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I have a 2.6 LSAC GPA spread out over two colleges (college courses during high school are bolstering my gpa.) My undergrad gpa is bad; I have earned two A grades my entire undergrad career. The rest are B/C and one F, with multiple withdrawals. Otherwise I'm just a non-urm male at a low ranked private college. Should I retake the LSAT at 170? I sat once last year with a decent amount of prep. I was thinking about trying to pad my gpa this summer, but I already have so many credits I would barely make a dent. I'm graduating in the fall, so I plan to apply then; how high should I aim? I feel really panicked and my adviser is very pessimistic.

What do you want to do? Where do you want to work? Where are you from?

satisgir10 wrote:I have a 2.6 LSAC GPA spread out over two colleges (college courses during high school are bolstering my gpa.) My undergrad gpa is bad; I have earned two A grades my entire undergrad career. The rest are B/C and one F, with multiple withdrawals. Otherwise I'm just a non-urm male at a low ranked private college. Should I retake the LSAT at 170? I sat once last year with a decent amount of prep. I was thinking about trying to pad my gpa this summer, but I already have so many credits I would barely make a dent. I'm graduating in the fall, so I plan to apply then; how high should I aim? I feel really panicked and my adviser is very pessimistic.

Can you give me info on how many credits you have so far?

I'm from a southern state but have no interest in working in the south. I would prefer to work on the West Coast, in Seattle/Portland or the Bay Area.


I have around 120 credits

In your opinion, what would be a strong reason to go to law school?

I feel it is a significant gamble to go given that you have had only two A's in almost four years of UG....some of your competition applying may have had two grades or less below an A their entire UG career

It's ultimately your choice though

The best (non-180 LSAT) way to distance yourself from a bad GPA--which you can never fully escape--is to work for a few years. If you can put some time between yourself and the bad grades, gain some WE, you can have some sort of narrative at least that you're now a responsible adult and will do better in LS, along with all the other benefits of working after undergrad (which EVERYONE should do, just about).

But really: why do you want to go to LS?

If you retake and can push a few more points out, you have an outside shot at UVA, a 50-70% chance at NU (according to mylsn after adjusting for no WE), and will get significant schollies at WUSTL/Minn with random luck-based acceptances at other places.

WE will strengthen your application.

Any chance you can delay graduation? A strong finish this semester followed by another three strong semesters in the summer, fall, and spring and some work experience after that would make you much more competitive if you apply in the fall of 2016.

You're already at your best-case scenario school's (NU) 75th percentile LSAT so there are probably some diminishing returns to improving that score. But if you think you can do better, you might as well retake. It's also exceedingly unlikely you can get to any good school's 25th percentile GPA at this point; there really isn't much of a difference in terms of the impact to a school's reportable matriculant data between a 2.6 and a 2.9 so I'm not sure prolonging your undergrad career will do you much good. Get at least two years of post-undergrad work experience to boost your chances at Northwestern, save some money (since even if you get into NU or maybe UVA it'll almost certainly be at sticker) and possibly discover a different career you find more fulfilling than law. At that point, if you're still interested, you should be able to cop a Northwestern acceptance or at least a decent-sized scholarship at WUSTL. It's gonna be tough to get to the west coast without ties from either of those schools though and unfortunately none of the good west coast schools will ever be open to you due to your GPA.

NU loves splitters.

1. don't take more classes to improve GPA
2. retake your LSAT
3. get a job you like. if you get rejected everywhere next cycle you'll still have a job, and can reapply the following cycle.

I'm assuming extra classes would be low cost, and my thinking is that with OP graduating in the fall anyway and probably needing a year of work experience for NU he might as well knock out a few more A's in the Spring. As it stands even these days I don't think a 2.6/170 still in undergrad gets into Northwestern.

Also moving to your desired market and working there for a year would help to build ties. That said, with a low GPA and goals of SF/Seattle/Portland despite minimal or no ties I'm not sure any law school makes much sense.

I was on a similar boat as you, and I'll be heading to law school in the fall with some money. Shoot me a PM if you want some more info, I'd be happy to share.

Thanks for the replies--so going ahead and graduating next semester then a year or two of WE makes the most sense? Does the job I take matter? There's not going to be a lot available to me with a 2.6 out of college.

satisgir10 wrote:Thanks for the replies--so going ahead and graduating next semester then a year or two of WE makes the most sense? Does the job I take matter? There's not going to be a lot available to me with a 2.6 out of college.

On second thoughts....how much of an increase would extending UG cause to your GPA?.

I agree not much difference between a 2.6 and a 2.8........but if you graduated with lets say a 3.0 that could make a difference

With 120 credits and a 2.6 gpa, if OP got straight A's the next 30 credits it would bump their gpa to 2.88.

op, what kind of job do you want, specifically?
if you have no idea how to answer, i recommend you hold off on applying for the foreseeable future

If you want to work in Seattle or Portland I would move there and work for a coupke of years before law school. You want ties to those cities and you want to really spend some time there to make sure you want to be there long term.

Jay2716 wrote:If you want to work in Seattle or Portland I would move there and work for a coupke of years before law school. You want ties to those cities and you want to really spend some time there to make sure you want to be there long term.

Ideally, maybe find a firm (of any size) there that needs a paralegal or secretary or something?