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When I was a teenager I dropped out of high school in my junior year due to a personal tragedy, and even before that I didn't care much about my grades. Four years later I now have my GED, and I'm attending night school at a lower (ish) tier state college (I'm planning to transfer to a better school when I have a chance). I'm currently getting more or less straight As, I have a 3.8 GPA, the only thing preventing a 4.0 was a professor that everybody agrees grades papers impossibly difficult. I plan on attending law school in a few years am just wondering how much my past history will hold me back. I am only going to take out the loans for law school if I can get into a T14, ideally T6, law school. Will my past hurt me on high end law school admissions? Specifically the fact that I dropped out of high school and wound up having to start in a lower end state college.

Fish127 wrote:When I was a teenager I dropped out of high school in my junior year due to a personal tragedy, and even before that I didn't care much about my grades. Four years later I now have my GED, and I'm attending night school at a lower (ish) tier state college (I'm planning to transfer to a better school when I have a chance). I'm currently getting more or less straight As, I have a 3.8 GPA, the only thing preventing a 4.0 was a professor that everybody agrees grades papers impossibly difficult. I plan on attending law school in a few years am just wondering how much my past history will hold me back. I am only going to take out the loans for law school if I can get into a T14, ideally T6, law school. Will my past hurt me on high end law school admissions? Specifically the fact that I dropped out of high school and wound up having to start in a lower end state college.

If you get a 4-year degree from a college, keep that 3.8, and crush the LSAT, you can go T14. I bet you could turn your drop-out into a really good personal statement. Don't sweat it, smash college, kill the LSAT.

No need to transfer if you're killin it with your current situation. Spend the daytime studying for the lsat

Your past won't hurt you, and may even help if you spin it right.

Fish127 wrote:When I was a teenager I dropped out of high school in my junior year due to a personal tragedy, and even before that I didn't care much about my grades. Four years later I now have my GED, and I'm attending night school at a lower (ish) tier state college (I'm planning to transfer to a better school when I have a chance). I'm currently getting more or less straight As, I have a 3.8 GPA, the only thing preventing a 4.0 was a professor that everybody agrees grades papers impossibly difficult. I plan on attending law school in a few years am just wondering how much my past history will hold me back. I am only going to take out the loans for law school if I can get into a T14, ideally T6, law school. Will my past hurt me on high end law school admissions? Specifically the fact that I dropped out of high school and wound up having to start in a lower end state college.

Dude you are sweating PS and DS liquid gold. You turned a situation that would have, and has, broken many people and turned it into a GED and 3.8.

While there is no need to transfer as UG prestige really only seems to count at HYS, if a university/full time college is an experience you want to have, you have a strong springboard.

In any case, get some LSAT study books and take it when comfortable (I used powerscore bibles and took every LSAT, saving the most recent ones for the week before the real thing so it'd be indicative of my score) and continue your strong performance in UG.

Seriously, as these other guys have mentioned, you are killing it thug.

Fish127 wrote:I'm attending night school at a lower (ish) tier state college (I'm planning to transfer to a better school when I have a chance). I'm currently getting more or less straight As

Then stay freakin there. Unless you're going to transfer to Princeton, just nab the 3.9 and kill the LSAT. Transferring sounds like a lose-lose scenario.

High school doesn't matter. I started college at 16 and was the pristine goodie two-shoes smarty kid. I'm pretty sure that hurt my admissions cycle. Law schools like a good story.

TripTrip wrote:

Fish127 wrote:I'm attending night school at a lower (ish) tier state college (I'm planning to transfer to a better school when I have a chance). I'm currently getting more or less straight As

Then stay freakin there. Unless you're going to transfer to Princeton, just nab the 3.9 and kill the LSAT. Transferring sounds like a lose-lose scenario.

Well I still want to give myself options if plans with law school fall through. The options for majors in my current school are somewhat limited.

Fish127 wrote:

TripTrip wrote:

Fish127 wrote:I'm attending night school at a lower (ish) tier state college (I'm planning to transfer to a better school when I have a chance). I'm currently getting more or less straight As

Then stay freakin there. Unless you're going to transfer to Princeton, just nab the 3.9 and kill the LSAT. Transferring sounds like a lose-lose scenario.

Well I still want to give myself options if plans with law school fall through. The options for majors in my current school are somewhat limited.

If the other school has better non-law options, that's a credited reason to transfer.

Fish127 wrote: Will my past hurt me on high end law school admissions?

Hey. I dealt with a similar situation. I dropped out of high school at the end of my sophomore year because I got expelled and didn't want to go to the military alternative school for a year (which would have messed up my credits and forced me to graduate a semester late). I took the GRE over the summer and enrolled in college instead of starting my junior year at the alternative school. I think my experiences set me apart in good ways. I don't think it hurt my cycle. I did as well as could be expected for someone with my numbers.

TripTrip wrote:

Fish127 wrote:

TripTrip wrote:

Fish127 wrote:I'm attending night school at a lower (ish) tier state college (I'm planning to transfer to a better school when I have a chance). I'm currently getting more or less straight As

Then stay freakin there. Unless you're going to transfer to Princeton, just nab the 3.9 and kill the LSAT. Transferring sounds like a lose-lose scenario.

Well I still want to give myself options if plans with law school fall through. The options for majors in my current school are somewhat limited.

If the other school has better non-law options, that's a credited reason to transfer.

That would be the reason. At my current school, based on what I'm good at/interested in, my only real options are PoliSci, English, or History. I plan on transferring to pursue an Econ major. I also might take the prerequisites for medical school, I probably won't, but it would be nice to have the option.

Econ + med doesn't really make any sense (to me at least). And using econ or premed as a fallback for law school is tricky because those are GPA dropping majors at most schools. That's not to say you shouldn't major in econ if you can get good grades; that would help later on. (UChi likes econ majors.) Just be aware of the relative importance of GPA if you do end up wanting to go to law school.

TripTrip wrote:Econ + med doesn't really make any sense (to me at least). And using econ or premed as a fallback for law school is tricky because those are GPA dropping majors at most schools. That's not to say you shouldn't major in econ if you can get good grades; that would help later on. (UChi likes econ majors.) Just be aware of the relative importance of GPA if you do end up wanting to go to law school.

If I did the med prereq I probably wouldn't do an econ major, from what I understand if you can get into (and survive) medical school, you don't really need a backup since job prospects are pretty solid.

My plan is to do Econ major, and either a Philosophy or English minor (just for my own enjoyment) with the eventual goal of law school. The med school prerequisits are something i might consider down the road, if I did it would probably be because I changed my mind about law school due the job market or my personal situation changing.

Any way we can convince you to do med school instead of law school ahead of time?

TripTrip wrote:Any way we can convince you to do med school instead of law school ahead of time?

Believe me I've heard the horror stories, and I have a few lawyers in the family, so I know how tedious the work can be. Despite everything I still think I would enjoy it more than I would being a doctor. I also think I would be better at it. Tbh if I could be anything in the world I'd like to write a book, but I wont bank a future on that.

Fish127 wrote:Tbh if I could be anything in the world I'd like to write a book, but I wont bank a future on that.

Probably still has better financial prospects that most law grads, and that's not even including law school debt.

TripTrip wrote:

Fish127 wrote:Tbh if I could be anything in the world I'd like to write a book, but I wont bank a future on that.

Probably still has better financial prospects that most law grads, and that's not even including law school debt.

I wouldn't be surprised. Although that's something I can still pursue in my free time.

I still can't get over how many people seem to think that law school equals an instant ladder to success no matter where you go.