How to improve my chances for T14? Forum

[Blackbody]

Hey guys, first time posting here so I would appreciate any advice from you.

I will be graduating with a Ph.D. in physics next year from a top 20 university. However, I am not really interested in doing research any more so I have been preparing for a switch of career to investment banks or law.

As far as test score goes, I got 179 on the LSAT and my GRE was 162V-170Q-4.5W. But, my undergraduate GPA is horrible(3.26). What happened was that I never went to classes in my first two years so I got like 2.5 but I did manage to get 3.97 for the last two years. My graduate GPA is 4.0 but I heard that law schools don’t give much weight to it, if any.

I know that UGPAs are extremely important for law schools applications so I probably won’t get into T5. But I would really appreciate any advice on how to tailor my application for specific schools and how to appeal to the admission committees so that they would take a chance on me.

Thanks again!

[albanach]

Hey guys, first time posting here so I would appreciate any advice from you.

I will be graduating with a Ph.D. in physics next year from a top 20 university. However, I am not really interested in doing research any more so I have been preparing for a switch of career to investment banks or law.

As far as test score goes, I got 179 on the LSAT and my GRE was 162V-170Q-4.5W. But, my undergraduate GPA is horrible(3.26). What happened was that I never went to classes in my first two years so I got like 2.5 but I did manage to get 3.97 for the last two years. My graduate GPA is 4.0 but I heard that law schools don’t give much weight to it, if any.

I know that UGPAs are extremely important for law schools applications so I probably won’t get into T5. But I would really appreciate any advice on how to tailor my application for specific schools and how to appeal to the admission committees so that they would take a chance on me.

Thanks again!

MyLSN is pretty pessimistic for you but I think it's probably overly so. Your Ph.D. is obviously in a tough subject and I think that will assuage some of the academic fears.



I think your best bet is to focus on the schools likely to accept you (likely lower ranked) and take any opportunity to meet with admissions officers. Make yourself a person to them, not a piece of paper. Obviously you'll want a GPA addenda, but it should be short and to the point - you messed up when you were young, sorted it out and have excelled academically ever since.

In your Why X essay you'll want to communicate why you sincerely want a legal career and why X school will help you get it. You do not want (and indeed want to kill any concern) that you're an eternal student.