Does my Undergraduate School Matter for Law School Admission
Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2012 11:32 pm
I am currently a student at a small, private, Division II school in North-Central Ohio. I transferred to this school from a top 25 Public University down south for various reasons, foremost among them being money and the chance to run Track and Cross Country at the collegiate level. I have 3 semesters to go and will therefore be beginning the Law School application process (taking the LSAT, visiting schools, etc.) in the next few months and have some concerns based on what I've read on various schools' websites and other law-school admissions forums. So:
1.Will attending and graduating from a small, less academically challenging school disadvantage me when it comes to applying to bigger name law-schools? I am worried that by coming from a school that very few people have heard of I will struggle to stand out among the other applicants or that someone from a state school or large/more well-known private school will be selected over me, with everything else being equal.
2.Since transferring (and switching majors from Engineering/Math to Political Science) my GPA has gone way up. Will this upward trend in grades help me or will the slow start due to very difficult classes and inconsistent study habits bring me down. For reference, I left the first school with a 2.91 GPA as a Mathematics major and currently have a 3.93 GPA as a Political Science major. I have projected that I will have right around a 3.5 combined GPA by the time I graduate.
3.Finally, I do not want to attend Law School in Ohio so will coming from a small school be a bigger deal the further I get from home (which is also in Ohio) or will I just be seen as another out of state applicant?
Thanks for the help!
1.Will attending and graduating from a small, less academically challenging school disadvantage me when it comes to applying to bigger name law-schools? I am worried that by coming from a school that very few people have heard of I will struggle to stand out among the other applicants or that someone from a state school or large/more well-known private school will be selected over me, with everything else being equal.
2.Since transferring (and switching majors from Engineering/Math to Political Science) my GPA has gone way up. Will this upward trend in grades help me or will the slow start due to very difficult classes and inconsistent study habits bring me down. For reference, I left the first school with a 2.91 GPA as a Mathematics major and currently have a 3.93 GPA as a Political Science major. I have projected that I will have right around a 3.5 combined GPA by the time I graduate.
3.Finally, I do not want to attend Law School in Ohio so will coming from a small school be a bigger deal the further I get from home (which is also in Ohio) or will I just be seen as another out of state applicant?
Thanks for the help!