No GPA / 174 Forum

[TxKxR]

I attended Western Governors University (online school, regional accreditation) and do not have a GPA. All classes are pass/fail. Got a 174 LSAT. What kinds of schools should I be applying to?

[Dmini7]

Another student who attended that school had a lot of issues when applying. I believe they were a URM with a 168, yet were basically dinged at all T14's. (i would message twentypercentmore for more information as I think it was him). All we could really tell you is apply to anywhere that your above their 50th. HYS are probably out unless you have great softs. I would assume you would be treated like an International student in the sense that they only have your LSAT to compare you with, and it may actually effect your scholarship amounts given. Assuming you don't have C&F issues, I think you should get atleast 1 of MVP along with the lower T14's. It may be worth ED'ing to Northwestern though.

[twenty]

I'm a URM with a 166/no GPA and was dinged at every school I applied to. My best friend is going to Georgetown on a 100k scholarship with no GPA and a 173 (not a URM), and was dinged everywhere else he applied minus a T1 in California. I would absolutely blanket the T14, and I sincerely hope you have significantly better luck than we did.

Also, I would highly, highly recommend EDing to NU. That was the one school neither one of us applied to last cycle, and we very much wish we had, looking back.

[lastpriority]

For what it's worth, there is someone at Michigan right now that went to Western Governors.

[flowerhair789]

I'm a URM with a 166/no GPA and was dinged at every school I applied to. My best friend is going to Georgetown on a 100k scholarship with no GPA and a 173 (not a URM), and was dinged everywhere else he applied minus a T1 in California. I would absolutely blanket the T14, and I sincerely hope you have significantly better luck than we did.

Also, I would highly, highly recommend EDing to NU. That was the one school neither one of us applied to last cycle, and we very much wish we had, looking back.

Wow! This is a shocker! Especially for an URM. I thought that having no GPA was somewhat neutral, and the LSAT became the major determinant of whether one had a chance at a school.

I have a foreign uGPA.

[MyNameIsFlynn!]

I'm a URM with a 166/no GPA and was dinged at every school I applied to. My best friend is going to Georgetown on a 100k scholarship with no GPA and a 173 (not a URM), and was dinged everywhere else he applied minus a T1 in California. I would absolutely blanket the T14, and I sincerely hope you have significantly better luck than we did.

Also, I would highly, highly recommend EDing to NU. That was the one school neither one of us applied to last cycle, and we very much wish we had, looking back.

Wow! This is a shocker! Especially for an URM. I thought that having no GPA was somewhat neutral, and the LSAT became the major determinant of whether one had a chance at a school.

I have a foreign uGPA.

For you that's true. Foreign UG are treated very differently than skeezy schools that are the UG equivalent of Cooley Lw

[twelveoaks]

Wait, how do you not have a GPA period? As long as you got letter grades, wouldn't you be able to plug that into the LSAC GPA calculator and it would spit something out? Or is it that you must report the school's official GPA. It's been too long for me to remember (graduated LS), but it seems strange that your 4 years of UG mean NOTHING.

On a separate note, you can see why law schools don't just care about LSAT, right? If you went to a really easy UG or blew it off and spent all of your time doing practice LSATs to get your 174, it doesn't really mean the same about your ability or fitness for LS as someone who went to a difficult undergrad and had to cram their LSAT studying into 2 months. UG shows your well-roundedness, academic interests, and ability to juggle many time-consuming tasks, while the LSAT is to test your ability to take the LSAT and to some extent, raw intelligence.

[twenty]

Wait, how do you not have a GPA period? As long as you got letter grades, wouldn't you be able to plug that into the LSAC GPA calculator and it would spit something out? Or is it that you must report the school's official GPA. It's been too long for me to remember (graduated LS), but it seems strange that your 4 years of UG mean NOTHING.

We don't get letter grades, we got pass/fail marks, which translated into "unconverted credit" as far as the LSAC was concerned. I actually did have some letter grades from community college classes, but you need at least 60 for LSAC to give you a cumulative GPA.