3.4/174--best shot for $ in the T14? Forum

[tinyrickkk]

I had a pretty bad idea about my chances until I looked at lawschoolnumbers recently and now suddenly feel a little more confident. I have a 3.4 from HYP and 174 on the LSAT. What is my best bet for scholarship money in the T14? Do I have a shot at Northwestern ED? I currently work in a v10 consulting firm in NYC, so the work experience might help with NW. Any chance Columbia or NYU throws some money at me? And finally, would my situation be different if my LSAT were 2-3 points higher (i.e. should I retake)? Thanks so much!

[cavalier1138]

I don't see any benefit to retaking in your scenario. Your GPA will keep you out of HYS, and your LSAT is above the 75th for the rest of the T13. You should have a shot at good money in the lower T13 (and maybe a decent offer at CCN). I'm not sure about your chances at Northwestern ED with your GPA, but it's worth a shot.

[tinyrickkk]

I don't see any benefit to retaking in your scenario. Your GPA will keep you out of HYS, and your LSAT is above the 75th for the rest of the T13. You should have a shot at good money in the lower T13 (and maybe a decent offer at CCN). I'm not sure about your chances at Northwestern ED with your GPA, but it's worth a shot.

Thanks for the reply! So a score or 176+ would not help my case? Do you think I could do anything in particular to increase my scholarship chances? Just write a GPA addendum?

[Platopus]

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[tinyrickkk]

Thanks for the reply! So a score or 176+ would not help my case? Do you think I could do anything in particular to increase my scholarship chances? Just write a GPA addendum?

A GPA addendum is only marginally helpful (at best) if you have a compelling reason or extenuated circumstances leading to a lower GPA. If you write a GPA for another reason it comes across as complaining

Thanks! My school (P) had an infamous grade deflation policy, so our median graduating GPA was about .4 - .45 lower than our peer institutions' (H Y). My transcript comes with a letter from the school explaining all of this. Would this be something I could write about in a GPA addendum?

[cavalier1138]

Thanks for the reply! So a score or 176+ would not help my case? Do you think I could do anything in particular to increase my scholarship chances? Just write a GPA addendum?

A GPA addendum is only marginally helpful (at best) if you have a compelling reason or extenuated circumstances leading to a lower GPA. If you write a GPA for another reason it comes across as complaining

Thanks! My school (P) had an infamous grade deflation policy, so our median graduating GPA was about .4 - .45 lower than our peer institutions' (H Y). My transcript comes with a letter from the school explaining all of this. Would this be something I could write about in a GPA addendum?

No. Adcomms are aware of Princeton's grading system.

[tinyrickkk]

Thanks for the reply! So a score or 176+ would not help my case? Do you think I could do anything in particular to increase my scholarship chances? Just write a GPA addendum?

A GPA addendum is only marginally helpful (at best) if you have a compelling reason or extenuated circumstances leading to a lower GPA. If you write a GPA for another reason it comes across as complaining

Thanks! My school (P) had an infamous grade deflation policy, so our median graduating GPA was about .4 - .45 lower than our peer institutions' (H Y). My transcript comes with a letter from the school explaining all of this. Would this be something I could write about in a GPA addendum?

No. Adcomms are aware of Princeton's grading system.

Would you think, then, that they would treat a 3.4 differently?
Separately, is there anywhere I could look for NW ED data? MYLSN doesn't seem to have much.

[A. Nony Mouse]

The problem is that schools can't report a 3.4 to USNWR as being from P and therefore really equivalent to a higher GPA - the number counts as what it is for ranking purposes. That said, I think there is some anecdotal evidence that it may help a little bit on the margins (it's better to have the 3.4 from P than from regional directional state U, say). The thing is, your GPA is set in stone, so it's a better use of time to make sure all the rest of the components of your application are as polished and stellar as you can make them, than trying to convince adcomms to see your GPA as something else. If they actually do treat a P GPA differently, they're going to do so whether you write an addendum or not; if they don't, writing an addendum isn't going to convince them to change their minds.