Does a poor record at a community college ruin my chances? Forum

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ccmonson

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Does a poor record at a community college ruin my chances?

Post by ccmonson » Thu Jan 07, 2010 5:03 am

I'm a sophomore currently, and not sure exactly how the admissions process works, entirely. I currently have a 3.85 GPA at the university I attend, which I intend to pull up to to a 3.91. In high school I took college courses from a local community college, and didn't do quite so well. It was only 14 credits, but the GPA comes out to a 2.79. My current university does not include these transfer credits in my GPA, but since I have to send the community college transcript to whatever law schools I apply to, will this past record ruin my chances of attending a top 20 law school? Any information would be great.

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Nom Sawyer

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Re: Does a poor record at a community college ruin my chances?

Post by Nom Sawyer » Thu Jan 07, 2010 5:08 am

ccmonson wrote:I'm a sophomore currently, and not sure exactly how the admissions process works, entirely. I currently have a 3.85 GPA at the university I attend, which I intend to pull up to to a 3.91. In high school I took college courses from a local community college, and didn't do quite so well. It was only 14 credits, but the GPA comes out to a 2.79. My current university does not include these transfer credits in my GPA, but since I have to send the community college transcript to whatever law schools I apply to, will this past record ruin my chances of attending a top 20 law school? Any information would be great.
They'll average the 14 credits in with your 3.85 GPA, so it will drop your LSAC GPA. However, T20 colleges won't care that much as long as your overall application is strong, so if you have a competitive LSAT score you 'll do fine...

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im_blue

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Re: Does a poor record at a community college ruin my chances?

Post by im_blue » Thu Jan 07, 2010 5:26 am

If you have ~45 university credits with a 3.85, and 14 CC credits with a 2.79, then your overall GPA is a 3.60. Even if you pull up your university GPA to a 3.9 by junior year (90 credits), your overall GPA would only be a 3.75. Those CC grades definitely hurt a lot, but you're not out of the running for a T20.

ccmonson

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Re: Does a poor record at a community college ruin my chances?

Post by ccmonson » Thu Jan 07, 2010 5:51 am

Will schools even look at the transcripts individually, or only the LSAC GPA? Will they be able to see the fact that the community college credits were while I was in high school, and that my performance is much better at a more rigorous four year university, or will I have a chance to explain on the application? I realize that the 3.78 average GPA I could manage by the end of my junior year would actually still be a decent GPA for most top 20 schools, but it's still frustrating, of course. Thanks for the help.

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im_blue

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Re: Does a poor record at a community college ruin my chances?

Post by im_blue » Thu Jan 07, 2010 6:05 am

Schools can see that your college record is stronger, but the LSAC GPA is used for admissions since it's reported as official ABA data.

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