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Where should I bother applying, if at all....

Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 10:14 pm
by W.V.O.Quill
99th percentile on the LSAT. Never finished my B.A. (about 3 semesters worth of units short), and had a terrible GPA (2.0 exactly) in those courses I did take, split evenly between A's and F's or failure/withdraws. Are there any schools that take students who didn't complete their undergrad other than the non-ABA schools? I've been out of school about 6 years now, with a decent resume, considering the lack of an undergrad degree.

My thanks in advance to anyone who takes time to answer this.

Re: Where should I bother applying, if at all....

Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 10:18 pm
by Grizz
Your best bet is going to be to finish your undergrad. That seems to be the long and short of it. IIRC, any school worth going to is going to require a bachelor's.

Re: Where should I bother applying, if at all....

Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 10:20 pm
by Bert
I think the ABA requires that you have a BA in order to be admitted to an ABA approved law school. You can possibly take the non-ABA approved route, but I doubt anybody would recommend that.

Re: Where should I bother applying, if at all....

Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 10:21 pm
by GeePee
Okay, you can still get into some very, very good schools if you follow some simple steps:

1. Go back to school at a LAC. DON'T GRADUATE. Take ~4 semesters of classes and try for as close to a 4.0 as you can. You need to try to get that GPA as close to 3.0 as possible.
2. Write a ridiculous GPA addendum about how your work experience caused you to grow up and shows you are now capable of actually succeeding in school.
3. Apply ED to Northwestern.
4. ???
5. Profit.

If you aren't willing to go through step 1, though, don't bother. It's not worth your time considering you seem to be doing well for yourself without a degree.

Re: Where should I bother applying, if at all....

Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 10:22 pm
by wakefield
If you're serious about law school, you should get your BA. The good news is that finishing your undergrad degree gives you a chance to improve your GPA.

Re: Where should I bother applying, if at all....

Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 10:36 pm
by Bert
So, I guess I was a bit off.

Per the 2009-2010 ABA Standards: A law school shall require for admission to its J.D. degree program a bachelor’s degree, or successful completion of three-fourths of the work acceptable for a bachelor’s degree, from an institution that is accredited by an accrediting agency recognized by the Department of Education.

Now, I don't know if that is intended to refer to a college student who has completed 3/4 of the required credits at the time of enrollment in law school or somebody more in your position, but I wanted to put this out there.

Re: Where should I bother applying, if at all....

Posted: Mon May 31, 2010 10:45 pm
by traehekat
GeePee wrote:Okay, you can still get into some very, very good schools if you follow some simple steps:

1. Go back to school at a LAC. DON'T GRADUATE. Take ~4 semesters of classes and try for as close to a 4.0 as you can. You need to try to get that GPA as close to 3.0 as possible.
2. Write a ridiculous GPA addendum about how your work experience caused you to grow up and shows you are now capable of actually succeeding in school.
3. Apply ED to Northwestern.
4. ???
5. Profit.

If you aren't willing to go through step 1, though, don't bother. It's not worth your time considering you seem to be doing well for yourself without a degree.
TITCR.

Re: Where should I bother applying, if at all....

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 2:05 am
by tru
.

Re: Where should I bother applying, if at all....

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 4:57 am
by W.V.O.Quill
GeePee wrote:Okay, you can still get into some very, very good schools if you follow some simple steps:

1. Go back to school at a LAC. DON'T GRADUATE. Take ~4 semesters of classes and try for as close to a 4.0 as you can. You need to try to get that GPA as close to 3.0 as possible.
2. Write a ridiculous GPA addendum about how your work experience caused you to grow up and shows you are now capable of actually succeeding in school.
3. Apply ED to Northwestern.
4. ???
5. Profit.

If you aren't willing to go through step 1, though, don't bother. It's not worth your time considering you seem to be doing well for yourself without a degree.
I called a prof. of mine that I'm still in relatively consistent contact with, and he also mentioned Northwestern. From the brief research I've done so far, this option looks viable if I can hit 4.0, which is possible, so thanks for this. I am dreading going back to do undergrad classes, but not as much as I'm dreading another year in my accidental career.

Re: Where should I bother applying, if at all....

Posted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 5:00 am
by W.V.O.Quill
Thanks to those that replied. It's theoretically possible, it looks like, to get into law school w/o a BA, per ABA guidelines, but without bringing my GPA closer to 3.0 I'm not seeing many programs that would take me that I'd be interested in. I was hoping I was missing some magical program I'd never heard about... so much for that idea lol. Thanks, all.