Undergraduate GPA & Etc. Forum

[Eviix]

So basically I've been for a quite a long time interested in the legal practices (my father practiced law until he went into governmental work). And (unfortunately?) I found this website during my finals week and this seemingly bottomless source of information rather made me change ALOT about my plans for the undergraduate education here at my liberal arts college.

However, because I have a horrible tendency to start off strong and due to boredom and being burnt-out, I tend to falter near the finishing line. And so, I was wondering up to which year the Law Schools consider the GPA so that I can mentally prepare myself for the few years.

I was guessing it would be up to Junior year similar to college applications? Is this correct?

Also, during high school, I rather obsessively positioned myself in three presidencies and numerous other positions starting the end of my freshmen year and had at least two programs to occupy all of my summers...is this necessary? I KNOW it's all about GPA and LSAT but what I am mostly wondering about are the summers.

After reading about the importance of LSAT, I had planned on just sitting on my bum and studying all summer but for some reason I feel like that's going to be shooting myself on the foot or something.

(To satisfy my paranoia), I thought of doing one of the two extracurricular activities, perhaps to use it in my personal statement. What do you think would be better? A judicial board or being one of the editors for the school newspaper? (I'm pretty confident I can be an editor in one of the section but I feel like it's a lot of work and no editor does it for two years in a row because of the workload)

Thanks! (That was a bit long, I apologize)

[JamMasterJ]

I think that either of those things is fine, but neither one of them will be what is considered a "strong soft." I don't advocate doing extracurriculars just for the purpose of writing a personal statement - you need to draw on life experiences, and most of these don't come from some pre-planned organization.

Schools will use all of your grades in their calculation, but for the purposes of admissions, only the ones that are submitted to LSAC by the time of your applications (for most people, the first three years). They can, however, rescind admission if you started tailing off after the offer is made.

As far as the LSAT goes, it would probably be best to take it sometime your Junior year with 3+ months of hardcore studying beforehand. This way, if you don't do as wwell as expected, you can retake in either June before Senior year or October of Senior year and still get your applications in on the early end.

[Eviix]

I think that either of those things is fine, but neither one of them will be what is considered a "strong soft." I don't advocate doing extracurriculars just for the purpose of writing a personal statement - you need to draw on life experiences, and most of these don't come from some pre-planned organization.

Thanks! Yeah, I wasn't really thinking of using them as any sort of degree of "softs" but rather an experience I could draw on. But I guess it is a bit too pre-planned, ha-ha.

But I thought if I just focused on GPA and LSAT, I would basically have nothing to say in my personal statement other than my past etc which would be rather boring and clichéd seeing I don't find anything in my life uniquely interesting.

Well seeing I'm still a freshmen, I'll just focus on my GPA ha and thanks for the info about the three years, I feel like it's more achievable when there is one less year to stress out about.

[NikaneOkie]

The only extracurriculars they will be intersted in, outside of major awards or fellowships, will be things that can play into the effectiveness and cohesiveness of your essay, personality and life goals.
If you want to be an Indian law expert, for example, being president of the Native American organization could help.
If you're interested in entertainment law, being the news editor will probably be irrelevant.
Focus ALL of your energy on the LSAT and your GPA.
I studied hard for 4-5 months for my 180, and I got into Stanford, so work hard, and you'll do fine.

So basically I've been for a quite a long time interested in the legal practices (my father practiced law until he went into governmental work). And (unfortunately?) I found this website during my finals week and this seemingly bottomless source of information rather made me change ALOT about my plans for the undergraduate education here at my liberal arts college.

However, because I have a horrible tendency to start off strong and due to boredom and being burnt-out, I tend to falter near the finishing line. And so, I was wondering up to which year the Law Schools consider the GPA so that I can mentally prepare myself for the few years.

I was guessing it would be up to Junior year similar to college applications? Is this correct?

Also, during high school, I rather obsessively positioned myself in three presidencies and numerous other positions starting the end of my freshmen year and had at least two programs to occupy all of my summers...is this necessary? I KNOW it's all about GPA and LSAT but what I am mostly wondering about are the summers.

After reading about the importance of LSAT, I had planned on just sitting on my bum and studying all summer but for some reason I feel like that's going to be shooting myself on the foot or something.

(To satisfy my paranoia), I thought of doing one of the two extracurricular activities, perhaps to use it in my personal statement. What do you think would be better? A judicial board or being one of the editors for the school newspaper? (I'm pretty confident I can be an editor in one of the section but I feel like it's a lot of work and no editor does it for two years in a row because of the workload)

Thanks! (That was a bit long, I apologize)

[dpk711]

The "search" function should do wonders for you.

[cinephile]

Or take a year or two after graduation to work and gain life experience that you can use in your personal statement.