Top Law Schools

Hey everyone. I know i have written a lot below, I would really appreciate if you could please take some time out to read it and guide me. I am going to apologize in advance for any ambiguity or vagueness, I will be happy to clarify and elaborate when asked.

I was wondering if i could please get some input an guidance on my next Move. Some background info: I found out pretty late that i could graduate early because i changed majors. I am currently a 3rd year, standing as a senior. I was a bio major for 2 years while sort of doubling major in Poly Sci... Long story short, I took on some extra units and enrolled for summer school out of excitement from finding out i could graduate early in order to accomplish that. I've been doing really well this year but my second year as a struggling bio major killed my GPA. The best i could probably get my GPA to is about a 3.0 or 3.1 by the time I finish.

If i stick around for another year, the highest i could probably get it to around a 3.2 or 3.3 - according to various people i have spoken to.

Whether I graduate early or not, I am going to be attending law school at the time no matter what.

My question is, is it worth it stay another year and raise my GPA - I am not sure if a .2 raise is considered significant if my GPA is in the low 3s.

During my year in which I would be applying, i was intending to work at a law firm as either a legal secretary or a legal assistant (If i am fortunate). I have been networking and have made friends with several lawyers and have some family connections. I have no guarantees of a job and dont want to depend on anyone, but I have better odds than some of my competition. I have not taken the LSAT yet, i won a free ~$1400 prep course with Princeton Review which i am currently taking. I plan to take another summer prep course and dedicate significantly more time towards preparation for the October 2010 exam.

I regret ever being a bio major, at the time i thought I wanted to go into medicine. I should have bailed out sooner but i thought I could tough it out. I really want to go to reputable law school such as USC and am open to any advice, no matter how tough it is, to get there. I am very confident I will do well on the LSAT, I want it really bad and i wont allow myself to have it any other way. I wish i could offer more than simple thank you for any input... Thank you!

I'm graduating in three years as well, with a GPA ~3.35. For me, financially it simply doesn't make sense sticking around for another year. I just have to take my chances with the LSAT. If you can can raise your GPA by .1-.2 and the cost you would have to pay for the extra year is worth it for you, then go ahead and do it. Once you get your diploma, there's nothing you can do about your UG GPA. You're stuck with it for the rest of your life.

Have you looked at schools you might apply to? 3.1 and a decent LSAT could get you in a decent amount of schools ranked 20-30. T14 is going to be a lot harder of course, and it will require an LSAT above 170.

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A few ideas:

Don't count on a big change in your GPA in that last year. Or, more pointedly, don't count on your habits changing.

You're LSAT is really the only thing you should be worried about at this point, and it's the only thing that can salvage that GPA if you want top 20.

There's almost nothing you can do to get into USC with that GPA, at least according to LSN for this last cycle. Though, you may be able to shoot higher if you get a high enough LSAT (I think UVA and GULC are fairly splitter-friendly without work experience).

People on TLS may advise you to do anything you can to raise that GPA, but given the small margin for improvement, I think you should decide based on your want for that additional degree and the time involved in getting it.

...

zozin wrote:I'm graduating in three years as well, with a GPA ~3.35. For me, financially it simply doesn't make sense sticking around for another year. I just have to take my chances with the LSAT. If you can can raise your GPA by .1-.2 and the cost you would have to pay for the extra year is worth it for you, then go ahead and do it. Once you get your diploma, there's nothing you can do about your UG GPA. You're stuck with it for the rest of your life.

Have you looked at schools you might apply to? 3.1 and a decent LSAT could get you in a decent amount of schools ranked 20-30. T14 is going to be a lot harder of course, and it will require an LSAT above 170.

The financial benefits of graduating early are really tempting. However, this is the rest of my life...
I would LOVE to go to Stanford but i think that is out of my reach now unfortunately. Aside from that, I really want USC. A couple other schools include Loyola, UC Davis, Hastings, pepperdine, and possibly a few more.
Thanks for your response.

RedShift wrote:The upward trend!!!

If you can swing it financially, it might be beneficial to stick around the extra year to bump your GPA. Really make sure you do well and write up a good addendum to explain the one bad semester you had and score a 170+ on the LSAT. It could be what gets you into a T14.

Of course, if you aren't concerned with a T14 or aren't sure you could produce an LSAT score to get you in, you could get out in 3 years and save a year's worth of tuition. A lot of this decision rests upon your target range of law schools.

thank you for your response, i appreciate it. I listed several schools above that would I would like. If it's realistic, i would shoot even higher. Even though my shot at Stanford is not looking good, maybe even impossible, I am still making it a target school.

mctj wrote:A few ideas:

Don't count on a big change in your GPA in that last year. Or, more pointedly, don't count on your habits changing.

You're LSAT is really the only thing you should be worried about at this point, and it's the only thing that can salvage that GPA if you want top 20.

There's almost nothing you can do to get into USC with that GPA, at least according to LSN for this last cycle. Though, you may be able to shoot higher if you get a high enough LSAT (I think UVA and GULC are fairly splitter-friendly without work experience).

People on TLS may advise you to do anything you can to raise that GPA, but given the small margin for improvement, I think you should decide based on your want for that additional degree and the time involved in getting it.

yeah i was afraid the GPA boost would be insignificant. thank you for your input.

xyzzzzzzzz wrote:I had this dilemma for a while. My GPA was less than ideal and thought I might take 4 years to graduate when I didn't need to. I decided against it. I'm graduating early (i took summer classes for fun/out of boredom) but I am taking auxiliary classes in my remaining semester just to boost a little. However, my GPA was not at the point of no return. I feel the small bump I'm getting will benefit me(I'm on a bubble). If you were on the brink of a 3.4 or 3.5, I'd say do it. But even a 3.3 is going to put you at a disadvantage. 3.3 is below most medians in the t14. I'm not really sure a 3.3 is that much better than a 3.1 or 3.0. If you could get to 3.4 or 3.5, I'd say maybe.

thanks for your reply. I can see your point... right now it looks like I will probably go ahead with graduating early.

I totally forgot to ask if anyone knows this... my major GPA for Political Science is significantly higher than my overall GPA which was dragged down by my poor performance for when i was Bio major (at least in my second year...). Will that be taken into consideration or benefit me in anyway?

Thank you again!

^
probably not much....ultimately what the schools care about mostly is the median LSAC GPA they're gonna report, which will be your overall GPA rathe than your major GPA

how much will it cost you to attend for another year?

regardless of whether you stay another year or not, kill the LSAT is the best advice. take it very seriously. plan on several months of preparation, several hours a week, read up on study tips, consider a full-length powerscore or testmasters course.

Based solely on the title + personal experience, stay in undergrad as long as you feasibly can. Both the real world and lawl skool suck.

Disclaimer, didn't read the OP or any other posts.