Impact of GPA upward trend Forum

[Qwerty12345]

Hello,

I am a disillusioned sophomore who just realized that my pre-college commitment to earn straight A's throughout my college career, and hence apply to law school and graduate with a 4.0 or close, will not be fulfilled. My GPAs so far are:

FY 3.7, 3.6 41 credits
SoY 3.7, 3.4-6 (expected) 47 credits

Which means that even if I get all-A's (no minuses) my junior year while taking my maximum load, which is 25 credits both semesters, the best I could do would be 3.75-3.78. (I'm not sure why I decided to take so many classes in the first place, but the only way to off-set my A-'s and B's is to earn more A's than I have A-'s and B's.) Anyway, I was wondering what is the real impact of an upward trend.
When it comes to HY, is there any significant difference between a student who has FY and SoY 3.5-7 and then JY 4.0, and a student who maintains a 3.75-3.78 all through college? Lastly, if my SeY first semester GPA were to count, I could certainly be pushed over H's 25th percentile, potentially even Y's. Would it be a good move to wait until let say Jan 2ish to apply? How would that work if I want to go for money at T-10?

Thank you very much.

[Bronck]

At best a very minor soft factor. Your GPA is what they report to USNWR so that's what they care about.

Generally you want to apply as early as possible. Yale is an exception.

[Excellent117]

Why on earth are you taking so many credits?

[Br3v]

FY? SoY?
Do people actually use these abbreviations? First time I've seen it.

But OP are you talking about taking 40+ credits in one year?

[blurbz]

Waiting til Jan. to apply will do more harm than good. If you're on the edge, applying early will give you a better shot and it's unlikely that you'll be rejected before Jan. anyway, so you can update your application then while retaining your early spot in the review line.

[2014]

Figure out something else to do for the year after your UG, get a year of life experience and potentially earnings and the added bonus of having your senior year grades on there to pad up your early mistakes.

[Qwerty12345]

I'm not sure why I started of with so many credits. I guess I just wanted to learn a lot. My school doesn't charge for overload. People probably don't use these abbreviations very often, but it seems that one would be more disposed to read and hence potentially answer a shorter post, so I was trying to keep the overall length down. Anyway. Thanks all for your answers. I guess I'll just have to apply and see. I took a year off between HS and college and do not wish to take another one yet.

[North]

1. Take fewer credits.
2. Put in the same amount of work.
3. Get straight A's.
4. Start studying for the LSAT.

You're only hurting yourself with these overloaded semesters.

[laxbrah420]

You're 32 credits from being able to graduate a year early? That's epic. Do that.

[JDizzle2015]

1. Take fewer credits.
2. Put in the same amount of work.
3. Get straight A's.
4. Start studying for the LSAT.

You're only hurting yourself with these overloaded semesters.

+1

I'm also a huge advocate of work experience after UG/prior to law school. Full time work experience+senior year grades counting so you don't have to take 25 credits ( )/semester as a junior will almost certainly be a bigger positive impact on HLS admission than GPA trend (and I've heard whispers that it may help when you interview for that V10 job).