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I was hoping for opinions on how much 4 F's and 4 C's received in 1997-1999 will affect getting into a good law school. At my school right now (a maritime academy) I have a 3.65 GPA. I am interested in admiralty law and am shooting for Tulane or maybe a better school, if I could get into one. If one factors in my community college GPA which was a 3.268 (with the four F's and 4 C's) will it affect my chances of getting into a better school than Tulane or perhaps getting some scholarship money? I think calculating the two GPAs will put me around a 3.45 when I am all done here. Would a college look at my transcripts closely enough to see that in the four years I have been back to college I have averaged a 3.7-3.8 GPA, and will that be worth anything?

For added perspective: I'm currently 34 years old. I returned to college at 30. I was 22 and working 60 hours a week at the time I received the aforementioned C's and F's. Does anyone think that this plays into my chances?

Thanks!

Sorry dude, they count.

D. H2Oman wrote:Sorry dude, they count.

I am aware that they count, but I have heard many accounts of schools looking much more closely at recent college GPAs looking for upward trends - especially when considering non-traditional students. I wondering if anyone had any experience or knowledge when it came to this type of situation.

Thank you!

I was in your situation....I TANKED college in the early 90's....went back in 2003 and finished up in grand form.
Still, my LSAC gpa was a dismal 2.74
With a 164 LSAT I got $$ at pretty much every T2 school I applied to. Rejected after a long wait at BC.
All this tells me that they really didn't hold those old grades against me.

10second wrote:

D. H2Oman wrote:Sorry dude, they count.

I am aware that they count, but I have heard many accounts of schools looking much more closely at recent college GPAs looking for upward trends - especially when considering non-traditional students. I wondering if anyone had any experience or knowledge when it came to this type of situation.

Thank you!

I had a D and several C's from college classes I took in 1998-1999. My UG GPA was a 3.94, but my LSAC GPA dropped to a 3.71. I can't say how badly it hurt me exactly (I don't have any special access to adcoms) but I can say that people with the same LSAT score and close to my UG GPA got accepted to schools that I was waitlisted or rejected from.

It might be true that upward trends count, but my experience suggests (to me, anyway) that law school admissions is still a numbers game. If your earlier grades put you below the cutoff that you otherwise would have been above, I expect they'll hurt you a lot. I hope I'm wrong.

.

All classes count toward your GPA, so you have a 3.45.

If the report that lsac sends to schools is the same as the one you have access to on your my lsac profile, then I don't think schools ever actually get a visual reference of your specific grades. What I mean by this is the lsac report that you have access to on your account page simply lists your gpa in each semester, not your individual grades.

At least that's how I remember it.

Similar with drops...a lot of people on here worry about drops, but I had almost 20 drops. They didn't show up anywhere on the lsac report though.

10second wrote:New here!

I was hoping for opinions on how much 4 F's and 4 C's received in 1997-1999 will affect getting into a good law school. At my school right now (a maritime academy) I have a 3.65 GPA. I am interested in admiralty law and am shooting for Tulane or maybe a better school, if I could get into one. If one factors in my community college GPA which was a 3.268 (with the four F's and 4 C's) will it affect my chances of getting into a better school than Tulane or perhaps getting some scholarship money? I think calculating the two GPAs will put me around a 3.45 when I am all done here. Would a college look at my transcripts closely enough to see that in the four years I have been back to college I have averaged a 3.7-3.8 GPA, and will that be worth anything?

For added perspective: I'm currently 34 years old. I returned to college at 30. I was 22 and working 60 hours a week at the time I received the aforementioned C's and F's. Does anyone think that this plays into my chances?

Thanks!

We have similar stories, though my GPA in my 20's was slightly lower and my current GPA slightly higher. Worked two jobs in my 20s, father died, victim of violent crime, etc in my 20s.

I thought I would see more consideration for my uptick in grades, but I didn't see as much as I would have expected. I did not get into any reaches in spite of strong softs. And a lot of schools dole out $$ formulaicly and my GPA fell below the threshold for a couple of schools.

So yes it will affect you. Thank US News for that.

On the other hand a high LSAT will help, as will applying early. The one big mistake I made was applying in January. I think you can expect better results if you apply early than if you apply late, especially in regard to $$.

And kick ass on the LSAT!!

10second wrote:

D. H2Oman wrote:Sorry dude, they count.

I am aware that they count, but I have heard many accounts of schools looking much more closely at recent college GPAs looking for upward trends - especially when considering non-traditional students. I wondering if anyone had any experience or knowledge when it came to this type of situation.

Thank you!

Schools that look at this generally use it to differentiate between two different applicants with like numbers. It's not getting you in some where greater then your numbers would suggest.

Thanks for the input so far!

It's such bullshit that they don't even count towards colleges anymore (I believe they expire after 10 years), but LSAC counts them.

kalvano wrote:It's such bullshit that they don't even count towards colleges anymore (I believe they expire after 10 years), but LSAC counts them.

Yeah, you'd think they value applicants who would wait 10+ years to distant themselves from their bad GPA to get into a good law school.

Very similar situation here. 2000-2001 I accumulated a 0.68 GPA with like 9 classes (also a number of W's I at least bothered to drop). Restarted in 2008 with 0 transferable credits... 70 credits worth of straight A's later I have a 2.7 or something. I don't know exactly because my CC stopped counting the bad grades and they no longer show up. See you at Cooley.

hombredulce wrote:If the report that lsac sends to schools is the same as the one you have access to on your my lsac profile, then I don't think schools ever actually get a visual reference of your specific grades. What I mean by this is the lsac report that you have access to on your account page simply lists your gpa in each semester, not your individual grades.

At least that's how I remember it.

Similar with drops...a lot of people on here worry about drops, but I had almost 20 drops. They didn't show up anywhere on the lsac report though.

Schools get copies of all your transcripts with the LSAC report. You can only see the first page online.