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I know t14 is very important but what if i graduated from t25 or t30 like ucdavis with a high gpa. Is biglaw still in reach?

dwighthoward786 wrote:I know t14 is very important but what if i graduated from t25 or t30 like ucdavis with a high gpa. Is biglaw still in reach?

Yes. If you're in the top 10% at UC Davis, you're in good shape for big law. The problem is that 90% of the class won't be in the top 10%.

dwighthoward786 wrote:I know t14 is very important but what if i graduated from t25 or t30 like ucdavis with a high gpa. Is biglaw still in reach?

What's your plan for having a high law school GPA?

cavalier1138 wrote:

dwighthoward786 wrote:I know t14 is very important but what if i graduated from t25 or t30 like ucdavis with a high gpa. Is biglaw still in reach?

What's your plan for having a high law school GPA?

Study study study, i know law schools grades are based on a curve but from what i heard if you put in the time and effort, a 3.5+ GPA is possible

dwighthoward786 wrote:

cavalier1138 wrote:

dwighthoward786 wrote:I know t14 is very important but what if i graduated from t25 or t30 like ucdavis with a high gpa. Is biglaw still in reach?

What's your plan for having a high law school GPA?

Study study study, i know law schools grades are based on a curve but from what i heard if you put in the time and effort, a 3.5+ GPA is possible

Almost all of your classmates will have the same plan. That's why it's generally a good idea--when deciding whether to attend a particular law school--to assume that your GPA will be around median.

Whenever a form of this question comes up I like to use my favorite metaphor for this.

The LSAT is like a marathon and law school exams are like running the 100 yard dash.

When you run a marathon, you're competing against a big enough field where you can have a good enough idea of where you'll finish before you start based on the results you've gotten in training. Genetics and natural talent play a part, but training is 90% of the battle.

On the other hand, training is necessary but not sufficient to winning a sprint. You can assume that everyone around you will have put in the work. Raw talent plays a bigger role. And the race is small enough that you can't really know how you'll do until the race is over.

Best way to succeed in law school is by training for the marathon until you get to a point where the sprint just doesn't matter so much. Sure, it's possible to do well by studying hard, but it's also possible that it just won't work out for you. You won't really know until you've taken a few law school exams.

dwighthoward786 wrote:

cavalier1138 wrote:

dwighthoward786 wrote:I know t14 is very important but what if i graduated from t25 or t30 like ucdavis with a high gpa. Is biglaw still in reach?

What's your plan for having a high law school GPA?

Study study study, i know law schools grades are based on a curve but from what i heard if you put in the time and effort, a 3.5+ GPA is possible

You heard wrong.

cavalier1138 wrote:

dwighthoward786 wrote:

cavalier1138 wrote:

dwighthoward786 wrote:I know t14 is very important but what if i graduated from t25 or t30 like ucdavis with a high gpa. Is biglaw still in reach?

What's your plan for having a high law school GPA?

Study study study, i know law schools grades are based on a curve but from what i heard if you put in the time and effort, a 3.5+ GPA is possible

You heard wrong.

It's not wrong. Of course it's possible. I mean, it's possible that OP would finish #1 in his class at Davis and get a clerkship on the Ninth Circuit. The key concept here is the difference between "possible" and "probable." OP needs to assume the latter when deciding where to attend law school.

100% (or close to it) of your law school class expect/intend to be in the top 10% of the class. At the end of the day, only 10% are.

There is an interesting phenomenon of people who claim that they cracked some grades code, where they climb to the top by ignoring class assignments (coming to class with balls of steel) and focusing on the final from day 1. This seems like such a load of crap. My common sense says that a true grades secret would not remain a secret for long. This group claims everyone else realizes the group was right come future semesters, yet there is no consensus. And I have had some 2L law students give me some pretty weird looks for meantioning this group's strategy.

I agree that there's no magic bullet (or like you said, the secret would get out). My take is that some people get the knack of law school exams quickly and some people don't; and some of the former group can do well on exams just learning other people's outlines and some can't. In the end I think there are a number of paths to doing well and confirmation bias means that people think their own approach is the one true path. Like, I did best when I did the reading, went to class, took notes, and studied from my notes (with maybe some reference to supplements for areas of confusion), so that's what I recommend to people. But I get that there are people who do well just using old outlines. (Also my approach works much better with good profs than with bad ones, which you can't generally control 1L.) and of course you may not figure out the best approach for you the first time around.