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Hello,

I am a senior attaining my undergraduate degree and I currently have a 4.0 GPA. I am planning on taking a gap year upon graduating to completely master the LSAT, and I've been contemplating about how to make productive use of this time before law school. One option I was considering was attaining a master's degree, if I can find a program that is only a year long and one that is willing to offer me a lot of scholarship money.

My motivation for doing so is that, firstly, it would keep me in the "school mode" which I am afraid of falling out of over the course of the gap year. A year without school is a long time, and this would not only keep me sharp but it would allow me to attain another degree in the process. Also, while a graduate degree may not give my law school application a boost, it could give my employment chances a boost.

However, one way in which I'm afraid a graduate degree could impact my law school application is if my graduate degree GPA is not as impressive as my undergraduate degree GPA. If I were to get, say, a 3.7 graduate GPA, would this render my undergraduate GPA not as impressive or as effective in the admission process as it would have been otherwise? Or is it still ultimately all down to you undergraduate GPA and your LSAT score?

Unless you do really poorly in graduate school (which is pretty hard to do in most programs), it won't negatively impact your law school application. The better question is whether a master's is worth it at all. Leaving "school mode" is a non-issue. Most people who've worked full-time don't find it hard to attend class and read for a few hours each day. The rest of the decision depends on the type of master's degree, the level of funding, and so on, but it's hard to imagine a scenario where a master's degree would be a better option than working for a year.

I have heard that admission councils mainly care about your undergrad GPA. Yes, your Masters transcripts are sent to the admissions officers, but they aren't given much weight.
If you did well in your undergraduate work, a low GPA in your masters courses likely will not hurt your chances. Hope this helps.

If the reason you're taking a year off is to master the LSAT, I wouldn't recommend a graduate degree. A masters program takes a lot of work, it is not simply another year of undergrad. You will have to complete hundreds of pages of reading every week and write many papers. This will make it very hard for you to find sufficient time to study for the LSAT.

You should only go for a masters degree if you have a reason to go for a masters degree. If you just want to kill time for a year, you should find a job.