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Miracle wrote:I'm in a panic mode! My frind allowed me to use his account to post, and receive some advice afte i alerted him of my gpa status. I just received my lsac gpa and it is 2.2! My undergrad gpa is 3.2! Why did I drop so much? I'm thinking something was miscalculated!

Did you retake any classes after failing them at your university? A lot of universities don't count the original F in the GPA if it was successfully retaken but LSAC does. Either that or you have some credits from another school that were shitty? A community college or summer classes?

bernaldiaz wrote:

Miracle wrote:I'm in a panic mode! My frind allowed me to use his account to post, and receive some advice afte i alerted him of my gpa status. I just received my lsac gpa and it is 2.2! My undergrad gpa is 3.2! Why did I drop so much? I'm thinking something was miscalculated!

Did you retake any classes after failing them at your university? A lot of universities don't count the original F in the GPA if it was successfully retaken but LSAC does. Either that or you have some credits from another school that were shitty? A community college or summer classes?

I had some F's that were re-taken. Less than 12 credits, but should that bring me down that much? I was expecting 2.7-2.8 gpa, but was not exspecting 2.2.

Miracle wrote:

bernaldiaz wrote:

Miracle wrote: I had some F's that were re-taken. Less than 12 credits, but should that bring me down that much? I was expecting 2.7-2.8 gpa, but was not exspecting 2.2.

Replacing three or four 0.0's with presumably 3.0's and 4.0's makes a big difference.

nebula666 wrote:

Miracle wrote:

bernaldiaz wrote:

Miracle wrote: I had some F's that were re-taken. Less than 12 credits, but should that bring me down that much? I was expecting 2.7-2.8 gpa, but was not exspecting 2.2.

Replacing three or four 0.0's with presumably 3.0's and 4.0's makes a big difference.

Enough to bring me to a 2.2

study hard for the LSATs

Miracle wrote: Enough to bring me to a 2.2

I dunno, did you try doing the math?

You know you can calculate the GPA yourself from your own transcript. Just include every single grade.

1) Work for 2+ years
2) Study for the LSAT and get 170+
3) Apply to NU
4) ???
5) Profit

lawyerwannabe wrote:1) Work for 2+ years
2) Study for the LSAT and get 170+
3) Apply to NU
4) ???
5) Profit

I have 175 on LSAT!

3 years of working Exsperience!

Another year left of school

1) Work for 2+ years
2) Study for the LSAT and get 170+
3) Apply to NU
4) ???
5) Profit
5) Drown in debt

NR3C1 wrote:1) Work for 2+ years
2) Study for the LSAT and get 170+
3) Apply to NU
4) ???
4) Get rejected at NU
5) Profit
5) Drown in debt

I don't think you're getting NU with a 2.2

Miracle wrote:I have 175 on LSAT!

3 years of working Exsperience!

Another year left of school

With a GPA less than 2.5, no worthwhile school is gonna offer you any money--even with a 180--and without scholarships, you are looking at COA + Interest of about 250K. The answer is simply: Don't Go, Do Something Else.

bernaldiaz wrote:

NR3C1 wrote:1) Work for 2+ years
2) Study for the LSAT and get 170+
3) Apply to NU
4) ???
4) Get rejected at NU
5) Profit
5) Drown in debt

I don't think you're getting NU with a 2.2

Ha, ha. I agree with you. I like this game. What about:

1) Work for 2+ years
2) Study for the LSAT and get 170+
3) Apply to NU
4) ???
4) Get rejected at NU
5) Attend a TTT at full price
5) Profit
6) Drown in debt

bernaldiaz wrote:
I don't think you're getting NU with a 2.2

It happened when apps were at their absolute peak. I seriously doubt NU is getting more selective as apps plummet.

IAFG wrote:

bernaldiaz wrote:
I don't think you're getting NU with a 2.2

It happened when apps were at their absolute peak. I seriously doubt NU is getting more selective as apps plummet.

But is NU worth it at sticker? 250-300K? Only way to pay that is Big Law? What are the odds of that? 30%?

IAFG wrote:

bernaldiaz wrote:
I don't think you're getting NU with a 2.2

It happened when apps were at their absolute peak. I seriously doubt NU is getting more selective as apps plummet.

Huh, I guess I'm wrong. I did an LSN search for 2.0-2.5 and 174-180 for NU and didn't find anyone.

bernaldiaz wrote:

IAFG wrote:

bernaldiaz wrote:
I don't think you're getting NU with a 2.2

It happened when apps were at their absolute peak. I seriously doubt NU is getting more selective as apps plummet.

Huh, I guess I'm wrong. I did an LSN search for 2.0-2.5 and 174-180 for NU and didn't find anyone.

Probably has more to do with there just not being many people who fail at life that hard. NU releases their lowest admitted GPA at orientation every year, and it's consistently in the sub-2.5 range.

NR3C1 wrote:

IAFG wrote:

bernaldiaz wrote:
I don't think you're getting NU with a 2.2

It happened when apps were at their absolute peak. I seriously doubt NU is getting more selective as apps plummet.

But is NU worth it at sticker? 250-300K? Only way to pay that is Big Law? What are the odds of that? 30%?

1) yes NU is worth sticker
2) I don't have a link to the underemployment thread handy but we place very well into market-paying jobs + fed clerkships.

NR3C1 wrote:

IAFG wrote:

bernaldiaz wrote:
I don't think you're getting NU with a 2.2

It happened when apps were at their absolute peak. I seriously doubt NU is getting more selective as apps plummet.

But is NU worth it at sticker? 250-300K? Only way to pay that is Big Law? What are the odds of that? 30%?

NU publishes detailed salary data: http://www.law.northwestern.edu/career/statistics.

Out of 287 people in C/O 2011, 171 (60%) reported a salary of (> $100k) and another 23 (8%) went to a federal clerkship (harder to get than big law). Another 12 (4%) got long-term, full-time public interest or government employment (also often harder to get than big law, and eligible for 10 year loan forgiveness + NU's LRAP).

I'd say for C/O 2012 or C/O 2013, maybe 75-80% of people who wanted big law got it. The economy softened again this year, though, so I'd wait and see what happens with it.

IAFG wrote:NU releases their lowest admitted GPA at orientation every year, and it's consistently in the sub-2.5 range.

Wait, really? What was the minimum for 2014? I want to know how close I was.

that doesnt even sound possible with solely 4 fs unless you have only like 65-70% of your credits done and you got As in all those classes

1TLStudent wrote:that doesnt even sound possible with solely 4 fs unless you have only like 65-70% of your credits done and you got As in all those classes

Yeah. I have 5 F's on my transcript, and mine dropped from a 3.5 to a 2.7. There must have been something OP isn't aware of.

1) You don't want to go to law school right away. You NEED work experience to help mitigate that absolutely terrible GPA. Start working, get a decent job, etc.
2) The 175 LSAT is great.
3) Start working on a killer addendum to explain the GPA. Family issues? Upward curve in grades? Etc. Get some good LoR's from Professors too

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