Columbia Law School

[Godfather]

Hey everyone, I am a junior at a public college in NYC pursuing a Finance degree with an English major and I am doing this in 3 years instead of 4 (so I am in my second year at school, will graduate spring 2012). What are my chances at getting into columbia Early Action with a 172 lsat and lsac 3.59 gpa (I kno it's low but I had my first death in the family of my close uncle and it was pretty much a family crisis which happened the may of my first year in school and affected my spring 2010 gpa and fall 2010 and caused me to get a C in my second level bio class which brought my cum. gpa down significantly). I am heavily involved in political campaigns and such though and have worked at law and finance firms. I can get nice LOR and such. What are my chances of getting into Columbia with these stats? What about NYU, Cornell, Penn, or other T-14s? I mainly want Columbia just because I dreamed of this.

So basically 3.59 gpa/172 lsat. Chances at cls, nyu, cornell, penn, and other T-14. I will apply to all T-14s.

[bdubs]

Bring your GPA up as much as possible. You have a shot at CLS ED, but it's not great with a 3.59. If you could get your GPA up to 3.71 or retake and increase your LSAT to above 174, you would stand a much much better chance of getting in (those would get you a 4.3+ index which greatly increases your chances at CLS).

NYU - Decent shot
Cornell - In
Penn - Probably in, but they are picky

Out at HYS, in at most places other than Chicago (it's possible too, similar to NYU).

[Godfather]

Bring your GPA up as much as possible. You have a shot at CLS ED, but it's not great with a 3.59. If you could get your GPA up to 3.71 or retake and increase your LSAT to above 174, you would stand a much much better chance of getting in (those would get you a 4.3+ index which greatly increases your chances at CLS).

NYU - Decent shot
Cornell - In
Penn - Probably in, but they are picky

Out at HYS, in at most places other than Chicago (it's possible too, similar to NYU).

I'm at a 3.5 right now and will get it to 3.59 max by admission time so increasin gpa to 3.71 I cant do. I will retake tho and lets see how I do. Would a 3.59 and 174 get me in with/without ED? also does ED mean you can't transfer out (not that im planning to, but a general question).

[bdubs]

I'm at a 3.5 right now and will get it to 3.59 max by admission time so increasin gpa to 3.71 I cant do. I will retake tho and lets see how I do. Would a 3.59 and 174 get me in with/without ED? also does ED mean you can't transfer out (not that im planning to, but a general question).

A 3.59/174 is by no means a guarantee of admission, it is just that your chances go from practically zero to maybe 50/50. With ED you would be much more likely to get in. It might be worth it to stay in school for a fourth year to get your GPA up even more. I have heard that schools tend to shy away from those who graduate in 3 years because they are concerned about maturity. You'll know if you get in ED by late december next year, so you could stay on if you didn't get in to CLS.

You can still transfer if you ED, it just means you can't accept 1L admission to any other law school in the same year.

[trudat15]

I'm at a 3.5 right now and will get it to 3.59 max by admission time so increasin gpa to 3.71 I cant do. I will retake tho and lets see how I do. Would a 3.59 and 174 get me in with/without ED? also does ED mean you can't transfer out (not that im planning to, but a general question).

A 3.59/174 is by no means a guarantee of admission, it is just that your chances go from practically zero to maybe 50/50. With ED you would be much more likely to get in. It might be worth it to stay in school for a fourth year to get your GPA up even more. I have heard that schools tend to shy away from those who graduate in 3 years because they are concerned about maturity. You'll know if you get in ED by late december next year, so you could stay on if you didn't get in to CLS.

You can still transfer if you ED, it just means you can't accept 1L admission to any other law school in the same year.

If you can afford it, I'd do this. 174/3.59 may get you in, but staying an extra year and having a 174/3.71 or whatever might get you in with $.

But if you have to go this year, 174/3.59 has a shot ED. Dont know how great a shot it is (look at the Columbia ED thread in Acceptances forum and you'll see a bunch of WL even with numbers like this).