<p>I have a pretty unusual case. as a freshman in high school, i opted to take a couple courses at the local JC to get some credits done. however, due to some circumstances, i couldnt keep going to the class. my HS counselor told me (in hindsight, god awful advice) that since I wasnt going to go to that JC anyway after high school, that if i just take those courses at the high school then the credits from the JC wont count because they wont be used towards any degree. So i ended up getting a C- and 2 F's. now I find out about the lsac gpa.....and I am a rising senior with a 3.7 gpa...but with the lsac it drops to around 3.3.<br>
I know you can write an addendum in the application, but does the admissions committee simply look at the raw gpa, in my case a 3.3.....I feel like I would get written off for a t14 right away even if I do score high on the LSAT.
any thoughts?</p>
<p>if ever an addendum could help, this would seem to be the case…the bad grades were 8 years ago and were the result of bad advice given to a 14-year-old; not very indicative of your academic capabilities. </p>
<p>However, GPA is used for more than determining your academic capabilities. The law school is still going to have to factor in your LSAC GPA when it gives info to US News, so they’ll care a lot about it. If I were you, I’d essentially apply to two groups of schools: reach/middle/safe based on a 3.3 and whatever LSAT score you get, and reach/middle/safe based on a 3.7 and whatever LSAT score you get (with the understanding that there’ll be an overlap between the reaches from the first group and the safes from the second). </p>
<p>Don’t worry yet that your JC classes will keep you out of the T14. With a high enough LSAT score, even a 3.3 from college could get you in. Just do well on the LSAT and in your last year of college (it would probably be a good idea to apply after graduation, so take a gap year so you can submit 4 years of grades) and let the schools tell YOU if they want you or not.</p>
<p>While an addendum to your law school applications won’t “nullify” anything, they will help to explain what happened back when you were starting high school. I would suggest that you stick to the facts, and try not to sound defensive when you describe what happened. I would also advise you to take ownership of what happened instead of blaming your counselor for everything.</p>