Super Splitter (maybe)- T14 Forum

[Corran9]

I'm curious about something. Back in the early/mid 2000's, I was in community college off and on, and I rarely went to class. I wound up with several F's, left the school with 18 credit hours and 1.7 GPA. I joined the military, and by the time I apply to law schools I will have 10 years of military service. Here come the "Ifs":

I am now enrolled in the Penn State world campus, and I am getting high grades. Based on studying, practice questions, practice LSAT's, I think I have a chance to score very high on the LSAT (177+)

IF I keep getting A's at Penn State and IF I actually manage to get a 177+ LSAT, I can write a GPA addendum pointing out the drastic difference in my academic record from 10 years ago and today. The question is, if my cumulative LSAC GPA is sub-3.0 due to my earlier difficulties, will any of the higher T-14 schools even LOOK at my full application? Will Harvard say "2.9 GPA? Trash it." I'm hoping a super high LSAT score will cause them to at least read my addendum, but I don't want to bother if they're just going to see the GPA and immediately reject me without further consideration.

PS. I understand that practice LSATs aren't the real thing, and these are BIG "Ifs." Just humor me, please.

[Corran9]

Also, I don't care a great deal about scholarship offers. Between the GI Bill and the Yellow Ribbon program, I shouldn't have to pay much anyway.

[cbbinnyc]

There are others who probably know more about splitter-friendly schools than I do, but my bet is that, if you indeed score high on the LSAT (let's say 174+, I don't think schools make much of a distinction between, say, a 175 and a 177) and manage to get an LSAC GPA that is in the high 2s, you should blanket the lower T14 and there's a decent chance that somebody will bite, given your high LSAT and military softs. Your chances at YHS are probably zero, though, and probably not great at CCN or Berkeley (where grades seem to be pretty key).

[Nagster5]

Military with a <3.0 and a >175 here (USMA grad, so different but similarly compelling reason for the low GPA). I blanketed the T14 except Yale and Cornell and I'm in at UVA and GULC so far with no rejections. I will say HLS is almost certainly out, but I didn't get dinged during the red vetting yesterday, so a sub 3 GPA is not necessarily an autoding.

[njkga]

Have you finished your undergrad yet? If so, any classes you take at all can keep raising that GPA. You might be surprised by how high you can pull it up if you just keep taking classes.

That being said, the LSAT is a beast, and HOPEFULLY you can score as well on the real deal as you did on practice tests - but not everyone does. I consistently scored 175+ on PT's, but then went a 161 and 167 on my two real tests. The 161 was due to having gotten only 3 hours sleep, and the 167 was this past December with that logic game from hell. Make sure you practice with the most recent PT's - 70+ - because most people seem to agree that they've gotten harder since then.

Good luck!

[Lexaholik]

I'm curious about something. Back in the early/mid 2000's, I was in community college off and on, and I rarely went to class. I wound up with several F's, left the school with 18 credit hours and 1.7 GPA. I joined the military, and by the time I apply to law schools I will have 10 years of military service. Here come the "Ifs":

I am now enrolled in the Penn State world campus, and I am getting high grades. Based on studying, practice questions, practice LSAT's, I think I have a chance to score very high on the LSAT (177+)

IF I keep getting A's at Penn State and IF I actually manage to get a 177+ LSAT, I can write a GPA addendum pointing out the drastic difference in my academic record from 10 years ago and today. The question is, if my cumulative LSAC GPA is sub-3.0 due to my earlier difficulties, will any of the higher T-14 schools even LOOK at my full application? Will Harvard say "2.9 GPA? Trash it." I'm hoping a super high LSAT score will cause them to at least read my addendum, but I don't want to bother if they're just going to see the GPA and immediately reject me without further consideration.

PS. I understand that practice LSATs aren't the real thing, and these are BIG "Ifs." Just humor me, please.

Depends on the school. Consult this thread to see what schools are splitter friendly: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... p?t=130461

Based on what I've seen I'd say Yale Harvard and Stanford are out, but you've got a shot at the remaining schools. Your odds with a 2.9 and 177 are pretty good that you'll get into one of the T6 to T14 if you put together a decent application. I had a 2.9/170 and got into one of the lower T14 a number of years ago. The applicant pool is weaker now so that will help you.