Official Numbers vs. Context
Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2022 5:04 pm
Hello everyone,
I am looking for everyone's thoughts and input. I am 37 years old and a practicing CPA with a successful tax firm. I have always wanted to attend a top law school, albeit for different reasons these days.
In 2004, I began my college career and for three years suffered from severe substance abuse. I jumped to four different schools and received multiple C, D, and F grades, unable to attend class. I was a very sick person, and my GPA after the first year was a 0.84, a ridiculous number. In 2007, I got my life together and found sobriety, enrolling at my fifth and final school. At this school, I performed exceedingly well, completing my first undergraduate degree, a second undergraduate degree, and a master's degree. Eventually, I earned the CPA designation and after seven years working in public accounting, created a successful tax practice. All well and good.
Unfortunately, LSAC policy has made this process very difficult. The GPA calculation policy only considers grades from the first undergraduate degree, resulting in a whopping 3.03 GPA. The problem is that this GPA is not based on logic, but on an arbitrary policy. It ignores the majority of my grades earned under healthy circumstances and includes grades earned under active addiction. When you actually inspect my transcript and look into the situation, a different story emerges. After finding sobriety and enrolling at the fifth school in 2007, I completed an additional forty classes resulting in eighteen A+ grades, sixteen A grades, six non-A grades, and a 3.98 GPA. These classes consisted of nineteen classes from the first undergraduate degree and twenty-one classes from the second undergraduate degree. This course load is the equivalent of a full undergraduate degree of one hundred and twenty credits completed under healthy, ordinary circumstances. It is also the most recent course work.
In other words, I believe my acceptance will require a truly holistic approach from admissions officers. If LSAC policy was instead reversed and utilized only the most recent coursework, my official GPA would be a 3.98. Law schools will have to look past the initial 3.03 calculation, and I'm wondering if you think they will do it? In your honest opinion, do you believe the impact on rankings of the official calculated number of 3.03 will outweigh the context of the situation? I took the GRE - scored in the 97 percentile for verbal and writing. Results were 166/158/5.5. Do I need to score a 170+ on the LSAT to overcome this hurdle?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
I am looking for everyone's thoughts and input. I am 37 years old and a practicing CPA with a successful tax firm. I have always wanted to attend a top law school, albeit for different reasons these days.
In 2004, I began my college career and for three years suffered from severe substance abuse. I jumped to four different schools and received multiple C, D, and F grades, unable to attend class. I was a very sick person, and my GPA after the first year was a 0.84, a ridiculous number. In 2007, I got my life together and found sobriety, enrolling at my fifth and final school. At this school, I performed exceedingly well, completing my first undergraduate degree, a second undergraduate degree, and a master's degree. Eventually, I earned the CPA designation and after seven years working in public accounting, created a successful tax practice. All well and good.
Unfortunately, LSAC policy has made this process very difficult. The GPA calculation policy only considers grades from the first undergraduate degree, resulting in a whopping 3.03 GPA. The problem is that this GPA is not based on logic, but on an arbitrary policy. It ignores the majority of my grades earned under healthy circumstances and includes grades earned under active addiction. When you actually inspect my transcript and look into the situation, a different story emerges. After finding sobriety and enrolling at the fifth school in 2007, I completed an additional forty classes resulting in eighteen A+ grades, sixteen A grades, six non-A grades, and a 3.98 GPA. These classes consisted of nineteen classes from the first undergraduate degree and twenty-one classes from the second undergraduate degree. This course load is the equivalent of a full undergraduate degree of one hundred and twenty credits completed under healthy, ordinary circumstances. It is also the most recent course work.
In other words, I believe my acceptance will require a truly holistic approach from admissions officers. If LSAC policy was instead reversed and utilized only the most recent coursework, my official GPA would be a 3.98. Law schools will have to look past the initial 3.03 calculation, and I'm wondering if you think they will do it? In your honest opinion, do you believe the impact on rankings of the official calculated number of 3.03 will outweigh the context of the situation? I took the GRE - scored in the 97 percentile for verbal and writing. Results were 166/158/5.5. Do I need to score a 170+ on the LSAT to overcome this hurdle?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.