Top Law Schools

Hey there guys,

I graduated with a 3.37 from Princeton and scored a 170. Princeton has grade deflation so my GPA is actually average for the school, even though it is a lot lower than other school's averages. I started out my first 2 years pre-med but then switched to international affairs, so all my electives (or non-major courses) are harder science courses with labs, which also hurt my GPA. I was a D1 varsity athlete and am playing my sport professionally now. Ideally would like to go to Columbia or NYU. Was doing a bit better on practice LSAT's so thinking about retaking in July, but don't want to if i don't have to.

Thanks!

Your final LSAC calculated GPA is king. Differences in how different institutions and majors inflate (or deflate) GPAs might help you win a tiebreaker against another candidate with similar numbers, but it won't raise your "raw numbers" in schools' views. They have to aggregate and report certain metrics related to GPA and LSAT scores which affect their institutional rankings.

You'll need to retake the LSAT and aim for a couple more points if you want more than a coin toss shot at getting into either Columbia or NYU (and this will likely be at sticker price).

Check out this graph for reference: http://columbia.lawschoolnumbers.com/stats/1718

I'd also like to add a +1 to 4LT. You're going to have to retake for Columbia or NYU to be realistic possibilities, even at sticker. I'd stay a 173 or higher gives you a reasonable shot, but you could very well be locked out with a 3.4/173. Again, reiterating 4LT, Princeton might be a tiebreaker "soft," but it's otherwise not going to move the needle much. An applicant with a 3.5/170 and similar credentials will, on average, have a better cycle than you, even if he or she went to the University of Podunk. Law schools admissions is, unfortunately, a very numbers driven game.

You're fine for NYU, but you'd need to retake for Columbia, because their LSAT median is 172.