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Fellow TLS'ers -

I attended UT Austin, kept a 2.9, then - just before graduating - moved to Dallas to work for my father's small finance firm full time. I'm finishing my degree by taking a couple of classes for credit online. My question is this - what if I began taking classes at a local state school like the University of Texas at Dallas before wrapping up my degree at UT Austin? Would the classes in Dallas improve my LSAC GPA since I have not yet earned a bachelor's degree?

I scored a 164 on the LSAT and think even a small GPA bump could help me out. I'd like to go to SMU, Santa Clara, Pepperdine, or Loyola Marymount. What do you guys think? Crazy, or worth trying?


Extra information:
I worked 20-25 hours per week during school and currently have a part-time job with a tutoring company in addition to my full time job. My grades in college were really terrible my soph and junior years, but decent (that is, better than 2.9) my freshman and senior years.

your classes in Dallas would improve your LSAC GPA, and that's actually a really good idea

As long as you haven't completed your degree, they should count. I think you should do it.

Do it, dude.

Do it and enjoy UTD's newly renovated campus.

Just to be a devil's advocate, I'd watch out for taking courses in state schools and community colleges 'cause some of them don't always result in boosting GPA but rather tear you a new a-hole. True story

awesome idea and one that I would recommend.

paulinaporizkova wrote:your classes in Dallas would improve your LSAC GPA, and that's actually a really good idea

+1000o0o0o0 get that shyte over 3.0

Just make sure the credit transfers to your UG institution and you should have no problem.

typ3 wrote:Just make sure the credit transfers to your UG institution and you should have no problem.

You don't need to transfer the credit unless you need it to wrap up your degree. Any credit taken at a accredited university will count toward the LSAC GPA (even if not toward your degree and not transferred).

Just keep a good tab on the running grade, and drop it before punitive W kicks in if you are not getting As.

well played sir. Students from all over could start doing this, just take cc classes over the summer to boost your gpa. in preparation for law school applications.

If adcomm's actually did a "holistic review" (I think they call it), they could see through a move like this, i.e. inflating a GPA with soft courses...

TyrodTaylor wrote:well played sir. Students from all over could start doing this, just take cc classes over the summer to boost your gpa. in preparation for law school applications.

On paper yes, in reality it isn't always easy to get As in CC.

My grades at CC were definitely not as good, vast improvement after I transferred to a 4 year university (and I have credits from 3 different 4 year universities, and they were ALL easier than the CC classes, LOL!) All my grades below an A were at the CC, and some of them were taken simultaneously with upper division classes at a 4 year, so it isn't due to my getting older or anything.

I always thought it was just me, funny to hear others say the same thing!

dude, if you want SMU they are currently accepting anyone with a 165 and above. maybe retake is the answer.

lol, I have a 165 and I'm held.

re: OP, do it. i was even more shameless: took two classes at an online (New Mexico) CC for less than $250 and got two A's. Brought my GPA up to a 3.299 which translated into a 3.3 Can't say it has done much but it looks prettier than 3.27.

bartleby wrote:lol, I have a 165 and I'm held.

my bad, maybe 166.

I took community college credits every summer (~18 total) during undergrad to graduate early. Boosted my degree gpa of a 3.28 to an LSAC gpa of 3.39. If I would known it was that much of a boost and how numbers-dependent the law school admissions process is, I would have taken more.

BrianGriffintheDog wrote:Just to be a devil's advocate, I'd watch out for taking courses in state schools and community colleges 'cause some of them don't always result in boosting GPA but rather tear you a new a-hole. True story

Care to explain?

I did joint enrollment in high school. Got a 4.0 at the state university where I did this. Those grades don't show up on my degree granting institution's transcript, but they do boost my LSAC GPA a bit (which I really need, because as it turns out a 3.25 at this school is 100x more work than a 4.0 at the other school)

Do the math and make sure it will actually make a difference. My GPA could be .5 better and I'd have still ended up at the same school with the same lack of scholarship. Retaking the LSAT is probably a vastly better use of your time. Especially since SMU is very good to splitters with scholarship and UT is out of the question with a 164.

fakemoney wrote:If adcomm's actually did a "holistic review" (I think they call it), they could see through a move like this, i.e. inflating a GPA with soft courses...

yeah but that really doesn't happen. there are a lot of comm majors from TTTTT state schools in t14s

it's been said before: a UG degree from Harvard will help you, but if you don't have it it won't hurt you

paulinaporizkova wrote:

fakemoney wrote:If adcomm's actually did a "holistic review" (I think they call it), they could see through a move like this, i.e. inflating a GPA with soft courses...

yeah but that really doesn't happen. there are a lot of comm majors from TTTTT state schools in t14s

it's been said before: a UG degree from Harvard will help you, but if you don't have it it won't hurt you

I have 60 credits from CC, but I did them before I transferred and half of them are 10+ years old. I don't think my GPA hurt me at all, but I don't think it helped much either since my UG is noname state even though my degree GPA is 4.

I did get good responses after I updated my fall grad school grades. People can say no one cares about grad GPA, but I think my Ivy grad 4 probably makes my UG state 4 look better.

r6_philly wrote:

paulinaporizkova wrote:

fakemoney wrote:If adcomm's actually did a "holistic review" (I think they call it), they could see through a move like this, i.e. inflating a GPA with soft courses...

yeah but that really doesn't happen. there are a lot of comm majors from TTTTT state schools in t14s

it's been said before: a UG degree from Harvard will help you, but if you don't have it it won't hurt you

I have 60 credits from CC, but I did them before I transferred and half of them are 10+ years old. I don't think my GPA hurt me at all, but I don't think it helped much either since my UG is noname state even though my degree GPA is 4.

I did get good responses after I updated my fall grad school grades. People can say no one cares about grad GPA, but I think my Ivy grad 4 probably makes my UG state 4 look better.

I think the reason they don't care about grad school grades so much is because those grades tend to be way higher than ug grades. B is a C and a C is failing.

helloperson wrote:
I think the reason they don't care about grad school grades so much is because those grades tend to be way higher than ug grades. B is a C and a C is failing.

But they do care. In my case the grad school is way better than the state ug.

ETA: I think they care if it is a good program and you do well in it. At least 2 of my classes are curved.