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I have currently 2.66 LSAC gpa, I plan on taking the LSAT in October and send my Fall semester grades. If everything goes to plan I will have a 2.8 when I send my applications. Do I have a shot still. I am doing really well on the practice tests and currently enrolled in a prep course. I am scoring high 160s. I was very ill my freshman year of college and can have a doctor write a letter to attest to that. In the fall I am taking more the maximum amount of hours my school allows (Vanderbilt) and working two jobs. I also went abroad last semester. I really want to get into a T1 school possibly T14 (Vanderbilt being my favorite so far). Any advice would be great.

It seems like Northwestern is the only T14 that would even begin to consider a GPA that low, and you're gonna need to rock the LSAT and get a job for at least 2 years after graduating to even have that as a possibility.

Hope this helps.

Your GPA is very low, but there are plenty of T1 schools that will take you. The LSAT can make up for a bad GPA at most schools, although you probably won't get much scholarship. Apply to schools where you are above their 75th percentile LSAT, and use lawschoolnumbers.com to identify schools that are friendly to "splitters". Once you get a real LSAT score, you can start narrowing down your options. Remember that you will have drastically different cycles depending on if you get a 165, a 169, or a 173.

Good luck on the LSAT, and come back then for "chance" advice.

the doctor's note can't hurt. also, get a real score.

Get a 167+ on the LSAT or forget about law school as a viable investment.

Do you think there is any merit to applying as soon as I get my LSAT score? (contingent on it being a 167+) Should I wait until late December after my grades are posted?

summerm1 wrote:Do you think there is any merit to applying as soon as I get my LSAT score? (contingent on it being a 167+) Should I wait until late December after my grades are posted?

Depends on the grades and the school's median. You'd lose ED to most places, but better numbers are always better. However, I'd argue a higher lsat is bigger in your case as a 167 vs a 166 could be the diff bw median and above median at a school while your gpa is gonna be a concern even if you got all A's. Also studying for the lsat and pulling all as is really hard.

http://northwestern.lawschoolnumbers.com/stats/1011/

You may or may not be going to law school.

I think you should distance yourself from your gpa by taking a job after undergrad. There's no need to rush a law school application considering that most schools don't care about applicant age.

gandalf wrote:I think you should distance yourself from your gpa by taking a job after undergrad. There's no need to rush a law school application considering that most schools don't care about applicant age.

what employer wants to hire someone with a 2.6 gpa? even from vandy?

I would like to point out that my 2.66 is not my Vanderbilt GPA it is my cumulative GPA across three schools. I was sick my first year of college and I took a medical leave of absence. Since I did not return to that school, they computed those incompletes as zeros, I have tried to appeal to no avail. My Vanderbilt GPA is considerably higher but having one year of zeros damages my average overall.

monarchylover wrote:

gandalf wrote:I think you should distance yourself from your gpa by taking a job after undergrad. There's no need to rush a law school application considering that most schools don't care about applicant age.

what employer wants to hire someone with a 2.6 gpa? even from vandy?

Most employers don't care at all about GPA. Got a bachelors? You're in.

Get all As this year and try like hell to get some of those freshman year grades fixed. Most importantly, get over a 170 on the LSAT. If you can do that and manage to finagle a 3.0 out of the situation, UVA becomes a possibility.