8 Years Army 2.7 GPA 164 LSAT SMU Evening Forum

[tbone1]

I am working on my application as we speak to the SMU evening program and am starting to get a little worried.

A little background...went to school at SMU when I was 18 in 98' until my junior year and made terrible grades. Joined the Army after 9/11 and served as an Army Ranger for 7 years. Just finished my Senior year with a 4.0. My wife and son live in Dallas and I don't want to move. Really really hope I'm accepted.

Thoughts??

[alexonfyre]

The general wisdom on TLS is that "Softs rarely matter."

In your case however, your softs are really impressive. Not every law school applicant is an Army Ranger, and even the ones with military service records don't have 8 years of it. The fact that you improved your GPA at near at the end of your degree helps as well. When you have such a unique resume, schools are likely to look at your personal statement and interviews more closely to see if you are worth taking over your numbers (which yours aren't that bad, and LSAT alone makes you competitive for SMU Evening.)

If you focus your application image on what you learned from the Army and how you grew as a person, specifically as it relates to your reasons for choosing to go to law school and what you plan to do with your degree, then you would have a good shot at even more competitive schools than SMU. I'm not personally familiar with SMU and whether or not they have a strict GPA floor, but from the information on this site it seems like your resume would be something they would happily bend that number for, especially since your LSAT is already median (better than median for Evening classes.)

Nothing is ever a sure thing in law school admissions, but I would be pretty confident in your chances if you are able to properly capitalize on your resume.

[bass08]

I'd say you're probably in at SMU evening, especially if you are applying early, which it sounds like you are. I imagine you might get a little money as well. Good luck.

[kalvano]

Lucky for you, SMU is an LSAT-oriented school. You might even be able to get FT if you wanted that, but I would say almost definitely in PT. SMU seems to have an affinity for military people.

Also, while softs are usually sort of incidental, as the above posted said, being an Army Ranger is rare. Military seems to be a small boost (or large, depending on the school), but something badass like an Army Ranger should be a fairly significant boost.


Also, apply early. It's not binding, and SMU is glacially slow.