<p>I'm a first-semester freshman. I know it's early to be thinking about law school, and I don't have my heart set on it, but I would like to be able to get into a good law school if I decide that's the career path I want to follow.</p>
<p>The problem is, my grades for this semester are not good. At all. I had a rough transition to college, and my GPA for this semester will be about a 2.75 if I'm lucky. Are my chances at law school basically ruined? </p>
<p>I know I can bring my GPA up to 3.7ish by the time I start sending out applications (there were a lot of circumstances that affected this semester that won't impact my grades in the future, so I'm confident my cumulative GPA will be all right). The thing is, will law schools ONLY consider my cumulative GPA in the decision, or will they examine my whole transcript and get concerned about my initial failure? Will they forgive my first-semester mistakes if I show that I've turned myself around, or turn me down because I didn't show consistent performance?</p>
<p>For what it's worth, go to a top Ivy League school--will that have any bearing on how they judge my GPA? Or is a bad GPA just a bad GPA no matter what school it's from?</p>
<p>Thanks so much for your help. I'm really worried that I've closed a lot of doors that would have been open to me after college.</p>
<p>A friend of mine also had a hard time adjusting to college. He was from a small hick town and a university of 50,000 overwhelmed him. His first semester GPA was a .6. That is not a typo. He is now a first year law student at the University of Illinois. It is not top 14, but 23 is pretty decent. His cumulative GPA was still just under 3.0. I tell you this as an example that your chances are not ruined. Doing well on the LSAT covered up a multitude of his shortcomings. It will for you too. </p>
<p>Pretty much. If anything an upward trend will be a mild positive. School name-branding is also a mild positive, although I think it depends on which Ivy you’re at.</p>
<p>I don’t believe this. Someone from a small hick town moving into a university of 50,000 might be inclined to have a few initial thoughts along the lines of, “Oh wow, there are a lot more people in this school than where I was at”, but that doesn’t seem to be something that would constantly stay in one’s brain to the point where it distracted one from their studies and hence negatively affected their GPA, especially to the degree of a 0.6. There must be something else you’re not telling us. Was he depressed? Schizophrenic? Does he have social anxiety disorder? Or … a 50,000 enrollment sounds like something you would find at a modern urban school. Is he from the impoverished depths of Africa and not used to the modern urban environment? I don’t understand how someone’s GPA could be so negatively affected otherwise.</p>
<p>Also, I don’t think kayabertz ever stated that his/her “rough transition” was due to an atypical inability to cope with the new general environment at the school.</p>
<p>I also am looking for some advive. My daughter jsut finished her first semester of college and failed a class. Her overall GPA is a 2.38. She is panicked that this will affect her chances of getting into a good law school. What advice can you give uis. She was always a b+ to a student in high school. Failing the class was a shock . Is there still hope?</p>
<p>Dear Columbia_Student - I dont think so, but she contacted her advisor and asked for some advice so I guess well see what he says. BTW are you at Columbia now as a student? If so how do you like it? I have a another child who is a sophmore in High School who is trying to narrow down list of coleges. He is interested in Biomedical engineering.</p>
<p>^I think what Columbia_Student was referring to was that if the student retakes the class she scored an “F” in and then subsequently scores say a “B” after retaking it, her transcript will denote the “B” with no indication of the student ever having received the “F”. Brown has a similar system, I believe: For example, if a student attempts and then fails chemistry, the student has the option to retake the course (a slower-paced version). The grade earned in the remedial course will replace the original chemistry grade and the transcript will not mention that the student retook the class let alone a remedial version.</p>
<p>You would have to turn yourself around in a consistent way, say, earn a 3.60+ from every semester onward.</p>
<p>If your cumulative GPA turns out to be a 3.7X, but only because of your first semester grades, your entire record will be considered.</p>
<p>Harvard has very, very high grade inflation, and it’s likely that you’ll be competing with fellow classmates who have higher GPAs. A bad GPA is a bad GPA, but a 3.7X is not “bad.” You’ll just have to compensate with a high LSAT, and many doors should open for you.</p>
<p>3.7 should suffice for even top law schools, assuming a high LSAT. </p>
<p>My attitude is similar to yours in that I don’t have my heart set on LS, but right now it’s my desired path. In addition, I’ve decided that if I can’t get a partial ride to a T6 or a full ride to a T14, I won’t attend (because I don’t think it’d be worthwhile). So while I’m kinda like, “Eh, que sera sera; if I don’t get a GPA conducive to attending a good LS, then I won’t go that path,” I’m a little worried about closing doors with my sub-3.0 first semester GPA.</p>
<p>You do have the Harvard name behind you, though, and although LSAC is almost entirely numbers-driven, no one denies that Harvard looks good. :]</p>
<p>^ Explain? I don’t know much about the intricacies of LS scholarships, but I’ve kind of gotten the impression that HYS acceptances >= CCN partial scholarships ~= T14 full scholarships.</p>
<p>Anyhow, I don’t think attending a T10 school for sticker is at all a foolish proposition, especially if you actually want to be a lawyer. Seems like the opportunity of a life time, from my perspective.</p>
<p>Then scholarship or not, I’d seriously investigate whether law is right for you. Even on a full scholarship, enduring 1L (and the rest of law school) is not worth it if you’re unsure whether you want to be a lawyer. I would definitely have dropped out if I wasn’t confident. Ambivalence is not worth the personal sacrifice.</p>
<p>Definitely. As I just said in our concurrent PM convo (lol), I’ll be researching the actual profession in the next few years to make sure I want to, you know, be a lawyer. I’ve experienced firsthand (well, secondhand) online the bitterness of LS students and lawyers who just went to LS 'cause they had nothing better to do. And while I’ve at least got an interest in the abstracts of the law, I don’t want to find myself dissatisfied with the realities of the profession. (To be fair, though, I think I’m already aware of most of the negatives. XO, JDU, etc. are dark places. ;])</p>
<p>I think my uncertainty stems from two things: (1) realism: I’m just a college freshman, and I acknowledge that people change their minds a lot; and (2) I want to protect myself from disappointment in the case that I don’t end up with the numbers I want.</p>