<p>I'm a freshman at Georgetown and I'm almost certain I want to do law school or some kind of grad school. I'm majoring in government/polisci with a possible second major or a minor in Chinese. I dicked around a little too much this year and will probably end the year with a 3.2-3.3 GPA. I know that's nothing to be ashamed of but I just have some basic questions about how GPAs are evaluated in grad school admissions.</p>
<p>Will the rigor of my undergrad experience be considered? Are all GPAs created equal? In other words, would a law school take into consideration that a 3.3 GPA at Georgetown is different than a GPA at a less competitive school?</p>
Yes, no, and yes - but only slightly. Someone who did the same amount of work as you but achieved a higher GPA in a less competitive school will have the advantage.</p>
<p>Though luckily (for some) law school admissions are LSAT heavy. A mere 3.4-3.5 will keep you competitive for all Top 14s minus HYSB.</p>
<p>The short answer is that you should not count on your undergrad’s reputation to carry you for law school applications. Though I myself am somewhat skeptical of this claim, some people believe that coming from a top Ivy like HYP or a top liberal arts college like Williams or Amherst will give an applicant a slight edge. But in my opinion, I think this is just confusing correlation for causation. The applicants from such schools just tend to be of a higher caliber to begin with. As for other universities and colleges, this so-called prestige effect, if there is any, is probably even less likely. </p>
<p>Thankfully, you do still have two to three years to boost your GPA. If you can pull it up by a few tenths of a point, then you should still be competitive for most top schools.</p>