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I'm a Canadian student wanting to eventually move to and practice law in the U.S. My 3.3 has an asterisk because I'm doing academic exchange currently and my home university won't count these grades toward my GPA and I'm not sure how they'd be calculated with the LSAC. Either way, my grades here will only serve to boost my GPA so I'm sticking with 3.3 for safety's sake.

I'm wondering if I have any shot at snagging a T-14 school with these numbers. My dream school would be U Penn, but I'm pretty much open to everything in the T-14 and the Californian schools ( UCLA and USC ). Beyond that I think I'd prefer to apply here in Canada ( if you could give guidance on that too it'd be amazing).

Anyways I've checked the calculators and they seem to think Michigan and maybe Northwestern are doable, what do you think?

OP, a few things:

1) I don't know if that is your real name, but NEVER post with your real name. I wonder if one of the mods can help you changing that...

2) I'm a Canadian applying this cycle and I also have a 3.3 LSAC GPA--IIRC, LSAC will include those study abroad grades in their calculation, unless they are Pass/Fail. So if those are going to bring your GPA up, good for you!

3) I was once in a similar position as you--my first LSAT was a 166. I decided to take a year off, get some work experience, and I scored a 175 on my retake thanks to all the amazing guides/advice here on TLS. My advice to you is RETAKE--law school is too much of an investment, especially money-wise, to not go in with your strongest application. People have jumped 10-12 points scoring in the mid 160s on their first try. Some have even gotten a 180 the second time around, so it is possible. TLS has a great community of people who are willing to help you, and a lot of that great advice is already documented in guides (I used Pithypike's and NoodleyOne's guides). You are going to be a splitter anyways with that GPA, so you need to make sure your LSAT is at or above every T14's median.

4) Based on MyLSN, you're chances at most of the T14 with those numbers are slim--even if you do snag Cornell or Georgetown, you are forgoing great schools and possibly $$ higher up. Again, with the way the market is now, you need to get the best possible offers--don't settle. Play around with MyLSN and LSP a bit. My cycle has been really great so far--I got into UPenn, and to UCLA w/ $$$. With your current numbers Michigan and Northwestern are probably out.

http://mylsn.info/1cfh2c

5) As for Canada, McGill, UToronto, UBC and Osgoode are the best places to go and your GPA is quite low for all of them. The average applicant to Toronto has around a 168/3.7, same for McGill. You won't get in with those numbers in Canada either. I got into UToronto as well.

edited to add info about Canadian LS.

TL;DR : RETAKE and enjoy many T14 acceptances, possibly some with $$.