[XXXNoahXXX]

1. You are making a 6 figure investment. Don't let a $50 fee deter you if you have a shot, even if that shot is minimal. GPA is solid, 165 is good, but nothing to write home about. I've posted before that I had a 3.6 and a 172 and I got into two of the top 15 schools. Remember that numbers are slightly skewed when you remove minorities and those with advanced degrees, etc. from the equation.

For a more realistic view, go to lawschoolnumbers.com and fill in your info for various schools (remember to exclude minorities). I'm not sure how being from Canada impacts things, or what your school's average GPA is.

Do you have a strong preference for coast or where you want to be after graduation? This doesn't matter as much for top schools, but will be a deciding factor further down the line. So Yale places awesome anywhere in the country, but for example, U of Texas might be #18 but don't tell me they place better in Boston than BC/BU.

I think your target should be schools like Georgetown, Cornell, UCLA. Reaches should be Yale, Harvard, NYU, Chiago, Columbia, Penn, etc. (you get the idea) and safe bets/likely would be BC, BU, GW, Fordham, UC-Hastings.

2. Not very important at all. Write about your favorite trip. Best childhood memory. Why you want to be a lawyer. Doesn't matter a great deal except when you're on borderline, unless you have some tearjerker story or something.

3. Same as #2. Probably don't matter a great deal unless they're actually negative or your professor is an alum of the school and speaks very highly of you.

Basically most places are 95%+ of GPA/LSAT. Rest doesn't matter as much.

4. Send it in now. As soon as they get anything they create a file on you, so don't worry about stuff getting lost. Then, as soon as they get your recs, the file will be labeled complete and will be reviewed.