Hello, I have been lurking on the forum but I would like some advice. I want to apply for law school for fall 2013, and I plan on taking the LSAT in October. I currently have a 3.5 gpa in graduate school but as I have a year left of classes I am going to try to increase this as much as I can. I will end up with an M.A in English. I took a diagnostic LSAT and got a 155.

Do you think having a graduate degree will help my chances of acceptance or does it not really make too much of a difference?
How much does my undergraduate career matter? I had some personal issues and did very poorly for about a year so it's around a 2.8 cumulative.

Aside from the obvious (boosting my gpa and studying for the LSAT) are there any recommendations you guys have in order to increase my chances at getting into a T14 school? My softs aren't too great, I'm just a manager at a restaurant, and I volunteer at women's shelter. I am leaning towards wanting to be a prosecutor if that makes a difference. Thanks.

MAs are not going to make the difference. What will matter most is your 2.8 GPA and your LSAT. There are people who have gotten into t-14 law schools with that GPA but they need very high LSATs to offset that (think 175+). I think Gtown and NU are your best bet if you have any work experience for the latter. You are pretty much not getting into HYSCCN, but maybe some of the lower top 14s will be receptive. Study very hard for your LSAT.

Your graduate GPA won't affect your LSAC GPA, just so you know.

Oh, okay. Thanks guys. That's disappointing though, I had hoped my graduate g.p.a would have some mitigating effect on my abysmal undergraduate.