3.15 GPA Forum

[shelbyw]

I recently graduated from the University of Chicago with a 3.15 in political science and am interested in going to law school, but I need to balance against the effect of my GPA. I can get some solid letters of recommendation from some big names and write a stellar personal statement. I know that the LSAT is more important though and was wondering what I would need to score on it in order to get into a top 25 school, if possible. Stupid question, but do demographic factors count for and against people too? Please be honest and let me know if a school that high is a pipe dream even if I scored a 177. Thanks!

[shelbyw]

Oh, I forgot to add that there is very strong progress on my transcript with my last quarter being a 3.9. Does graduating with honors count for anything also?

[MrKappus]

The results of splitters' cycles are notoriously hard to predict. All you can do is trawl lawschoolnumbers and look at results of your number twins (once you have an LSAT). The upward trend will definitely not be a non-factor.

[MURPH]

I'll tell you how my cycle went and give some advice. I got a 2.98 and 175. The 2.98 was from 13 years ago but that doesn't matter much. Make sure your PS is from profs who know you well and really like you and think highly of your work. That is more impressive than big names probably.
Stellar personal statements are few and far between. Everyone thinks theirs are great but most are the same as everyone else's. Read and offer to edit 20 or 30 here on TLS. You'll see.

I applied to about 25 schools. I asked for fee waivers at all and received fee waivers from more than half. I was waitlisted at Penn, UVA, NU, Duke, Cornell, G-Town, Vandy and WUSTL. In at UCLA, Minn$$, UIUC$$, Hawaii and a few others ranked 25-50. WUSTL let me in off the waitlist with $. UVA dumped me from the waitlist.
I was out at BU, and the rest of the T14.

Splitters must apply early and spread applications widely. Who knew I'd be rejected at BU? Late in the cycle the schools know if they are going to neesd more high GPA students or high LSAT students. You don't want your application to still be on the table when they need high GPAs. Early in the cycle the future is wide open. Maybe your PS really is good and maybe they will bother to read it. If so you could get lucky somewhere but there is more luck to go around early.

I am not sure what you mean by demographic factors. No one cares where you are from or about your gender or age. URM status is the only demographic that anyone cares about.

[flyingpanda]

I'll tell you how my cycle went and give some advice. I got a 2.98 and 175. The 2.98 was from 13 years ago but that doesn't matter much. Make sure your PS is from profs who know you well and really like you and think highly of your work. That is more impressive than big names probably.
Stellar personal statements are few and far between. Everyone thinks theirs are great but most are the same as everyone else's. Read and offer to edit 20 or 30 here on TLS. You'll see.

I applied to about 25 schools. I asked for fee waivers at all and received fee waivers from more than half. I was waitlisted at Penn, UVA, NU, Duke, Cornell, G-Town, Vandy and WUSTL. In at UCLA, Minn$$, UIUC$$, Hawaii and a few others ranked 25-50. WUSTL let me in off the waitlist with $. UVA dumped me from the waitlist.
I was out at BU, and the rest of the T14.

Splitters must apply early and spread applications widely. Who knew I'd be rejected at BU? Late in the cycle the schools know if they are going to neesd more high GPA students or high LSAT students. You don't want your application to still be on the table when they need high GPAs. Early in the cycle the future is wide open. Maybe your PS really is good and maybe they will bother to read it. If so you could get lucky somewhere but there is more luck to go around early.

I am not sure what you mean by demographic factors. No one cares where you are from or about your gender or age. URM status is the only demographic that anyone cares about.

I think the takeaway here is to ED if you have a low GPA and are 100% sure you want to attend a t14 school.

[MURPH]

I would not ED because I won't pay full tuition.

[flyingpanda]

I would not ED because I won't pay full tuition.

Right, that's why I said "if you're 100% sure you want to attend a t14 school." I can totally understand the decision to take money at a lower ranked school. Both are valid decisions IMO.