Low-ish UG GPA Forum

[roomonfire93]

I'm a rising senior from an undergrad institution that notoriously has made the news for deflating its grades (see the multitude of recent NYT/WSJ articles about top universities/colleges getting rid of their terrible "caps on As given in classes", etc.,), and I am going into my final year with a cumulative GPA of 3.25, with practice scores on the LSAT that range around 168-170 (taking the test in Sept.). My major GPA is a 3.5. I've also got a number of professional and academic research experiences at an Ivy League university's business school (not my school, but in my area) and spent this summer working at a domestic/foreign policy non-profit org.

I'm looking at BC, BU, Duke, and Northwestern, in that order from top choice to last choice.

Any serious insight would be appreciated, and I'm happy to provide other details!

[Ti Malice]

Law schools are not going to care about whether your GPA is inflated or deflated, unfortunately, because USNWR doesn't care. Internships and so forth matter very little. You need to get an LSAT score before we can help. Just know that with your GPA, it's very unlikely that you'll get enough scholarship money for it to be worth attending BC/BU. With a high enough LSAT, your best law school options (aside from not attending) will probably be NU with little or no money or one of the decent regional schools that pay huge money for high enough LSAT scores, like WUSTL or UMinn.

Play around with lawschoolnumbers.com until you've taken the LSAT.

[roomonfire93]

Thanks for the response. To clarify- money and scholarships aren't an issue for me. I attend undergrad on no aid. I'd appreciate other insight given this info!

[Atmosphere]

The only course of action here is to murder the LSAT. As the previous poster has said, law schools really only care about the numbers they can report to US news. After receiving your LSAT score, don't look at your cycle as 'special' due to your school's grade deflation, to be realistic you need to treat the cycle the same as any other applicant with your numbers. Even if money isn't an issue, it won't be worth throwing down 200k to attend a TTT, take your LSAT and then assess your options.

[Ti Malice]

To clarify- money and scholarships aren't an issue for me.

Even so, if we're talking rational economic decision-making, the outcomes at BC/BU don't justify the price you/your parents will have to pay. But if cost and likely outcome aren't issues for you, then just pick your favorite.

[SplitMyPants]

The only course of action here is to murder the LSAT.

[Nomo]

Are you allowed to transfer credits from another school. It wouldn't be crazy to try and spend a semester at a school with more grade inflation and try to get 18 credit hours of A's (A+ would be better if you can go to a school that gives them). Maybe you could really go crazy and add in some entry level art classes from a local community college and try to get 21 hours of A's. Not sure if this would be enough to get your LSAC GPA above your target schools 25th percentiles.