Sophomore in college in need of advice. Forum

[PubbyMcGee]

I am a sophomore accounting major at the University Of Florida. I slacked off my freshmen year and have a GPA of 3.0. I am about to finish my fall semester. I think I am going to get all A's and A-'s. Maybe one B+. As you can see my study habits from my freshmen year are improving. I want to know EVERYTHING that I can do to make myself a better candidate for law schools (other than obviously getting good grades from here on out). My goal is to attend law school at UF.

Thank you very much.

[rinkrat19]

It's very simple. Get good grades and don't think about law school much yet. Study hard and ace the LSAT as a JR/SR. Check the LSATs and GPAs of UF's admitted students and make sure you meet or exceed the medians (3.67/161). Apply early in the cycle to give yourself the best shot at admission and scholarship money.

[cortnf]

It's very simple. Get good grades and don't think about law school much yet. Study hard and ace the LSAT as a JR/SR. Check the LSATs and GPAs of UF's admitted students and make sure you meet or exceed the medians (3.67/161). Apply early in the cycle to give yourself the best shot at admission and scholarship money.

this

[lalalawya]

If you haven't already, start making meaningful relationships with your professors, participate in class often, and make a good impression on them--these are the people you are going to be asking for LOR's from. If you already have a professor you feel comfortable asking for a LOR from, ask them now. It doesn't hurt to get LOR's on file early--saves the stress of trying to scramble and revive relationships with profs from two years prior. Also, make sure you are actively involved in different clubs/organizations in school, try and get an elected position in said clubs if possible. Start researching internships in the legal field that you can participate in either this upcoming summer or next, or both; or, if that is not possible, volunteer with a local law firm in your UG's area (a lot of the law firms around my UG loveee having aspiring law students come in and do grunt work for free in order to get "experience." When junior year comes around, sign up for a test prep course with the goal in mind of taking the test in June (start preparing 4+ months in advance)

Good luck!

[cortnf]

actually, i lied. study hard, get good grades, get a job in accounting. take the lsat spring of jr year. depending on how you do, and what the legal environment looks like in a year and a half, consider law school then.

[cortnf]

If you haven't already, start making meaningful relationships with your professors, participate in class often, and make a good impression on them--these are the people you are going to be asking for LOR's from. If you already have a professor you feel comfortable asking for a LOR from, ask them now. It doesn't hurt to get LOR's on file early--saves the stress of trying to scramble and revive relationships with profs from two years prior. Also, make sure you are actively involved in different clubs/organizations in school, try and get an elected position in said clubs if possible. Start researching internships in the legal field that you can participate in either this upcoming summer or next, or both; or, if that is not possible, volunteer with a local law firm in your UG's area (a lot of the law firms around my UG loveee having aspiring law students come in and do grunt work for free in order to get "experience." When junior year comes around, sign up for a test prep course with the goal in mind of taking the test in June (start preparing 4+ months in advance)

Good luck!

all of this is good advice too. be "involved" in 5-6 extracurriculars (you don't have to be super involved in all of them), get elected to exec board positions in 2 of them. get relevant work experience/internship in the summers.

[PubbyMcGee]

Thank you for all the advice!

[Ragged]

Everything others said plus set your goals higher.

[kwais]

Since most people will (rightly) tell you to focus on LSAT and GPA, I will repeat the above poster's advice to make meaningful relationships with professors. That can be hard at UF. I know, I will graduate from there next week. Talk in class and go to office hours. If you don't have a real question, make one up.

[T6Hopeful]

I am a sophomore accounting major at the University Of Florida. I slacked off my freshmen year and have a GPA of 3.0. I am about to finish my fall semester. I think I am going to get all A's and A-'s. Maybe one B+. As you can see my study habits from my freshmen year are improving. I want to know EVERYTHING that I can do to make myself a better candidate for law schools (other than obviously getting good grades from here on out). My goal is to attend law school at UF.

Thank you very much.

I also had a very similar upward trend, except my fooling around days were limited to my first semester, in which I got slightly under a 2.5. I pretty much aced the next semester and ended up with just below a 3.3 for freshman year, which I've pulled to over a 3.7 by now (senior year). I plan on graduating with around a 3.75, good enough for magna cum laude at my school.

Now everything that everyone above said is correct, but what I wanted to add is that I really upped my grades by credit loading. Not only did I do well, but I did well in a lot of classes at the same time. I've also taken 5 summer classes, all of which count for my LSDAS obviously but 4 of which count for my degree GPA. So depending on where you're aiming, just "doing well from here on out" is great but may not be enough. Maybe you want to consider taking a couple classes AND working during the summers, if you can handle that. I'm just approaching this from a statistical standpoint, since it's pretty obvious that more A's means the less impact your bad year has. Good luck OP, HTH.

[PubbyMcGee]

You all are very helpful with great advice. I appreciate all of it.

[20160810]

I'd like to echo the "get to know a prof or two" advice. Obviously getting your GPA up and doing well on the LSAT are the most important things, but it's a lot better to have personalized letters of rec than three that say "X took class Y in semester Z and received a grade of A" and it's still early enough in your college career for you to do this.