LSAT scores are out. Some folk are disappointed. Some are elated. Others are relieved. Wherever you happen to fit in, it’s now time for a second nerve-racking endeavor: applying to law school. When applying to law school, your choice of where to apply can, and should rely heavily upon the quality of your LSAT score (amongst other things).

For some who are applying to law school, their LSAT scores are in the right range for the schools in which they’d like to attend. Great. Those people don’t need blog posts. They’re riding their fixies down Easy Street. For those whose LSAT scores fell below the desired range, take heart. You have options.

If you have an outstanding GPA or were an extracurricular all-star, there’s still hope. While LSAT scores are quite important, they are not the be-all-end-all of applying to law school. If you have a great GPA or a stellar list of accomplishments, go ahead and shoot a bit higher than you might think you should. You may get a pleasant surprise in the form of an acceptance letter from a better-than-expected law school. An excellent personal statement couldn’t hurt either.

However, if your GPA isn’t great and you spent a lot time eating Funyuns during your undergraduate tenure (remember how good those were?), you’re going to have a tougher time applying to law school. But guess what? There’s hope, even for you. Lower your sights a bit, and make sure you’re applying to law schools for which your LSAT/GPA combo makes sense. Once you get there, study your tookus off (because who doesn’t love a little Yiddish?). If you’re at the top of your class at a lower tier law school, there is still the possibility of transferring to a higher-ranked school for your last two years and thus graduating with a more prestigious degree (and no doubt better employment prospects).

If you’re in the enviable category of applying to law school with a higher-than-expected LSAT score, by all means set your sights higher than you may have originally thought appropriate. After all, you’re reading the blog post of someone who had a relatively mediocre GPA, but rode his LSAT score to acceptance at a Top 20 law school. In other words, a great LSAT score clears a lot of obstacles out of the way.

Now that we’ve got my unsolicited advice out of the way, I highly recommend you go see 50/50. It’ll remind how amazing movies can be. Just make sure you ignore the trailer for Breaking Dawn. It’ll remind you how bad movies can be (I threw up in my mouth a little just thinking about it).