3.0 GPA 171 LSAT Forum

[jackson2011]

I graduated from a decent university with a 3.0 GPA, took the LSAT once undergrad and got a 166. Decided to go to Business School and take a job I Graduate in the Spring currently I am top 10% within the graduating class and just re-took the LSAT and scored a 171. I work as a Sales Associate for an outsourcing corporate company and have for the past two and a half years but still have not let go of my wanting to be a lawyer. The relevance of graduate degrees is minimal but have heard an MBA is treated somewhat differently, I am planning to apply to Northwestern, GULC, UNC, UVA, Ohio State, and George Mason. Has anyone had experience with applying with an MBA? Do you think I have a decent chance at these schools?

[Samara]

There's a whole subforum for these questions here: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=9

Short answer: In at all those schools except UVa. In at UVa if you apply ED.

[Robespierre]

There's a whole subforum for these questions here: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=9

Short answer: In at all those schools except UVa. In at UVa if you apply ED.

Samara, oh patron saint of the splitters, how is he/she in at GULC? The 171 is only one point above their median and the 3.0 is waaay below their median.

Just askin', not looking for an argument.

[Samara]

There's a whole subforum for these questions here: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=9

Short answer: In at all those schools except UVa. In at UVa if you apply ED.

Samara, oh patron saint of the splitters, how is he/she in at GULC? The 171 is only one point above their median and the 3.0 is waaay below their median.

Just askin', not looking for an argument.

Haha, is that who I've become?

Georgetown's GPA floor is only 3.0, so anyone at 3.0+ with a 171+ is going to get waitlisted at worst. There were like two rejections on LSN last year and one of them applied at the end of January. Add in some solid work experience and top performance in an MBA program and OP is golden. Georgetown's large class size is a boon to splitters.

Now, whether or not OP should go to Georgetown or any other law school, considering OP has an MBA, is a different question...

[Robespierre]

There's a whole subforum for these questions here: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=9

Short answer: In at all those schools except UVa. In at UVa if you apply ED.

Samara, oh patron saint of the splitters, how is he/she in at GULC? The 171 is only one point above their median and the 3.0 is waaay below their median.

Just askin', not looking for an argument.

Haha, is that who I've become?

Georgetown's GPA floor is only 3.0, so anyone at 3.0+ with a 171+ is going to get waitlisted at worst. There were like two rejections on LSN last year and one of them applied at the end of January. Add in some solid work experience and top performance in an MBA program and OP is golden. Georgetown's large class size is a boon to splitters.

Now, whether or not OP should go to Georgetown or any other law school, considering OP has an MBA, is a different question...

OK. By the way, how did you derive the 3.0 floor? It can't be from anything the school puts out; GULC vigorously denies on its website that it has any cutoffs. Did you simply take the lowest acceptance from LSN? If so, over what period? Thanks.

OP - The conventional wisdom is that an MBA is a significant "soft factor" in the applicant's favor, but that "soft factors" aren't nearly as important as your numbers. And of course, there are MBAs and MBAs. A Harvard MBA is one thing; your local TTT is another.

[Samara]

OK. By the way, how did you derive the 3.0 floor? It can't be from anything the school puts out; GULC vigorously denies on its website that it has any cutoffs. Did you simply take the lowest acceptance from LSN? If so, over what period? Thanks.

I used LSN to determine GPA floor for Georgetown and other schools that I list here: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 2&t=162680 When you analyze the graphs, there's usually a point where admission rates change from highly favorable to highly unfavorable. It's a more pronounced change at some schools than others. I looked over all the years provided on LSN, weighting the final determination more heavily towards the last two cycles because this cycle will likely be more similar to the past two than to previous cycles. It's all an unscientific approximation though and reliant on the accuracy of LSN.

GULC (and all other schools) vigorously deny the existence of a floor, as well they should. No floor is perfectly hard; all schools take at least a couple students under the floor, some take a lot. However, the below the floor you are, the more you're going to have to be a special snowflake. If GULC instituted a perfectly hard floor, they wouldn't be able to take those few special snowflakes. (Not to mention URMs. GPA floors have no meaning to URM applicants.) Also, if they deny the floor, they get more people to apply, hoping they'll be the snowflake, and thus their acceptance rate stays low.

All that said, the only thing it costs you to apply to your dream school is a little bit of time and a hundred bucks, so don't let floors dictate your decisions.

[JamMasterJ]

OK. By the way, how did you derive the 3.0 floor? It can't be from anything the school puts out; GULC vigorously denies on its website that it has any cutoffs. Did you simply take the lowest acceptance from LSN? If so, over what period? Thanks.

I used LSN to determine GPA floor for Georgetown and other schools that I list here: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 2&t=162680 When you analyze the graphs, there's usually a point where admission rates change from highly favorable to highly unfavorable. It's a more pronounced change at some schools than others. I looked over all the years provided on LSN, weighting the final determination more heavily towards the last two cycles because this cycle will likely be more similar to the past two than to previous cycles. It's all an unscientific approximation though and reliant on the accuracy of LSN.

GULC (and all other schools) vigorously deny the existence of a floor, as well they should. No floor is perfectly hard; all schools take at least a couple students under the floor, some take a lot. However, the below the floor you are, the more you're going to have to be a special snowflake. If GULC instituted a perfectly hard floor, they wouldn't be able to take those few special snowflakes. (Not to mention URMs. GPA floors have no meaning to URM applicants.) Also, if they deny the floor, they get more people to apply, hoping they'll be the snowflake, and thus their acceptance rate stays low.

All that said, the only thing it costs you to apply to your dream school is a little bit of time and a hundred bucks, so don't let floors dictate your decisions.

You are incredible btw.

OP, NU looks like the place for you, unless the money is a lot better at GULC or you decide to ED UVA