Applying with a GRADUATE DEGREE Forum

[Lonestar87]

Hi Guys!! I graduated the University of Washington last year with a 3.1 GPA and I decided to get my Masters in Public Administration at the University of Texas at San Antonio. My Masters GPA is a 4.0 and I will be one semester away from graduating, when I apply this fall in the early decisions. My LSAT score is a 170 and the reason why my GPA was low in college was because my father had severe heart issues which caused him to stop working and it left me to support the family. Towards the end at UW, I was scoring very good grades....but the damage of poor grades and many withdrawals in my early years hurt me. I will state all of this in my personal statement and I have documentation for everything. I even did internships with senators and congressmen.....WHAT ARE MY CHANCES IN GETTING INTO A TOP 20 LAW SCHOOL??? By living in Texas right now, I do qualify for University of Texas at Austin's 70% in state law admissions requirements!!! Keep in mind my GPA is very high in grad school....and I am only 23 years old with an almost Masters....Cornell and UPenn are my biggest wish...What are their chances????

[budafied]

The 170 will help you and I would guess someone will bite out of the top 20, probably even T14.

I doubt the 4.0 GPA in grad school will really help you too much. Grad school grades (I'm a grad student now) are highly inflated. Law schools know this. It is ridiculously easy to get a 3.5 in grad school given you actually turn in something when a paper is due. Law schools will know that the difference from your UGPA 3.1 to Grad 4.0 may have more to do with the inflated grades than anything else. But who knows...

[Lonestar87]

Does the University of Texas at Austin Law School have any good chances of accepting me; hence, I am a resident and they have the 2/3 in state requirement....

[colemf]

I would say you have a 50/50 shot at UT just because your GPA is so low.

[tinman]

I think you have a very good shot at UTexas and Cornell. I mention Cornell because you are above their 75% mark on LSAT. You will bring down the median and 25% GPA marks at any top school. But I think as long as 170 is above their 75% mark when you apply, you will have a great shot.

The grad GPA will not matter that much, I think, but it will make your reasons for your low GPA that much more convincing.

You should definitely write an addendum to the schools explaining your situation in details, perhaps with details about the illness etc. Some people lie about family situations. Yours sounds legit, and I would make this clear in your addendum.

I would not focus on your bad grades in your personal statement. I would mention it, perhaps even with a pointer to your addendum, because it is so important to your case, but I think you should use the personal statement to write about more positive experiences.

Just my 2 cents. Good luck.

[prezidentv8]

OH, CAPS LOCK!?

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[JordynAsh]

OH, CAPS LOCK!?

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+1. Not only is the use of caps lock annoying, but the fact OP posted this topic twice today, I'm guessing because he/she didn't get the answer they wanted in the first thread.

[270910]

Yeah, wtf OP? Your odds aren't any better and your graduate degree not any more relevant than they were a few hours ago.

[kittenmittons]

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[Borhas]

OH, CAPS LOCK!?

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-1 unnecessary image of hipster

[kittenmittons]

OH, CAPS LOCK!?

--ImageRemoved--

-1 unnecessary image of hipster

-1 hipster image use is never unnecessary