Undergrad GPA vs Previous GPA's? Forum

[Sackcrete]

Hello All,

To keep a long story--short; I am going to be graduating from my 4-year university with honors. I should have above a 3.75/4.0 GPA whenever it is all said and done. Now, with that being said, about eight years ago when I was an immature lil' lad, I just quit going to my first semester of a junior college and joined the service. I didn't drop out, I just quit going. All of those grades are F's on my original transcript :/. In addition to that, my high school GPA is garbage as well.

So, are those two previous transcripts from my less than semester of a junior college, and high school, going to impact my admissions process? Will they focus on the bachelor's I've achieved with honors while in the service? Would I just need to attach a letter to the two bad transcripts and explain that I was "young and dumb?" Thank you! I'm worried that this is going to kill my chances of a top law school when I have worked so hard to get an excellent GPA for my Bachelor's.

Thank you again.

[cavalier1138]

Your high school transcript is not relevant.

The junior college transcript is going to affect your LSAC-calculated GPA, so you should factor that in. However, a good LSAT will undo most of the damage, and it certainly won't kill your chances at the T14. Might kill your chances at scholarships, but if you're military, you probably aren't worried about that.

[Sackcrete]

Your high school transcript is not relevant.

The junior college transcript is going to affect your LSAC-calculated GPA, so you should factor that in. However, a good LSAT will undo most of the damage, and it certainly won't kill your chances at the T14. Might kill your chances at scholarships, but if you're military, you probably aren't worried about that.

Thank you! Do the explanatory letters actually work in these scenarios? From a logistical standpoint, I'm assuming it only goes so far since the school has to report your LSAC GPA, not the one that we feel should count (i.e. my Universities GPA). However, has anyone that cruises these forums seen legitimate scenarios like mine, where people have gotten a 165-170 on the LSAT and still been accepted with a strong rest of their package?

Side bar: Are you good at math lol? Say I graduate from my university with a 3.75 GPA in 121 credit hours. Now, say I have 4 F's in 12 credit hours from my community college experience. What is my LSAC GPA going to be--roughly?

Also, how bad of a career choice would it be to "settle" for a place such as the University of Illinois who is ranked in the 40's? I always heart T20 or don't go horror stories where attorneys aren't paid much after that threshold.

[trebekismyhero]

Your high school transcript is not relevant.

The junior college transcript is going to affect your LSAC-calculated GPA, so you should factor that in. However, a good LSAT will undo most of the damage, and it certainly won't kill your chances at the T14. Might kill your chances at scholarships, but if you're military, you probably aren't worried about that.

Thank you! Do the explanatory letters actually work in these scenarios? From a logistical standpoint, I'm assuming it only goes so far since the school has to report your LSAC GPA, not the one that we feel should count (i.e. my Universities GPA). However, has anyone that cruises these forums seen legitimate scenarios like mine, where people have gotten a 165-170 on the LSAT and still been accepted with a strong rest of their package?

Side bar: Are you good at math lol? Say I graduate from my university with a 3.75 GPA in 121 credit hours. Now, say I have 4 F's in 12 credit hours from my community college experience. What is my LSAC GPA going to be--roughly?

Also, how bad of a career choice would it be to "settle" for a place such as the University of Illinois who is ranked in the 40's? I always heart T20 or don't go horror stories where attorneys aren't paid much after that threshold.

First, T20 isn't that big of a difference from anything else. It is t14 where there is a difference.

The University of Illinois is a good school and you have a decent shot at big law from, not probable, but at least most likely a job. Long story short, if you want to work in Illinois it is not a bad place on a good scholarship (military doesn't matter for you) and want to work in Illinois. Basically the same goes for Wisconsin, Minnesota, Florida, etc. The state flagships are good options if big law isn't a must and you want to work in those states. Otherwise go for t14.

Right now you should just focus on the LSAT and doing as well as possible.

[goldenbear2020]

Assuming you have a 3.75 after this fall semester, your LSAC GPA will drop to around 3.75 * 7/8 = 3.28, so that will definitely put a severe damper on law school applications. Basically you'll need at least a median LSAT for your target schools, if not well above that.

[cavalier1138]

Assuming you have a 3.75 after this fall semester, your LSAC GPA will drop to around 3.75 * 7/8 = 3.28, so that will definitely put a severe damper on law school applications. Basically you'll need at least a median LSAT for your target schools, if not well above that.

I know law school is for people who never wanted to do math again, but that's not even close to the calculation.

OP: you'd have a 3.41ish if you graduate with a 3.75 at your current school.

[Sackcrete]

Thank you, everyone.

So, say worst case scenario I end up with around a 3.0-3.1 LSAC GPA, is it plausible to still get into a T14 like Northwestern or Michigan if I can nail a 168+ on the LSAT? Like I said, I'll be graduating with honors from my university, and all of that crap comes from a single semester about 9 years ago... I guess I'm trying to remain hopeful that the person judging my application will see the obvious: "The guy was immature as a teen, but has since excelled in academics all while working full time, deploying multiple times, and taking care of his family."

Is it naive to hope like that in this sort of endeavor? I want this so bad, and have been working so hard to get here, and now that I'm close I'm just afraid it's going to crumble down.

I will say I take solace in knowing that it wouldn't be all over, and "falling" to a school such as Illinois or even lower doesn't spell a crappy job. I have zero connections in the law world and am relying heavily on resources like this forum to try and educate myself. The biggest unknown I have is what the job market would be like outside of big law... is there money to be made still? My dream is politics, or even being a judge eventually. Without being cheesy, can one become senator or even a congressman if they go to a 50-100 school?

