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Hello all. My two dream schools are UCLA and USC and desperately want to get in either. My LSAC adjusted GPA is 3.4, however it is this low due to a horrendous first year of college. Since that first year I have maintained a 3.84 GPA. My softs are average-weak. What are my chances, and does my upward trend of GPA count for anything?

Kreemo_Kid wrote:Hello all. My two dream schools are UCLA and USC and desperately want to get in either. My LSAC adjusted GPA is 3.4, however it is this low due to a horrendous first year of college. Since that first year I have maintained a 3.84 GPA. My softs are average-weak. What are my chances, and does my upward trend of GPA count for anything?

Aim higher. You could get into Berkeley. I know an AA male with a 3.15/164 who got in.

You should be T7-14 secure.

GAIAtheCHEERLEADER wrote:

Kreemo_Kid wrote:Hello all. My two dream schools are UCLA and USC and desperately want to get in either. My LSAC adjusted GPA is 3.4, however it is this low due to a horrendous first year of college. Since that first year I have maintained a 3.84 GPA. My softs are average-weak. What are my chances, and does my upward trend of GPA count for anything?

Aim higher. You could get into Berkeley. I know an AA male with a 3.15/164 who got in.

You should be T7-14 secure.

Gaia speaks truth.

Ask for application fee waivers via e-mail from any T-14 that interests you.

thanks for the feedback. so you are saying an addendum and upward trend will shed some positive light on my low GPA?

Kreemo_Kid wrote:thanks for the feedback. so you are saying an addendum and upward trend will shed some positive light on my low GPA?

She's saying that you're an AA, that stuff is not going to matter. You can write an addendum if you want but your URM status will get you into the T14

UCLA likes high GPAs, so it may help. But, being an AA male is a dominant trump card so it may not matter much. In short, you're in fine shape.

Mr. Somebody wrote:

Kreemo_Kid wrote:thanks for the feedback. so you are saying an addendum and upward trend will shed some positive light on my low GPA?

She's saying that you're an AA, that stuff is not going to matter. You can write an addendum if you want but your URM status will get you into the T14

Actually I think the opposite is true, for URMs the details matter more than with other applicants. They're looking for reasons "beyond the numbers" with URMs, and the more you can point to some the better off you are. A well-written addendum highlighting your strong upward trend would be very useful in this case.

thank you all greatly

vanwinkle wrote:

Mr. Somebody wrote:

Kreemo_Kid wrote:thanks for the feedback. so you are saying an addendum and upward trend will shed some positive light on my low GPA?

She's saying that you're an AA, that stuff is not going to matter. You can write an addendum if you want but your URM status will get you into the T14

Actually I think the opposite is true, for URMs the details matter more than with other applicants. They're looking for reasons "beyond the numbers" with URMs, and the more you can point to some the better off you are. A well-written addendum highlighting your strong upward trend would be very useful in this case.

May also be a mixture of both. Not writing an addendum would not adversely affect his chances of admission but writing an addendum might help enhance his chances of admission. So basically, he may as well write one -- even though he doesn't have to -- because it will probably help him. Either way, OP should be T14 secure.

I agree with someone above who mentioned that the more you can put to "supplement" your application, the better. But as a URM, 164, 3.88 with pretty darn weak softs, I can tell you that numbers for us aren't the end-all-be-all. I actually got rejected at Berkeley this past week. Now granted I am probably more the exception rather than the norm, the truth is that with URM cycles, there really IS no norm and I just feel that you should use my cycle as a bit of a cautionary tale.

So yeah, I'D advise (especially since you say your softs were average-to-weak), that you write a GPA addendum. I think some of the above posters are perhaps a LITTLE too optimistic? (No offense meant by that whatsoever). Just saying. Make your application stand out. Especially when dealing with GPA-"obsessed" west-coast schools. As a frame of reference btw, the only T14 I've gotten into is GULC, and I've been WL'd at UVA, UPenn, UChi, and rejected from Mich and Berkeley.

And who knows? Maybe you're downplaying your softs and they're actually MUCH better than mine. But I just thought I'd give you a slightly different perspective.

