Honest Opinion about U Penn Forum

[MattM]

Somewhat similar to my previous post ....at what GPA point should I graduate with if Penn Law is the goal school? I may take CC classes add minor, or major whatnot to get a boost

Current 3.55 now.....Potential for a 3.63 by grad in May if thats when I decide to graduate.

LSAT is obviously much bigger factor but that can ( and should ) be only taken when fully ready

[BigZuck]

I would shoot for a 4.3. I guess I don't understand the question, I don't think you should get to a 3.67 (or whatever) and say "Ok, good enough."

Check out http://www.mylsn.info to see how different number combos fare

[BigLawer]

why in the world would you ask this without an LSAT?! The better you do on the LSAT, the lower your GPA can be.

[MattM]

Before saying myLSN....I have been there and I saw weird trends for Penn.

MyLSN had much better trends for 3.5-3.55 and 3.55-3.6 than 3.65-3.7

I used 170-172 as LSAT range for all 3 groups....with 3.65-3.7 only 3 got in and 25 got wait listed at Penn ( but this 3.65/3.7 group had favorable chances at peer schools to Penn)

i may see if i can hold off grad until at least a 3.6 but let me know if a waste of time

[MattM]

why in the world would you ask this without an LSAT?! The better you do on the LSAT, the lower your GPA can be.

To a certain extent ....a 180 won't get you into Harvard with a 3.0

[MattM]

I would shoot for a 4.3. I guess I don't understand the question, I don't think you should get to a 3.67 (or whatever) and say "Ok, good enough."

Check out http://www.mylsn.info to see how different number combos fare

I'm confused by the trends on myLSN for Penn though as mentioned in the comment I posted

[Pneumonia]

3.6 is a good number for you to target. Any increase past that is not really gonna be worth it because of dimonishing returns. 3.6/175+ would give you a good shot at Penn.

[BigZuck]

Before saying myLSN....I have been there and I saw weird trends for Penn.

MyLSN had much better trends for 3.5-3.55 and 3.55-3.6 than 3.65-3.7

I used 170-172 as LSAT range for all 3 groups....with 3.65-3.7 only 3 got in and 25 got wait listed at Penn ( but this 3.65/3.7 group had favorable chances at peer schools to Penn)

i may see if i can hold off grad until at least a 3.6 but let me know if a waste of time

Penn is an unabashed rankings gamer/yield protector, guessing that's why you saw more wait lists with the higher GPA range. Basically they think the people in the higher range are going to go to NYU/Columbia (or whatever) and don't want to accept them outright because accepting them and then having those people go to another school hurts their "yield" which is something US News factors into their rankings. So they wait list those people and say "Dance, monkey!" and then you do the monkey dance LOCI thing if you want to get in. And then even when you convince them to let you in you go to NYU anyway cuz T6>>>>>>>>>>T7.

[Kratos]

Great info ab your chances here

[MattM]

Thanks for the help!

I just want to make smart decisions about my GPA portion of the app....unlike the LSAT, i made a bad move to say the least and took it well before I was ready ( disappointing 154, but now close to a 170 when I last practiced ( I'm waiting for next years LSAT because I have a better chance then due to more time to work on it)...fortunately most schools outside Y and S only care about best anyways

[twenty]

I'm slightly confused as to why UPenn is your end all be all. UPenn is a great school, no question, but if you ended your cycle with UPenn at sticker and Duke with 90k, you obviously pick Duke. Work as hard as you can on getting your GPA up, but a lot of things change over the course of a cycle.