<p>Please tell me what you think my chances will be when I apply to Columbia, UPenn, Chicago, Northwestern and Harvard for the heck of it. </p>
<p>Background: NESCAC school, actively involved in leadership roles in a couple non-profits, currently employed at the number one or two law firm as a paralegal. </p>
<p>Thanks in advance, guys.</p>
<p>Totally unpredictable. Apply to all of them and I think you’ll get into a couple.</p>
<p>What a splitter! N’western may be your best shot. They’ll like your work experience. If you really want to go to law school next year, how about applying to a few schools outside of t-14?</p>
<p>How about Columbia? I have my heart set on it. The kid I was freshmen and sophomore year, simply put, is just not who I am today. I’m far more dedicated and serious and know that a T6er, especially one like Columbia, is where I belong.</p>
<p>So, what, you had a 2.0 your freshmen and sophomore years and a 4.0 in your junior year?</p>
<p>There are people who have been “dedicated and serious” their entire lives–what entitles you admission to a T6 school over them?</p>
<p>You’re shut out of Yale, Harvard, and Stanford regardless of your high LSAT score and the color of your skin.</p>
<p>However, you can maximize your chances at Columbia by applying Early Decision there.</p>
<p>Again, totally unpredictable. Chances are high enough to merit an application. And I disagree with kwu – he’ll probably turn out to be right, but there’s no way to know for sure. Give it a shot.</p>
<p>I second the notion to apply everywhere – including outside the top 14 if you are certain you want to be a lawyer.</p>
<p>Thanks guys. Also, is a 2.76 more excusable than it is if I told you guys I tried to take Japanese my freshmen year and received two Ds? That’s honestly why my GPA isn’t a 3.0.</p>
<p>No, I don’t think so. Most schools have language requirements, and many people take Japanese. My own (non-Asian) daughter took it and got A’s. So I don’t know why law school would cut you a break on that score.</p>
<p>I’m not inside the admissions people’s heads, but it would seem to me you should do the best job you can with your essay, choose your rec’s wisely, live with the resume you’ve got, and apply to all the T14 (or T20). It’s very difficult to explain away a bad couple of years with reasons that sound like “I didn’t do well because I didn’t do well”.</p>
<p>I really can’t see you not getting into at least one T14 with that lsat score plus your URM status.</p>
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<p>I’m not really enjoying this self-righteous mentality. The guy is owning up to the fact that he performed poorly (and hey, at least he’s not blaming some fictional illness, right?). That’s a pretty mature step in the right direction.</p>
<p>And surely he isn’t advocating that he be as entitled to a spot at a law school as one who did well all four years. If he is, then bombs away. Otherwise, lay off and give him the straight deal as far as his chances are concerned.</p>
<p>It seems he is getting the straightest deal anyone can give him. The bottom line is that it can’t be predicted. It is good advice to tell him not to suggest that he would have better grades had he not taken Japanese. Even if his GPA were a 3.0, he wouldn’t be a automatic admit everywhere. The best avenue to take is along the lines that he suggested earlier - that he is a different student now - more mature, more focused, more… more… He has to hope the upward trend gets him there.</p>
<p>It’s not really the straightest deal when one’s advice and predictions are undergirded with patronization and derision.</p>
<p>flowerhead, I’m mystified as to why you think I was being self-righteous. AOK1 is a splitter with a GPA he is not happy with. He can’t change the GPA, and his reasons for the GPA are basically that he took courses he didn’t do well in. To say you took Japanese and got a D is a reason for the sub-3 gpa, but it not an excuse since other people take Japanese and don’t get D’s. That’s just a fact. So my advice is to live with the part of his resume he can’t change, and focus on those areas he can impact - essay, rec’s, etc. He’s already focusing on his work experience, which is good. And of course his LSAT score is great. As cartera says, we’re trying to be helpful here. He is asking this board to help him understand how to best present himself. And that’s what everyone is trying to do for him. Personally I believe that it actually weakens an application to try to excuse something that doesn’t have a good excuse.</p>