[UVA2B]

You seem to be spending more time worrying about this prematurely when you won't be applying for a cycle or two anyway. Your GPA is going to fall because of those Fs (you might be able to get those retroactively changed to Ws, but will still not look great. You'd have to talk to that school's registrars about that).

If you nail the LSAT, even with those Fs and an addendum that sheds light on your academic performance in undergrad, some lower T14 will give you a look. If the Fs count, you'll be well below every T14's 25%, and therefore you just need to make the rest of your application pristine and apply smartly.

Now stop worrying about all of these hypotheticals and strictly focus on what you can control: the LSAT. It should be your best friend between now and when you're satisfied with the score you get (with your GPA concerns, you need 170+). Now get to it.

[UVA2B]

Also, politics and law school actually have nearly 0 correlation. There are a disproportionate number of legislature members who have JDs, but it's not because they have JDs. If you want politics, work on local campaigns, learn what it really means to be a politician, and work your way up that way. If you want to be a judge, any JD will technically do, and when you're talking local judges, etc. you're still basically talking about getting elected. If you have grand aspirations of judging on the federal level, I'd say just put that in your back pocket and pull it out when it becomes at all a reality, because it's realistically a very, very long shot for all law students.

[goldenbear2020]

Assuming you have a 3.75 after this fall semester, your LSAC GPA will drop to around 3.75 * 7/8 = 3.28, so that will definitely put a severe damper on law school applications. Basically you'll need at least a median LSAT for your target schools, if not well above that.

I know law school is for people who never wanted to do math again, but that's not even close to the calculation.

OP: you'd have a 3.41ish if you graduate with a 3.75 at your current school.

OP has 7 semesters of credit after this fall, and a semester of straight F's adds an 8th semester to the denominator and nothing to the numerator. Which part of this math is "not even close"?

It's a 3.41 if you assume the JC semester had, say 10 credits rather than the usual 15. Either way, OP's GPA is dropping from a 3.75 to a 3.3-3.4 - not a pretty picture.

[somebodyelse]

Assuming you have a 3.75 after this fall semester, your LSAC GPA will drop to around 3.75 * 7/8 = 3.28, so that will definitely put a severe damper on law school applications. Basically you'll need at least a median LSAT for your target schools, if not well above that.

I know law school is for people who never wanted to do math again, but that's not even close to the calculation.

OP: you'd have a 3.41ish if you graduate with a 3.75 at your current school.

OP has 7 semesters of credit after this fall, and a semester of straight F's adds an 8th semester to the denominator and nothing to the numerator. Which part of this math is "not even close"?

It's a 3.41 if you assume the JC semester had, say 10 credits rather than the usual 15. Either way, OP's GPA is dropping from a 3.75 to a 3.3-3.4 - not a pretty picture.

Because he asked for an estimate based on 121 credits @ 3.75 and 12 credits @ 0.00 (all Fs). The math is (121 * 3.75 + 12 * 0) / (121 + 12).

[goldenbear2020]

Assuming you have a 3.75 after this fall semester, your LSAC GPA will drop to around 3.75 * 7/8 = 3.28, so that will definitely put a severe damper on law school applications. Basically you'll need at least a median LSAT for your target schools, if not well above that.

I know law school is for people who never wanted to do math again, but that's not even close to the calculation.

OP: you'd have a 3.41ish if you graduate with a 3.75 at your current school.

OP has 7 semesters of credit after this fall, and a semester of straight F's adds an 8th semester to the denominator and nothing to the numerator. Which part of this math is "not even close"?

It's a 3.41 if you assume the JC semester had, say 10 credits rather than the usual 15. Either way, OP's GPA is dropping from a 3.75 to a 3.3-3.4 - not a pretty picture.

Because he asked for an estimate based on 121 credits @ 3.75 and 12 credits @ 0.00 (all Fs). The math is (121 * 3.75 + 12 * 0) / (121 + 12).

Assuming he applies after graduation. If he applies as a college senior, that's 105 credits @ 3.75 and 12-15 credits @ 0.00 -> 3.28 to 3.37. Still think "not even close" was unwarranted.

[somebodyelse]

Assuming you have a 3.75 after this fall semester, your LSAC GPA will drop to around 3.75 * 7/8 = 3.28, so that will definitely put a severe damper on law school applications. Basically you'll need at least a median LSAT for your target schools, if not well above that.

I know law school is for people who never wanted to do math again, but that's not even close to the calculation.

OP: you'd have a 3.41ish if you graduate with a 3.75 at your current school.

OP has 7 semesters of credit after this fall, and a semester of straight F's adds an 8th semester to the denominator and nothing to the numerator. Which part of this math is "not even close"?

It's a 3.41 if you assume the JC semester had, say 10 credits rather than the usual 15. Either way, OP's GPA is dropping from a 3.75 to a 3.3-3.4 - not a pretty picture.

Because he asked for an estimate based on 121 credits @ 3.75 and 12 credits @ 0.00 (all Fs). The math is (121 * 3.75 + 12 * 0) / (121 + 12).

Assuming he applies after graduation. If he applies as a college senior, that's 105 credits @ 3.75 and 12-15 credits @ 0.00 -> 3.28 to 3.37. Still think "not even close" was unwarranted.

It wasn't even assumed because OP explicitly asked for calculations based on those numbers. I don't think you should care that much that someone called out your math, it really doesn't matter.

[goldenbear2020]

It wasn't even assumed because OP explicitly asked for calculations based on those numbers. I don't think you should care that much that someone called out your math, it really doesn't matter.

Lol turns out I replied to the first post without reading the numbers below it. RCfail on my part, but I was genuinely confused where my math mistake was.