<p>I am a junior at Old Dominion University with a GPA that's a little above average. (3.41) Believe it or not, but the classes that brought my gpa down were the undergraduate required courses such as American Literature, Biology and Liberal Math. I should also note that I graduated high school with a 2.1 GPA and scored a 1040 on my SAT (which was 8 yrs ago). I didn't immediately go to college out of high school because I didn't think it was for me. After attacking the career world for a few years, I decided it was going to be necessary to get a degree. The first few years I took classes part time and did fairly well and maintained a 3.5 in a community college. Then I decided to go for it and take a full course load while maintaining a full time work schedule at Verizon Wireless. My interests as a young kid were in law and the courts (I read the You Be The Jury series religously). As I grew up, my dreams of becoming a lawyer were shattered when I realized how difficult it was to achieve. My guidance counselor in high school pretty much told me I need to go to community college and IF I can do well there (which she doubted) then I can transfer to a 4 yr. college. </p>
<p>My major is Mass Communications and my minor is Philosophy of Legal Studies</p>
<p>My question is this: Will my full time work schedule while in school full time weigh in heavily on a decision for admission? Will my long periods without college at all affect their decision? My top choices for Law School are University of Virginia, Duke University, William and Mary, Washington and Lee, and George Mason University. I am just wondering if I am aiming too high, or if these schools are possibilities for me?</p>
<p>If there is anyone that could chat with me online sometime about this, I'd really appreciate it.</p>
<p>-Jeremy</p>
<p>P.S. - Things I have outside of education that will be on my applications. Trips to Costa Rica, Germany, Mexico (church mission trips), and heavy involvement in community theatre.</p>
<p>You're going to have kick some major ass on the LSAT to have a serious shot at your choice schools. 3.4/175+ can get you in the door at bottom-tier T14's. Just apply to as many as you can, ED to some.</p>
<p>There's no responsible way to make predictions until you have an LSAT score.</p>
<p>ED some? Thats immoral and just plain wrong. ED to one....</p>
<p>The good thing is I have one more year of school to pull my GPA up, and I figured with all A's I can pull it up to a 3.6 which would help tremendously. However, my concern is that my school isn't a very well recognized school, and I've read that generally law schools frown upon Communication majors. The only reason I'm a COMM major is because I work for Verizon Wireless which also ties into my reasons for wanting to attend law school. I want to practice law in the legal department at Verizon Wireless. I'm also not taking the run of the mill one dimensional classes that the Communication department has to offer.</p>
<p>I've taken the classes in COMM such as Rhetorical Communication, Persuasion, Mass Media, Media Theory, Communication Research Methods, Diplomatic Communication, Public Relations Writing, and Communication between the sexes (which is writing intensive).</p>
<p>I do plan on taking the LSAT prep course that is offered through powerscore.</p>
<p>The reputation of your school will likely not have a significant negative impact on your application. As far as I can tell, that sort of thing really only counts on the margins, though some would argue that a school's reputation does have an implicit effect of biasing AdComs at times. In any case, as others have stated, the most important thing for you to do is to get a very strong LSAT score. A 3.41 GPA may be above average at your school, but it is certainly below average for pretty much every school you listed. That will likely be overlooked, though, with a good LSAT. I agree that taking the PS course would be wise-- just keep in mind that the course will not in and of itself perform miracles. You need to put in the necessary outside work to get that score.</p>