GPA: 3.51, LSAT: 159, Part Time program chances? Forum

[bds9av]

Hello,

I'm applying to part time programs in DC such as Georgetown, GW, and American. Mentioned my numbers in the title. I also work as a patent examiner at the patent and trademark office. What would be my chances at these schools considering i'm applying for part time. Also, how much would being a patent examiner boost my chances?

Thanks in advance

[cavalier1138]

No chance at Georgetown. No chance at GW. You shouldn't go to American, but they'll let you in (likely with very little in the way of scholarships).

I don't think being a patent examiner moves the needle much. Certainly not enough to overcome that LSAT for Georgetown and GW.

[bds9av]

No chance at Georgetown. No chance at GW. You shouldn't go to American, but they'll let you in (likely with very little in the way of scholarships).

I don't think being a patent examiner moves the needle much. Certainly not enough to overcome that LSAT for Georgetown and GW.

Thanks for the response. I noticed from the ABA disclosure for GW part time 2016, the median acceptance for LSAT was 156 and the 25 percentile was about 152. Even with these lower stats, would the 159 score not be enough? Not too sure why there is such a discrepancy between full-time and part-time stats.

[cavalier1138]

If the stats are that much lower for the part-time program, maybe that will make the difference at GW, but that does seem like an odd discrepancy.

[bds9av]

Yeah, according to the disclosures, I'm between 25-50 percentile on GPA and between 50-75 percentile for LSAT for GW and between 25-50 on both for Georgetown. Hoping that work experience will make up for some lower numbers.

[goldenbear2020]

No chance at GULC or GW, but you should get into American, which isn't a bad option if the USPTO is sponsoring your tuition. GW PT has lower LSAT numbers than FT, so USPTO examiner is the kind of work experience that might push a 3.75+ / 150s applicant in. But they want high GPAs (even slightly higher than the FT students).

[bds9av]

No chance at GULC or GW, but you should get into American, which isn't a bad option if the USPTO is sponsoring your tuition. GW PT has lower LSAT numbers than FT, so USPTO examiner is the kind of work experience that might push a 3.75+ / 150s applicant in. But they want high GPAs (even slightly higher than the FT students).

Thanks for the response. I did receive an acceptance for American and hoping to get decent scholarship money based on numbers I've seen on LSN . I was also wondering if the LSAT and GPA numbers itself are more important or where you fall between the percentiles, so would having a 3.7 GPA be better than 3.5 GPA even though both are within the 25-50 percentile for PT acceptance? I was hoping being above 50percentile for LSAT would try to make up for being below 50percentile on GPA or does that not matter as much as the actual numbers?

[goldenbear2020]

US News ranks schools based on their overall LSAT/GPA medians, so top PT programs like GULC and GW will still look to take applicants above their overall medians. That's why the lower PT medians aren't necessarily indicative of easier admissions chances - the accepted students typically still meet one median or else have strong work experience (like military/government experience or working for the law school's university itself), URM status, etc. For example, GULC's PT acceptance rate has hovered around 4-6% in recent years, so they can be picky about softs for the handful of below-both-medians portion of the class.