At what point do you have no chance at all? Forum

[sarcasticzebra]

I have known for over 3 years law school is what I have wanted to do -- and there are some positives that suggest I could be accepted into law school as well as some negative factors, based on the positive and negative factors of my prospective application, would you say I had a chance or was screwed?

Positives
_________
1. Will be taking the October LSAT and am now scoring at 171 on my practice diagnostics. Since I am in the 170 range and have not taken the test once, I therefore have 3 fresh tries
2. My summer grades have come in and my absolute (LSAC) gpa is 3.2 (which I can raise to 3.35-3.4) when I graduate this year


Negatives
___________
1. I am up in my 20s and not a traditional college student -- have taken longer to graduate and switched my major several times
2. Although I have work experience, my work experience has been as a waitress and secretary (nothing profound) that others would have I would be competing against when I apply
3. I have excessive non-punitive Ws, so some semesters my transcript looks like this:

Spring 2010
___________

W
W
A
B
W


Fall 2010
________
W
W
W
W
W

Spring 2011
__________
A
A
A
W
W


So, am I destined to underperform my numbers since I have excessive Ws ?? Also, I have one semester of C's and D's

[John_rizzy_rawls]

With a 3.3-3.4/17X and an addendum for those W's, you'll get multiple T-14/T-20 with $$ acceptances.

Relax.

[nebula666]

Oh my god I'm probably going to one of the 14 best law schools in the country



I'm guessing the major you ended up sticking with was drama

[jbagelboy]

Definitely don't apply until you've maxed out your GPA. Or scored below 170 on the LSAT (since you don't have a score yet, this entire exercise is pretty speculative anyway).

Write an addendum explaining wtf was going on with the W's. Don't whine or make excuses, just state simply and exactly what happened (not like, oh I was getting down with the rando's and blacking out every tuesday, something substantive).

Non-trad applicants will have unpredictable cycles, but not necessary bad ones. You have to play up your "life experience" and the positive aspects of your application.

Ace the LSAT, finish out the year (DONT apply this fall or you will be fucked), and come back to us with finalized numbers)

[twenty]

While I don't pretend to understand what's going on in your life, I do have friends that have taken the 6+ year track through college and have recently graduated with 3.3's and 3.4's with lots of Ws.

I appreciate that you're pretty sure you want to do law school -- and that's cool, but as a splitter especially, realize that you'll be working in law for the next 4-10 years of your life. That's a pretty big commitment. Go work in a law firm this next fall-spring and see if this is really something you want to do.