Most prospective law school students need the help of a tutor to raise their LSAT scores. I am no exception.

4. Law schools only look at undergraduate degree stats for admission. I face an uphill battle with my undergrad GPA, and my only hope for getting some sizable law school scholarships is an impressive LSAT score.

5. LSAT tutors are hella expensive. Good LSAT tutors are even more so. The one that would perfectly fit my personal needs quoted me for $12,000 total if I wanted to be ready to sit for the upcoming June LSAT exam. I have some funds to put down but I’ll need to come up with more sooner rather than later.

6. In order to keep a roof over my head and food in my body, I am currently subbing for a local middle and high school. I love it so far and it’s a gig I anticipate keeping until May. It’s certainly paying me a lot more than I was eligible for in Illinois unemployment benefits. We all also know the future of the SNAP program isn’t looking great, either.

7. If I could get a decent loan or even get approved for any single new credit card, I would. Since the extenuating circumstances of the last few years up to this point kinda (read: very much so) annihilated my credit, that’s just not going to be possible anytime soon…and that’s despite all of my continued efforts to chip away at what I can for the time being.

If I don’t reach this goal by March 28th, I’ll reimburse each and every contribution. If I exceed this goal, the extra money will go toward my paralegal certificate student loans, any related outstanding academic expenses otherwise, registering for the LSAT itself and then eventually application fees for law school. Beyond that, I’ll have whatever money that remains help others in similar predicaments as mine. I am a woman of my word, because honestly, right now, my word is all I have to give. I can’t make many guarantees about the future, but what I can guarantee is I’ll continue to live my life serving the greater good.

If you made it this far, there aren’t enough words in the world to express my gratitude for you. For now, this will have to do:

From the bottom of my icy black heart, thank you for everything.