should I just forget about law school with my gpa? Forum

[Tiny123]

LSAC finally processed my last transcript, due to too many retakes, I am now officially a 2.71, which is pretty shocking because my overall ugpa is around 3.3 and I had over 140 credits, never thought retakes can do me that much damage.

I took the LSAT twice already, Dec 2015 and Oct 2016, I got 163 and 166, registered for Jun LSAT again but feeling pretty discouraged by my final LSAC GPA. Law school has been a dream since I was in high school, no excuse for making many horrible decisions during my first couple years during college, but I never thought of doing anything else besides becoming a lawyer.

I lived in U.S under a student visa for the past 9 years now, my mother will put in my green card application next year, but since I m over 21 the wait time is about 6-7 years after the application, that means I will probably need big law after college in order to get sponsorship for a work visa.

I have above average softs, but nothing too glamorous.

With my stats and the fact that I need big law,should I just forget about law school?

[Johann]

You can work for big corporations in JD advantage jobs. I'm not going to say it's likely or probable, but if you can get into a top regional you'll have a decent chance at big law/big 4/big corp. I'd say 50% or so if you take the right classes (tax for big 4) and work hard and network hard. It's risky but depends on your risk tolerance.

[ToGetIntoTheBoysHole]

If you were not international I would say you would be fine getting into and attending a good regional school. But, since you are not a citizen and will need to be sponsored, anything out of the T14 or a strong regional with good Biglaw placement I think is to risky for you to commit to. Retake until you have an LSAT that makes you competitive at these schools or consider not going to law school.

[Incrementalist]

Like the two other respondents have said you're going to have to work very hard and try and get a really strong LSAT score so you can be able to attend a strong regional school with good career prospects. You don't want to put yourself into debt and not have the possibility of securing employment in the states. Good luck to you. I hope everything works out. If you have the drive and motivation things should workout for you.

[erikbonilla]

So my first year my major was computer engineering at UMD and I was put on academic probation. I failed my calculus and computer programming classes but did well in non-major classes. so I transferred back to my community college to find a new direction. I have straight A's following a path of criminal justice and accounting. My question is, how does a Law School look at your GPA when they are from different schools? Since I won't ever take computer programming classes again I can't salvage that grade. Is there any chance at law school with a first year GPA less then 2.0?

[cavalier1138]

So my first year my major was computer engineering at UMD and I was put on academic probation. I failed my calculus and computer programming classes but did well in non-major classes. so I transferred back to my community college to find a new direction. I have straight A's following a path of criminal justice and accounting. My question is, how does a Law School look at your GPA when they are from different schools? Since I won't ever take computer programming classes again I can't salvage that grade. Is there any chance at law school with a first year GPA less then 2.0?

Law schools look at your cumulative LSAC-determined GPA, not your GPA by year. A really rough first year may stand out, but if your cumulative GPA is still 3.0+, you won't be dead in the water.

[browniestasty]

166 LSAT and 2.7 lsacGPA should get you into some T2 (some more regional schools like ASU too) schools as a split app, and probably scholarships too.

Roughly look at all the schools with median scores below 166 (giving you outside shot) and top 25% scores below 166 (indicating they could use your LSAT's help to prop up score, may even give you scholarships) and you should get a good idea of where have a chance with.