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Applying with two BA's from two different countries

Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 3:05 am
by agathe
I have two BA degrees one from a good US school and one from my home country. I was able to do both concurrently. The problem I have is my GPA from the US school is very low (2.8 ). My GPA from my home country is around 3.8. Thus far I have been doing good on practice LSAT tests scoring around 170 pretty consistently. I'm hoping to get into a good school and am wondering if my low GPA from US school will have a big effect on my application? anyone have any ideas?

Re: Applying with two BA's from two different countries

Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 5:00 am
by Iuvo
Take the LSATs then come back.

Re: Applying with two BA's from two different countries

Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 7:47 am
by kazu
Yes... from what I hear if you have any U.S. undergraduate grades, that will be your "official" LSDAS GPA. While your other BA may be counted as a "soft", it is extremely unlikely that the admissions office will look at it more importantly than your U.S. GPA.

But if your LSAT is high enough some schools may be willing to overlook your U.S. GPA... so if you come back with your LSAT score people will probably be able to help you out more.

Re: Applying with two BA's from two different countries

Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 2:33 pm
by agathe
yea I emailed few schools and the said I would need to submit both as I will be evaluated on both degrees. I wonder if I can just use my foreign degree and not mention anything about the US degree. My brother was able to get into ivy league school using his foreign degree.

Re: Applying with two BA's from two different countries

Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 2:40 pm
by gwuorbust
agathe wrote:yea I emailed few schools and the said I would need to submit both as I will be evaluated on both degrees. I wonder if I can just use my foreign degree and not mention anything about the US degree. My brother was able to get into ivy league school using his foreign degree.
that is one way to get disbarred from the bar without ever practicing...

Re: Applying with two BA's from two different countries

Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 3:59 pm
by agathe
good point

Re: Applying with two BA's from two different countries

Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 4:47 pm
by im_blue
kazu wrote:Yes... from what I hear if you have any U.S. undergraduate grades, that will be your "official" LSDAS GPA. While your other BA may be counted as a "soft", it is extremely unlikely that the admissions office will look at it more importantly than your U.S. GPA.

But if your LSAT is high enough some schools may be willing to overlook your U.S. GPA... so if you come back with your LSAT score people will probably be able to help you out more.
Yeah, I think your LSDAS GPA will actually count your U.S. degree only, which is 2.8.

Re: Applying with two BA's from two different countries

Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 4:50 pm
by Zapatero
im_blue wrote:
kazu wrote:Yes... from what I hear if you have any U.S. undergraduate grades, that will be your "official" LSDAS GPA. While your other BA may be counted as a "soft", it is extremely unlikely that the admissions office will look at it more importantly than your U.S. GPA.

But if your LSAT is high enough some schools may be willing to overlook your U.S. GPA... so if you come back with your LSAT score people will probably be able to help you out more.
Yeah, I think your LSDAS GPA will actually count your U.S. degree only, which is 2.8.
This is correct, and since the 2.8 was earned concurrently with the 3.8, I'd say this may call into question the legitimacy of the latter.

Re: Applying with two BA's from two different countries

Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 4:57 pm
by agathe
well I called both the schools and lsac and they said that both would count. Theres a 2 year difference between finishing up the degrees, however there's nothing illegal about it. It's from a European university. I have already had the degree evaluated by one of the organizations that the schools recommended.

Re: Applying with two BA's from two different countries

Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 5:02 pm
by Zapatero
agathe wrote:well I called both the schools and lsac and they said that both would count. Theres a 2 year difference between finishing up the degrees, however there's nothing illegal about it. It's from a European university. I have already had the degree evaluated by one of the organizations that the schools recommended.
I wasn't suggesting there was anything illegal about it. I was just saying that the 3.8 from the foreign school might not look so great when considering the US GPA. Most important will be getting that LSAT score.

Re: Applying with two BA's from two different countries

Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 5:16 pm
by agathe
ccs1702 wrote:
agathe wrote:well I called both the schools and lsac and they said that both would count. Theres a 2 year difference between finishing up the degrees, however there's nothing illegal about it. It's from a European university. I have already had the degree evaluated by one of the organizations that the schools recommended.
I wasn't suggesting there was anything illegal about it. I was just saying that the 3.8 from the foreign school might not look so great when considering the US GPA. Most important will be getting that LSAT score.
yea there was a language barrier but i've caught up at this point. I'm banking on scoring high on the LSAT, so far I've done it without any outside help/tutoring so I might throw that in to try and improve my score.