non traditional yet hopeful Forum

[spedlaw0117]

Hi everyone,

I would like to hear your thoughts on my stats as of right now. *I have not taken the LSAT yet*

I graduated from a small state university. Summa Cum Laude BA in special education with a minor in entrepreneurship. I was a transfer from a community college to the state school. My overall GPA for my AA was 3.05 and my graduating GPA from the state university was 3.9. I calculated the GPA based on LSAC's formula - 3.5.

I will be applying to a masters in entrepreneurship program soon. While I know that the masters will not be heavily weighted in my law school application, it is something I want to do.

I do not have any formal legal experience. My goals are to get involved with local education policy in order to get exposure and add some weight to my future application.

Like most, I would like to do great on the LSAT and get into a T14 school. I do have some interesting circumstances regarding where I will be applying and that will be a challenge.

Considering my very non-traditional educational background, am I being realistic on getting into a T14 school (depending on LSAT score)?
**In addition, these things may be in my favor.
I am a minority woman, I have been working for several years, and a tad older than typical applicants.

[lymenheimer]

You literally need an LSAT score. You can pretty much go play around with mylsn to see where you can get with your gpa with random LSAT scores if you want to know, though.

[spedlaw0117]

Welp, guess I'll be back in a while for a second round of "what are my chances"

I don't plan on applying until probably a year and a half. Gives me plenty of time to kill the LSAT.
Do you think it would be best to perhaps not pursue the masters yet and just focus on doing well on the LSAT considering my GPA isn't very strong?

[lymenheimer]

Welp, guess I'll be back in a while for a second round of "what are my chances"

I don't plan on applying until probably a year and a half. Gives me plenty of time to kill the LSAT.
Do you think it would be best to perhaps not pursue the masters yet and just focus on doing well on the LSAT considering my GPA isn't very strong?

I mean...Your GPA doesn't preclude you from the entirety of the T14, as you can see on mylsn, so perhaps you could take a diagnostic and see where you stand currently to see how much studying you may need. Or you can do your masters and then go to work and then do the lsat.

[spedlaw0117]

Thanks for the advice. I'll take a practice test in a few weeks and see where I stand.

[gregfootball2001]

Hi everyone,

*I have not taken the LSAT yet*

I calculated the GPA based on LSAC's formula - 3.5.

I am a minority woman

For law school admissions, these are the only relevant pieces of information. Your master's GPA won't affect anything for admissions. The fact that you have a master's won't affect anything for admissions. Go get a masters if you want to (but 5 more years of school? Ouch), go if that's somehow the only way you can get to the law job that you want, but understand what is actually important for the admissions process.

[cavalier1138]

Just an addendum to that last post:

No, your graduate GPA doesn't matter. But yes, the fact that you have an advanced degree does help. Will it make or break your application? No. But it certainly helps offset a weak undergraduate GPA.