Top Law Schools

So I did good but not great in dual-enrollment. Nothing horrible, but nothing amazing either. I realize this would normally not make much of a difference, but my undergrad institution issues no letter grades. Were it not the case that I had dual-enrolled I would have an undefined GPA, which would have been awesome. Now I think my LSAC GPA is going be in the mid-to-low3 area (it was a long time ago, and I don't yet have the actual numbers). Before this I was hoping on at least trying for HYS, but now I'm worried there's no way to recover from this. I'm going to submit an addendum, obviously, but I'm positive I'm still going to drag down the median of any school in the T14.

Thoughts?

Wait until you get your actual numbers to worry.

On a related note, are schools' reported medians based on uGPA or LSAC GPA?

amitotallyscrewed wrote:On a related note, are schools' reported medians based on uGPA or LSAC GPA?

LSAC GPA

I'll be an optimist and say two things:

1) A mid to low 3 GPA is not the worst case scenario. Not even close. Not to mention your WE distances you from it, too.
2) Sure you may have a lower shot at HYS now, but that shouldn't just mean you give up. Give it a shot, do your best on the LSAT, write killer essays, and hope for the best. Throw an app their way if you can afford it. If nothing else, you tried.

Best of luck, OP! FWIW, I'm rooting for you.

Just checked out my unofficial transcript. It's looking like a 3.2 (lower than their lowest last cycle) There's a few classes that aren't counted for some reason, so I need to call the school and figure that out, because I think it should be closer to a 3.4. One of the bigger issues is that I got an F in a class that I didn't realize I was enrolled in (I was like 16 at the time so I didn't really have total involvement in the enrollment, and it was just a stupid bonehead mistake). I will probably check to see if I can get it expunged, but I doubt I can this late in the game.

Stanford would be my dream school, unfortunately, and I know how they are about GPAs so I'm pretty devastated there. I was really excited about what I previously thought was my undefined GPA in that respect, so this is kind of crushing.

Provided I got a KILLER LSAT score (I know, I shouldn't count on anything even though I'm PT-ing in the high 170s), how much could an addendum, VERY strong academic LORs (which I have already) and a letter from my undergrad institution (saying the GPA literally contains no information about me after age 17) go to mitigating the damage?

I'm guessing S is out. I'm not particularly interested in H, although I'll probably still apply, and Y is Yale, so yeah. Would Y/H still on the table in the 176+ LSAT range? I'm assuming a lower score would hurt my chances significantly. What about CCN? Rest of the T14?

Update for posterity:

Looks like my GPA will be undefined after all. I have less than 60 graded credit hours, so while the grades will still be sent, I don't believe I'm getting a cumulative GPA from the LSAC. Still waiting to get official confirmation, but their web site states:

LSAC does not report a cumulative GPA or admission index for applicants who (...) received their undergraduate degree from a US institution that does not issue grades and credits, only narratives, and also completed less than 60 credits of other US/Canadian undergraduate-level work prior to the awarding of the US/Canadian degree. (...) If a law school uses an index to assess its applicants, reporting an index (which uses the cumulative GPA for calculation) or cumulative GPA for someone who only had a few hours of US/Canadian classes could be misleading.

Yeah, tell me about it.

So I guess things are looking up. I hate to bump this thread but I figure I should put the information here in case someone in a similar situation stumbles onto it in the future.