Edit: Oh and also, I'm an AA male as well.

clarion wrote:I agree with someone above who mentioned that the more you can put to "supplement" your application, the better. But as a URM, 164, 3.88 with pretty darn weak softs, I can tell you that numbers for us aren't the end-all-be-all. I actually got rejected at Berkeley this past week. Now granted I am probably more the exception rather than the norm, the truth is that with URM cycles, there really IS no norm and I just feel that you should use my cycle as a bit of a cautionary tale.

So yeah, I'D advise (especially since you say your softs were average-to-weak), that you write a GPA addendum. I think some of the above posters are perhaps a LITTLE too optimistic? (No offense meant by that whatsoever). Just saying. Make your application stand out. Especially when dealing with GPA-"obsessed" west-coast schools. As a frame of reference btw, the only T14 I've gotten into is GULC, and I've been WL'd at UVA, UPenn, UChi, and rejected from Mich and Berkeley.

And who knows? Maybe you're downplaying your softs and they're actually MUCH better than mine. But I just thought I'd give you a slightly different perspective.

Edit: Oh and also, I'm an AA male as well.

A 164, 3.88 AA male only getting into GULC? Those are HYS competitive stats. I don't mean to be rude but did you have a red flag in your app? Like maybe some academic/criminal problem? Your cycle is much poorer than what I've seen over three admission cycles.

GAIAtheCHEERLEADER wrote:

clarion wrote:I agree with someone above who mentioned that the more you can put to "supplement" your application, the better. But as a URM, 164, 3.88 with pretty darn weak softs, I can tell you that numbers for us aren't the end-all-be-all. I actually got rejected at Berkeley this past week. Now granted I am probably more the exception rather than the norm, the truth is that with URM cycles, there really IS no norm and I just feel that you should use my cycle as a bit of a cautionary tale.

So yeah, I'D advise (especially since you say your softs were average-to-weak), that you write a GPA addendum. I think some of the above posters are perhaps a LITTLE too optimistic? (No offense meant by that whatsoever). Just saying. Make your application stand out. Especially when dealing with GPA-"obsessed" west-coast schools. As a frame of reference btw, the only T14 I've gotten into is GULC, and I've been WL'd at UVA, UPenn, UChi, and rejected from Mich and Berkeley.

And who knows? Maybe you're downplaying your softs and they're actually MUCH better than mine. But I just thought I'd give you a slightly different perspective.

Edit: Oh and also, I'm an AA male as well.

A 164, 3.88 AA male only getting into GULC? Those are HYS competitive stats. I don't mean to be rude but did you have a red flag in your app? Like maybe some academic/criminal problem? Your cycle is much poorer than what I've seen over three admission cycles.

Nah, no rudeness taken: that's a fair question. Like I said, I don't think I'm the norm. I think perhaps being a music major with a minor in Italian has made my GPA seem a little less appealing than it might've been otherwise? I dunno. That's really the only reason I could come up with for why most of the T14 doesn't seem too impressed. Like I say, the rejections from Mich and Berkeley don't surprise me (considering my... unfortunate softs lol), and the WLs at UVA, Penn and Chi aren't too surprising either. Still waiting to hear from Harvard, NYU and Columbia, but N is looking like a WL, Columbia I'd rather not think about lol and I'm being held at H. Also I only applied to Cornell like, a month ago after realizing that the T10 was probably not going to pan out lol So still waiting on them.

Additionally though, perhaps more than anything else, I think my lack of softs is what is getting me down in the T10. I'm not convinced I have some serious problem in my application though seeing as how my non-T10 results have all been acceptances and, in some cases, with pretty awesome scholarships. I have like honor societies, dean's list, president's list, usual stuff like that, but until this past Winter break, no WE, and little leadership. Being a music major tends to take up most of your free time... Idk. It could even be something as simple as there not being enough on my resume to convince them that I'm ACTUALLY interested in being a lawyer? Who knows. Could even be YP and perhaps all my remaining decisions will be acceptances (I can dream, can't I?)

What I was hoping to offer though was that numbers are not all there is to it. I dare not suggest that I'm close to the norm for my particular stats, but considering that OP has a lower GPA and a lower LSAT and claims to have "average-weak" softs, I just thought I'd offer my experience as some food for thought. But yeah, thanks for getting me to clarify that in case I might've scared OP with my original post