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How important is the 3.8 threshold?
Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 1:55 pm
by mono172000
I'm a senior going into my final semester with a 3.77 GPA. I don't have to take very many classes to graduate, and had every intention to finally take the bare minimum for my last semester in school. But I've seen a few posters on this forum comment about the importance of a 3.8 vs. the 3.7x because of the way medians work at some of the top schools.
How important is this threshold for law school admissions? If I take as few classes as I intend to I have no chance of reaching a 3.8 by graduation. Is this cutoff important enough for me to consider tacking on a couple extra classes to make the 3.8 happen? Any advice is appreciated.
(FWIW: AA Male, HYP, 165 lsat.)
Re: How important is the 3.8 threshold?
Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2012 2:01 pm
by snehpets
mono172000 wrote:I'm a senior going into my final semester with a 3.77 GPA. I don't have to take very many classes to graduate, and had every intention to finally take the bare minimum for my last semester in school. But I've seen a few posters on this forum comment about the importance of a 3.8 vs. the 3.7x because of the way medians work at some of the top schools.
How important is this threshold for law school admissions? If I take as few classes as I intend to I have no chance of reaching a 3.8 by graduation. Is this cutoff important enough for me to consider tacking on a couple extra classes to make the 3.8 happen? Any advice is appreciated.
(FWIW: AA Male, HYP, 165 lsat.)
It's probably a bigger deal for Harvard, and to some extent Yale and Stanford. Still, there was a 165/3.5 URM in at Harvard last year. Below that I really haven't seen evidence that it matters, although Chicago has raised their GPA median really high. It really depends on where you're trying to apply. In any case, I think the 3.8 is a lot bigger deal for non-URMs. Your numbers seem fine for a URM at 3.77. However, I'm a 0L non-URM, so take that for what it's worth. Personally, if it was the difference between taking 6 hours and 12 hours I would go ahead and do 12, but 12 vs like 18 or something seems like you would just be risking accidentally messing one up and getting a B.