University of Melbourne ----> US Law School Forum

[UniMelbStudent]

Hello everyone,

I'm hoping someone here has some insight into the application process for someone wanting to apply to a US law school (Yale/Havard/etc) from a University of Melbourne Bachelor of Commerce background.

I have found the general requirements but I am interested into how they would translate for such an applicant. Suppose an undergraduate WAM of ~80 with a Finance Honours year (highly competitive with 30-40 students) and an LSAT score in the range of (177-180), and strong leadership positions (e.g. President of a prominent student finance society).

Note: my university does not use a GPA, our subjects are marked out of 100, and the "WAM" is the weighted average of all subjects, with a score between 80 - 100 being considered equal to the highest letter grade (H1).

I'm specifically interested in how the WAM would convert through the LSAC process considering that it isn't a GPA.

And of course assuming letters of recommendation and personal statement are solid, are there any specific necessities that are needed on a resume (e.g. are US name brand firms needed or is a range of work experience acceptable?)

I realise that applications for such schools (and probably more so for an international applicant) are always incredibly competitive, but I am hoping for some meaningful insight beyond ~give up or, don't bother.

Thank you to anyone who will take the time to provide some much needed insight into into this. And if I have posted this in the wrong forum, thank you to the mod that moves it to the right one!

Kind regards,

[AJordan]

Short answer on GPA: LSAC doesn't translate your international marks to a specific GPA. They instead give a rating based on some nebulous calculation that I'm not sure anybody knows. It'll be something like "superior" at the top to "below average" at the bottom. But take that with a grain of salt. Ultimately, it just doesn't matter all that much since it doesn't factor into their USNWR ranking. Your LSAT score is by far the most important part of your application. Maybe 80%? You need to, at a minimum, hit the median for your target school. Ideally, you'd beat it. I won't assume a 177-180 because that's unrealistic. If you already have it, bully for you.