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So I just finished my sophomore year at U.C Davis. My GPA is a bit low, a 3.4. I have interned at the governors office and am interning for the California Lighting and Technology Center. I have no big extra-curriculars, but I will be studying abroad (Spain) for 6 mon. What do I need to do to make myself as competitive as possible? If I can't get into a T-14 I'd like to stay in California but not Davis again, UCLA, USC, Hastings? Should I take cc classes next summer to boost my GPA? I'm guessing my LSAT will be decent because I heard it is comparable to the critical reading portion on the SAT (780).

If all you care about is law school, do whatever you can to boost your GPA and get the highest possible LSAT.

Raise your GPA by any means possible. Everything else is superfluous at this point. If your internship is interfering with your studies, drop it immediately in favor of a higher GPA. Take CC courses, and find classes that hand out A+s.

A 3.4 is pretty low for all the schools you've listed (below 25th for all of them). CA schools are known for being picky about GPAs so you really need to get that up. Fortunately, you're early in your college career still. Rack up as many 4.0 quarters as you can.

Get good grades and come back in a year and a half. Undergrad is the most free you'll be for a long time, make use of it.

gla22 wrote:I heard it is comparable to the critical reading portion on the SAT (780).

Reading up on what the LSAT actually consists of would be a good start.

I received an 800 on the SAT Critical Reading. Even so, I absolutely bombed the Logic Games section on my LSAT diagnostic test and struggled with several Logical Reasoning question types. Do not assume that because you did well on high school standardized tests you will automatically excel at the LSAT.

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bhan87 wrote:Raise your GPA by any means possible. Everything else is superfluous at this point. If your internship is interfering with your studies, drop it immediately in favor of a higher GPA. Take CC courses, and find classes that hand out A+s.

A 3.4 is pretty low for all the schools you've listed (below 25th for all of them). CA schools are known for being picky about GPAs so you really need to get that up. Fortunately, you're early in your college career still. Rack up as many 4.0 quarters as you can.

A 3.4 is just fine with a 170+ but it's too early for him to take the LSAT.

OP take easy courses and chill.

chimp wrote:--ImageRemoved--

Came to post this. Left satisfied.

mths wrote:

bhan87 wrote:Raise your GPA by any means possible. Everything else is superfluous at this point. If your internship is interfering with your studies, drop it immediately in favor of a higher GPA. Take CC courses, and find classes that hand out A+s.

A 3.4 is pretty low for all the schools you've listed (below 25th for all of them). CA schools are known for being picky about GPAs so you really need to get that up. Fortunately, you're early in your college career still. Rack up as many 4.0 quarters as you can.

A 3.4 is just fine with a 170+ but it's too early for him to take the LSAT.

OP take easy courses and chill.

GPA (25th-75th) for T1 CA schools

Stanford: 3.74-3.96
Berkeley: 3.64-3.89
UCLA: 3.56-3.87
USC: 3.46-3.73
Davis: 3.35-3.83
Hastings 3.45-3.71

UCI (Expected to be T1): 3.38-3.79

3.4 is not "just fine". Basically the OP must have above the 75th percentile on the LSAT to have any legitimate shot at these schools and staying at a 3.4 is likely to lock the OP out from many T14 schools that have fairly strict GPA cutoffs.

bhan87 wrote:
3.4 is not "just fine". Basically the OP must have above the 75th percentile on the LSAT to have any legitimate shot at these schools and staying at a 3.4 is likely to lock the OP out from many T14 schools that have fairly strict GPA cutoffs.

I said 170+

please check your stats bro, I know plenty of people in my cycle that got t14s with a 3.4-3.5 and a 170+ and this is not even considering splitter whore schools like UVA and NU (<- case study: DF)

mths wrote:

bhan87 wrote:
3.4 is not "just fine". Basically the OP must have above the 75th percentile on the LSAT to have any legitimate shot at these schools and staying at a 3.4 is likely to lock the OP out from many T14 schools that have fairly strict GPA cutoffs.

I said 170+

please check your stats bro, I know plenty of people in my cycle that got t14s with a 3.4-3.5 and a 170+ and this is not even considering splitter whore schools like UVA and NU (<- case study: DF)

Let me rephrase. Yes, people get in with 3.4-3.5 / 170+ get into T14s, but in actuality more people get WL / Rejected with those numbers than accepted.

What I think of as "just fine" is a more than 50-50 chance at getting in. A 3.4 / 170+ gives you SOME chance, but it's certainly not an ideal one (more like 20-30%)

Doing a search on LSN (2010 cycle), limiting the applicant range to those with a 3.35-3.45 and an LSAT above 169:

CA Schools

Stanford: 0 Accepted, 0 Waitlisted, 7 Rejected
Berkeley: 0 Accepted, 0 Waitlisted, 10 Rejected
UCLA: 1 Accepted (only one accepted was off WL), 10 Waitlisted, 4 Rejected
Davis: 1 Accepted (only applicant that fit the range)
Hastings: 1 Accepted, 2 Waitlisted

Non-CA Schools

HYS is out almost assuredly
Columbia: 1 Accepted (had a 179), 9 Waitlisted, 7 Rejected
Chicago: 4 Accepted (All had 174+), 3 Waitlisted, 7 Rejected
NYU: 4 Accepted (3 had 179, 1 was URM), 9 Waitlisted, 4 Rejected
Michigan: 8 Accepted, 7 Waitlisted, 2 Rejected
UVA: 9 Accepted, 12 Waitlisted, 1 Rejected
Penn: 6 Accepted, 9 Waitlisted, 3 Rejected
Duke: 0 Accepted, 11 Waitlisted, 1 Rejected
Northwestern (this one can be funky based on WE, but tends to be splitter friendly for those with good WE)
Cornell: 6 Accepted, 3 Waitlisted, 3 Rejected
Georgetown: 12 Accepted, 13 Waitlisted, 2 Rejected.

In almost every case there were more people that got WL / Rejected than Accepted. There are some that do get in (and in the case of MVP, Georgetown a good share), but it's never more than 50%. A 3.4 / 170+ will probably land a lot of waitlists for the OP

Thanks guys

Well I have already been taking too much of chimps advice, but i guess I'll have to wait until after study abroad to mellow out
and unfortunately I missed the cutoff for cc this summer so I guess I'll just focus more on school and take cc classes next summer to boost GPA and the start studying for the LSAT. Better late than never I guess.