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[sammy123]

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[NonTrat]

Even though I'm in a similar boat as you, curious, so this 2.0 is your GPA off your degree?

And not the cumulative GPA off the LSAT? Then it may be a lot lower than 2.0 when you submit your transcripts to CAS.

(And someone correct me if I'm wrong) But all the graduate GPA...is just fluff...

[PoopNpants]

I'm confused, did you say you got an LSAT score yet or nah?

[A. Nony Mouse]

The first thing is that it's hard to give you any assessment of your chances until you've actually taken the LSAT and received a score. You may well get the same kind of score you've been getting on practice tests (I was super consistent to where I'd been testing), but many people get a lower score because of test day nerves, distractions, or not actually practicing under test conditions enough. So actually getting that test score is the first step.

Second, it's going to be very hard to predict your chances anywhere given that your GPA is so low. You have quite a bit of distance from the GPA, your language skills are impressive, and if you've done well in your graduate work (you don't say what a "higher" GPA is), it can help say "my UGPA isn't representative of my abilities." I also think that you would benefit from writing a PS or diversity statement or supplement about having autism, to explain what happened in college and also ideally to show how it's not going to be a problem now and how you will be able to succeed in law school.

The problem is that UGPA and LSAT are the primary factors in law school admissions. Based on general information about admissions numbers, I'm afraid I would be surprised if Penn or Cornell would admit you. Northwestern is known to favor people with work experience and to accept fairly low GPAs when paired with high LSATs, although 2.0 is still low to count on that. The risk is also that you will get very little scholarship money. I think as you move down the law school rankings you will find more schools interested in buying a high LSAT score. At that point it will be a question of where you want to work and what kinds of work you want to do.

Human rights lawyer is a whole other issue. There are very very few jobs, and they do tend to go to people with degrees from top schools. Unless you have connections in this field already, you will have to think carefully about whether the schools you can get in to (which, admittedly, is hard to predict) will be able to get you into this field.

(Doing additional courses at this point won't help you - LSAC calculates your UGPA as your GPA at the time of your first bachelor's degree. That's why grad GPAs and additional coursework don't change the number law schools weight most heavily.)

[sammy123]

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[stego]

Hi,

thank you for taking time to answer my post. It's really thoughtful of you.
Perhaps if my ugpa is converted to lsdas gpa then it'd be even lower. I don't think I could possibly go lower. I don't even think they would bother to see where i'd fall with lsdas conversion. I think my transcript filled with 'i' and 'WF' will say all they'd have time to see.

I have actually taken the LSAT in October 2008 at W&M campus. This was soon after college. I was misinformed that I should only take LSAT one time so I took it just to see if I still had a chance.... And then I got married at a really young age. I still wouldn't have gone anywhere with my GPA, but I was optimistic. I scored 176 then. 99.85% says on this copy of application sample I kept. Never actually applied. I don't think you can use any LSAT before 2010. Would that help? Maybe I can order it? i should look into that. However, I'm just good at taking tests. 35 min sit down time/ break/ 35 minute/ break...hope you see my problem. I was in same rotten situation with college. I've learn to control that and learned way to keep information stick with me for a long time. I know I can do more.

I'm still incredibly optimistic. It'd unfortunate that doors has to shut for me simply because of my circumstances which I overcame. I feel like that's just setting myself to fail. Reading some of the posts below that others have posted tells me if UPENN/Cornell would even give me a chance then it'd be a miracle story. And it'd seem so unfair to so many of you with such an amazing combined numbers and "soft" criteria. But I still want to go there. I'm obviously not looking for scholarship. I don't really care for it (not that i am wealthy), but I just want to break a barrier for myself. Is this too daring? is what i have a pity case? anyway to rescue my chance at top 14? I have no "soft". none that'd pop out of paper. It's not like I ever served at aftermath of Tsunami...or lost an arm fighting for human rights. I volunteered at orphanage, hospitals, homeless and nursing homes on my own and through organization ever since I was little and until now. I was the director for Asia's largest and most precious annual economic forum (in the past we had Bill Gates, Alan Greenspan and hundreds of others...etc). But I don't have video tape of myself doing this...how am I going to use it for my advantage. :/

I want to be a really good lawyer. I don't really care that much for money other than to pay off my debt. I think I can be a good one. What is most realistic thing I can do to improve my chances? how much do I need to compromise? what should i include in my application before they throw my application out. This is really humbling.

This sounds like flame.

[sammy123]

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[pittsburghpirates]

Post removed.

[stego]

Maybe you're real.

It just seems odd to me that you (a) didn't think you had any good softs, (b) claimed to have a job that (if I understood it correctly) is at worst a decent piece of work experience and at best a really good soft but (c) you don't seem to understand how to list this on a resume so that law schools will see it as a soft.

At any rate you need a real LSAT score to apply. Unfortunately your 2008 LSAT score is too old to be used. Your situation is very unusual so I can't really tell you what your chances are but your undergrad was a long time ago and if you go out there and get a 170s LSAT score you might have a shot at some places. I don't know if you have a shot at Cornell or Penn or not but you'll probably at least get into some lower ranked schools.

[Mack.Hambleton]

Don't go into debt..

T14 (probably only Northwestern, and that still is far from a sure thing) would cost 300k

Try and find a similar job with your current skills and background, which don't sound too bad

[sammy123]

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[pancakes3]

You should:

- Figure out if you really want to be a lawyer, and if you would be ok being a lawyer that doesn't practice human rights law because those jobs are far and few in between - even for top law students.
- In deciding what range of jobs you're ok with, you should look at what the compensation would be and determine how much debt would be acceptable. This should ultimately dictate what schools to which you apply.
- Take the LSAT and get an actual score. Your 2008 score isn't valid any more.

[Mack.Hambleton]

there are not a lot of human rights jobs. if you want to be a lawyer I would recommend finding a more realistic goal

[sammy123]

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[Mack.Hambleton]

figure out what job you want then look at schools that place well into those jobs

[pittsburghpirates]

Post removed.

[PeanutsNJam]

so...

what is realistic?
reach school & possibility & 90% acceptance

It is extremely difficult to tell you what is realistic because your GPA is at one extreme and you do not have a viable LSAT. And even if your LSAT was as high as the last time you took it, it would still be very difficult to tell you what your chances are. There was only one applicant (per myLSN) in the last 4 cycles with your GPA and an LSAT between 170 and 180.

http://mylsn.info/ycznqb/

That's clearly a troll. Dude only applies to 1 school, and gets a full ride at NU to boot? I'm a 2.X/17X, I can tell you it ain't easy out there. Your GPA is substantively lower than mine, and you get diminishing returns once your LSAT is over the 75th percentile. With your work experience, NU is the only one of the T14 that'll take you, and it's a long shot. Going down the USNews rankings, WUSTL is the next school you have a chance at. After that, you're looking at weak regionals.

You'll likely get a few waitlist bites in the lower T14 and some of the schools just outside it, but that's far from a guarantee. If you're a URM or some other type of special, your odds improve slightly but I'd still bet against you getting into anything above WUSTL, not counting NU.

[Sideshow Raheem]

Apply broadly and see what happens. No one on here is going to be able to give you much advice beyond that given how extreme your numbers are. There are splitters and then there's this.

Although I'd say there's probably no reason to apply to a school "worse" (in terms of employment outcomes) than WUSTL because you'll probably at least get $40k/year there if not a full ride.

[CanadianWolf]

OP: What do you think lawyers do day to day after their first few years in practice ?

How are your interpersonal skills ?

In short, why law ?

[sammy123]

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