[Strangler Lewis]

Either through online research or some phone calls, you can find out what the LSAT and GPA expectations of the various tier law schools you would consider are. But it sounds like you've already done that.

If a big firm salary is the goal, the career guidance office of any law school should be able to tell you if big firms actively recruit at their school.

Advocating for refugees? Does that mean filing asylum claims? You should find out where such work is typically done. DC? New York? Madison representing disgruntled Canadians? You should also find out, perhaps by calling an immigration office, how such people got started and how they get paid and how much it matters what law school they went to. There may be an ACLU angle to explore.

I don't know if there's an attorney's fee provision that pays you if you win. It may also be that the truly interesting claims are taken on pro bono by big firms, which may be a way of having one's cake and eating it, too. (She won't have a life working at a big firm, but she will have uneaten cake.)