Stay another year, ~2.7 to ~2.9, or WE. Forum

[dajja15]

I am an aerospace engineering/physics undergrad graduating in June. My school (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo) offers a program where you can get your graduate degree at the same time as your undergrad. My original plan was to graduate, get an engineering job, then apply to law school. Would my chances of law school be better if I stayed and got a masters, if in the process raising my GPA to 2.9 from a 2.77 ? What if I could break the 3.0 barrier, would it be worth it then. I have sort of good excuses for my GPA (huge grade deflation in major (average gpa 2.4), worked 20-40 during undergrad bc im poor, hard major). Any thoughts on what would be more beneficial to get into Law School.

Thanks in advance,
Dan.

[flyingpanda]

GPA boost would be more beneficial.

[09042014]

I am an aerospace engineering/physics undergrad graduating in June. My school (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo) offers a program where you can get your graduate degree at the same time as your undergrad. My original plan was to graduate, get an engineering job, then apply to law school. Would my chances of law school be better if I stayed and got a masters, if in the process raising my GPA to 2.9 from a 2.77 ? What if I could break the 3.0 barrier, would it be worth it then. I have sort of good excuses for my GPA (huge grade deflation in major (average gpa 2.4), worked 20-40 during undergrad bc im poor, hard major). Any thoughts on what would be more beneficial to get into Law School.

Thanks in advance,
Dan.

Are you assuming you are going to get straight A's? Because in 400 and 500 level Aero/physics that's not realistic.

Assuming a frictionless surface, and that you can raise your gpa:

2.7->2.9 is nice but not game changing. The only T14 that takes <3.0 is Northwestern, and they'll require at the very minimum a year of work experience.

However if you get 3.0 all the sudden UVa, Penn, Michigan, Georgetown, and maybe Cornell will be realistic reaches.

Also a masters degree may help you if you are looking for patent law.

But if you are going to do this, you better make sure you get above 3. Because if you can't get above three, working a year and EDing to Northwestern is a better bet.

Consider concurrently enrolling in a local community college and taking easy A+ classes to artificially increase your GPA.

[dajja15]

I am an aerospace engineering/physics undergrad graduating in June. My school (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo) offers a program where you can get your graduate degree at the same time as your undergrad. My original plan was to graduate, get an engineering job, then apply to law school. Would my chances of law school be better if I stayed and got a masters, if in the process raising my GPA to 2.9 from a 2.77 ? What if I could break the 3.0 barrier, would it be worth it then. I have sort of good excuses for my GPA (huge grade deflation in major (average gpa 2.4), worked 20-40 during undergrad bc im poor, hard major). Any thoughts on what would be more beneficial to get into Law School.

Thanks in advance,
Dan.

Are you assuming you are going to get straight A's? Because in 400 and 500 level Aero/physics that's not realistic.

Assuming a frictionless surface, and that you can raise your gpa:

2.7->2.9 is nice but not game changing. The only T14 that takes <3.0 is Northwestern, and they'll require at the very minimum a year of work experience.

However if you get 3.0 all the sudden UVa, Penn, Michigan, Georgetown, and maybe Cornell will be realistic reaches.

Also a masters degree may help you if you are looking for patent law.

But if you are going to do this, you better make sure you get above 3. Because if you can't get above three, working a year and EDing to Northwestern is a better bet.

Consider concurrently enrolling in a local community college and taking easy A+ classes to artificially increase your GPA.

Thanks for the reply. So you do think a 3.0 is a big game changer? Because yeah otherwise I was looking Northwestern and Eding... From What I have read on this forums its still possible to get into some of those schools like UVA with a gpa below 3.0, but is 3.0 and under 3.0 a big difference for those schools. As an example, is a 2.7 173 candidate much worse than a 3.0 173 candidate. And thank you for the CC tip, maybe I will do that, even though I think its stupid.

[Renzo]

I think Desert Fox's advice is spot on. There's a little bit of magic at the limit of 3.0, so if you can pass that mark it might be worth doing (assuming that your master's program is as inflated as most are). The MS, by itself, won't help too much with admissions, but will potentially help with job prospects if you want to do IP work.

[dajja15]

Thanks for the advice!