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<p>I take issue with this statement. The statement above is correct if all people are equal in talents and abilities; that just isn’t the case. Some people have particular difficulty with certain subjects while others excel at them with seemingly little effort. College is a process of exploring oneself not just in terms of refining one’s ideas, but also in terms of sculpting a path toward your future: you have to find your strengths and your weaknesses, and most high schoolers don’t have the maturity and depth of thought you have to make those determinations at that age (at least I didn’t, and I suspect AOK1 doesn’t, either).</p>
<p>Saying that your GPA would have been higher if you hadn’t taken Japanese can be good, depending on the reason you provide; but it’s definitely not a factor that other kids got As in the course. Suppose I started out as an engineering major, got some Cs, and realized that I just wasn’t as good at it as I thought I would be. Maybe I just don’t have a knack for engineering. The fact that other kids got As in those engineering courses doesn’t mitigate the effect of may admitting in an addendum, “Hey, I realized the hard way that engineering isn’t for me, shifted gears, and found my true talents in another part of the college curriculum. And hey, got As in those other courses to boot!”</p>
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<p>You’re terming this as an “excuse,” which I suspect is because AOK did it first; granted, he could have chosen his words a little better. It most definitely isn’t an “excuse.” Rather, it’s an explanation. Admissions officers like explanations. </p>
<p>With respect to AOK’s specific situation, I wouldn’t recommend an “explanation,” but for different reasons: I don’t think even a 3.0 is a particularly strong GPA, so “explaining” that Japanese is what screwed him over wouldn’t really do much to explain why he got a 3.0 in the first place.</p>
<p>Is the 2.76 your school GPA or your Law School GPA?</p>
<p>I thought Law schools look at the Law School GPA?</p>
<p>2.76 is the GPA I received from my school. We don’t have A+'s and, truthfully, I’m not sure how it works but is it the case that one’s LS GPA is higher than one’s UG GPA? </p>
<p>To everyone that’s replied so far: thanks! I appreciate it all and I am actually going to print out everything that’s said in this thread and keep it in a little file so…keep it coming. </p>
<p>Also, I wasn’t offended. I’m aware that I messed up during my freshmen year and that it’s going to be hard to get admissions to see pass this but I’m going to try my hardest and hope for the best. I know this is the life I want and I just flat out refuse to let me at 18 determine where I can go and who I can become. </p>
<p>And for the record (to flower’s point) my major GPA is a 3.6. I wrote an Honors thesis and received an A on that; an A being the highest grade you can receive as I mentioned. Part of me wishes I had just concentrated on classes I was not only interested in, not only dedicated to but classes I could have excelled in. I took Spanish for four years previously and could have done well, certainly better than I did in Japanese. </p>
<p>But, it was my belief then, and continues to be my belief now that failing in meaningful ways is, in the end, an important process for those that wish to succeed grandly. Of course, I’m not saying that you should purposefully fail but to know what failure is, to learn the things one learns about themselves within failure is, in my opinion, wildly advantageous to achieving. I wish my 18 year old self could have known LS’s wouldn’t necessairly agree with me. :-/ </p>
<p>But, thanks, guys. Keep the advice coming!</p>
<p>AOK- no one here knows how your admission cycle will end. But with a 176 and URM status, I do think you will get some offers from T-14 schools.</p>
<p>maybe you can use your personal statement to show how you matured, grew and took your studies more seriously in your later college years. This way you don’t seem whiney or give half hearted excuses why your GPA is sub 3.0.</p>
<p>good luck to you- 176 LSAT Wow! I think you’ll do fine.</p>
<p>welcome back lilybloom. I saw some of your postings on the other site. Congrats on UC.</p>
<p>Hey AOK1, I was just wondering, how did you get that lsat score? What strategy did you use, how long did you study, how did you study, what do you recommend in scoring this high? Did you take any specific courses later, or…? I hope you can get back on this. Thanks</p>
<p>Holy crap. a 176? May I ask how you got that? I think at least one of the top14 will bite.</p>
<p>I’m really curious about this LSAT thing too.</p>