<p>Hi! I have some problems due to the last semester in my junior year in college.</p>
<p>Okay, so i'm a transfer student from a junior college and i maintained honors and had 3.78 gpa(of course) then got into a prestigious school in california but had some problems with adjusting to the program so the first semester gpa was 3.2 with one non pass course. And last semster, i had a major family issue(death in the family) but thought i could pull if off and continued but it turned out that i got two Cs this semester and no A which is about 2.4 gpa. Now my gpa after transfer is 2.7. And I'm going for lawschool.</p>
<p>I know I just have to be consistant and do my best for the upcoming senior year and ace the lsat but this downward trend is not very persuasive of my ability of handling the pressure. I'm just very disappointed at myself and i feel like i overestimated myself too much.</p>
<p>Anyway, i'm hoping to raise my gpa upto 3.4 at least, before adding the pre-transfer gpa(because post-transfer gpa counts more i know), would this upward trend in senior year good for law school admission? Would I be able to just explain in a extra essay not with excuses but trying to show them that i have learned from my mistakes? I'm trying to apply next march and i'm not sure if i'll be able to pull it off..</p>
<p>I need to find some strength to get back on the track - can't even sleep at night
so i thought i should try to listen to lots of advice from many people.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I have an eerily similar story and have decided to postpone law school. Your grades from your previous school are averaged together with your new grades (not an exact average though, they have a formula, research LSDAS gpa), so that will help you out a lot, but they’ll still see that you kind of fell apart once you got to a university. The LSAT is going to be crucial, but if you do your best to pull up that GPA and rock the LSAT not all your hopes are dashed.</p>
<p>I have no advice, but I feel your pain. Thankfully for me it was kind of a relief. It was very stressful to know my best wasn’t good enough all year long. Now that I’m not going to law school it’s plenty good enough.</p>
<p>Will you have your last semester of grades when you apply? I was going to take a gap year just because otherwise I’d have had to apply before my senior grades were in. Now I am taking an indefinite break after undergrad, though.</p>
<p>As someone who went back to college after a LONG gap (7 years) and who is entering law school in the fall, I believe I can offer some insight. I, too, faced a poor gpa. An upward trend does look good, obviously, and you can always write an addendum. You should know upfront, however, that law school admissions is really numbers based and, unfortunately, a poor academic record cannot be undone. A solid LSAT score will help immensely, but even if you get a really, really high score, it won’t outweigh an under-average gpa for the tip-pity-top schools. Don’t loose hope though. Do whatever you can to boost your gpa as much as possible (summer school, community college classes, etc) and work your tail off for the LSAT. Then, apply early (Sept/Oct), work darn hard on your personal statement, resume, etc, and apply to a range of schools. Look at lawschoolnumbers.com and make a realistic assessment of where you have a shot. If your dream is law school, then you WILL achieve it. You just have to work hard and be realistic. Good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks. I decided to go to law school after taking a year or two.
I hope some of my life experience during these gap years will actually increase the chance of getting into better schools. </p>
<p>And yes, the senior grade will be included if i’m taking gap years but if not, then the last semester grade will not be included as far as I know.</p>
<p>It just hurts to realize that i was not good enough but at least i learned from my failure.</p>
<p>Thanks to both of you.</p>
<p>As transfer students I think we are at a disadvantage academically. All the easy 100 and 200 level classes I took aren’t averaged into my GPA at my current school (which is quite a pain in the neck when I am applying for programs here at school now-- my two semesters averaged are competing with students that have 5 or 6+ semesters averaged), and I had to make my college life adjustment while taking 400 level classes in my major instead of english 101 like most other students-- and none of the nice programs they have to get new students acclimated really existed for me. Not only that, but I think I got burned out a lot faster than I would have otherwise because I spent my first two years of college with huge pressure because I knew in a year and a half I had to submit transfer applications and there was literally no room for error, and now as soon as I got that pressure off there is no room for error because the pressure of law school applications comes on. You have no breathing room for even one bad grade without significantly damaging your applications, you don’t get enough classes in three semesters to pull an average up after a mistake. There are no excuses, but I think a stumble your first year at a university as a juco transfer student is a pretty acceptable experience to run into. It is not easy to be a freshman as a junior, so to speak. I am in touch with a few other juco transfers I met at orientation and they all have pretty similar stories-- not everyones GPA took the hits that ours did but it has been a pretty rough experience for everyone I know. I wouldn’t be too down on yourself about this. If you are the kind of person who is cut out for law school in the first place, you will make this happen for yourself one way or another. A gap year or two is not the end of the world.</p>
<p>I think you should also maybe just listen to yourself. Maybe you don’t handle high stakes, ultra competitive atmospheres very well, and that’s okay. You don’t have to be the top 1L at Harvard Law, when you could go to a very good but less insane law program somewhere else and thrive while you study. Bingeing on stress won’t make you a better lawyer. So just take in what you’ve learned about yourself and your academic needs and note it for the future.</p>