General Question Forum

[vandy2012]

Do adcoms at law schools take into account the rigor of one's undergraduate degree? Anyone with personal experience in the law school admissions cycle, does being a double major (history and political science) from a Top 20 school 'increase' my GPA? For instance, would a 'boost' be given to a 3.4 GPA with the aforementioned profile?

[Shrimps]

From what I've been told, including on this forum, no. The formula to rank applicants is just plain GPA+LSAT, with LSAT being 3-4 times more important at most schools (far less so at Boalt and some other places) so you better do better on your LSAT. US News-conscious adcoms theoretically should not care about where you got your GPA.

On the other hand, common lore has it that unless you're an extreme splitter, your GPA doesn't really matter all that much at all: look at Richie Tenenbaum's posts on "abolish the LSAT" thread.

And since when are History and Poli Sci difficult subjects?

[r6_philly]

I think general wisdom is that you will rank at the top if compared against other 3.4 GPA students. But by boost you mean treating your 3.4 like a 3.6 I think that is not going to happen. Although it is certainly harder to major in 2 in a good insitution, the reverse thinking is why didn't you just major one and get a better GPA (if vigor is the contributing factor to your lowish GPA). If the school has to choose form a person who does only 1 thing but much better or someone who dabbled at two with moderate results I don't know how many will chose the latter. On top of that ranking only counts the GPA number, not any other factor behind it, not even degree GPA. Do a search, this horse has been revived and beaten to death again since the inception of this forum it seems.

[vandy2012]

I currently have a 3.62 (second semester sophomore), but was mainly asking in the worst case scenario that my GPA 'slides' a bit. But yes, I will study as hard as I can for the LSAT regardless of a GPA 'drop' or 'gain' because that seems to carry the most weight in admissions decisions. While I know this has no relevance now considering I am 2 years+ from taking the LSAT, I took a practice test for the hell of it and scored a 151 with my worst section being games. If there is any consolation to be held, I have read that LG are the 'learnable'.

Shrimps: Are you currently applying to law schools/ preparing for the LSAT? If so, how long have you been preparing and have you seen noticeable gains in your scoring across all sections?

[Shrimps]

Studying for the June LSAT. I've had some gains, but have not been consistent: I'm down to an average of 0-2 mistakes per section on RC and LR (but could easily blow it and get 4 mistakes from time to time - 4-5 mistakes per LR section was fairly normal for me about three weeks ago when I started studying, before I read the LRB). I'm very inconsistent on AR and also hope that it'll be "learnable" for me - time is by far my biggest problem. I could easily get -0 with 45 minutes, but end up making anywhere from 2 to 8 mistakes when timed.