<p>Well, I am very interested in law school now. But I dont have the greatest record.
I started School at Cu Boulder, and got 6 f's a W and a D for freshman year. Then b's, C's, and and A or two for the next couple years.
My last semester at colorado I got 3 As and 1 B (which I think is a big plus, shows that I was capable)
After Colorado I transferred back to Cali to go to community college, and have had straight As since. I am transferring to UCSD for management science in the fall. After this semester, I should bring my Cumulative GPA up to about 3.1 or 3.2 (with another semester of 5 A's). It is currently at about a 3.03 with 73 units.
I plan on doing very well at UCSD. I am going for the honors program (honors economics, and summa cum laude) because they only count courses taken at UCSD toward my UC gpa, luckily, so I am still able to do this. </p>
<p>Anyway, with that said, I would really like to go to USC, UCLA, NYU, Upenn, or Columbia law school. Does anyone think I have a shot at these? I am going to start taking lsat prep this summer, and I may get an internship at my neighbors law firm.
I pretty much have a straigt F's to straight A's upward trend, so Im just wondering if admissions officers will recognize this and give me a shot.
Also, one last question.... If I dont make it into one of my choice schools, what is the deal with transferring law schools? I have a friend at an unknown ls and he was talking about transferring.</p>
<p>For reference:
I will be in college (ugrad) 7 years total ( I know, it sucks)
Year 1:almost all f's
year 2-3.5: A', B's, C's and an F
The past 4 semesters: All A's and 1 B (with 17 sem. unit course loads)</p>
<p>1.) You can't plan results, you can only plan your own actions. So you can't plan on doing very well; the only think you can do is plan on working very hard.</p>
<p>2.) Don't aim for specific schools -- don't even aim for law school at all -- until you've taken the LSAT and received an actual score in hand. Any other discussion is premature until then.</p>
<p>I understand what your saying, but Im just looking for motivation.
I guess what I stated could be better classified as goals.
However; regardless of if I have a chance or not, I figure I should do as well as I can anyway, like you say, and hope for the best.
I would just like to know how much my first couple years in school will hold me back if I do excellent afterwards.</p>
<p>If you get a really high LSAT (upper 170s) you have a shot at NYU, Columbia, U Penn, albeit a small one. To be honest, I think your GPA is too low for those three, especially the first two. They already reject a lot of high LSAT/high GPAs each year.</p>
<p>As for UCLA, USC, better shots. It really depends on your LSAT (170s).</p>
<p>The 25th percentile GPAs for those schools (except USC) are in the 3.5s. The 75th LSAT for Columbia/NYU/U Penn ranges from 171 to 174. USC/UCLA's 75th percentile are in the upper 160s.</p>
<p>I don't know if you can bring your GPA to at least 25th percentile, but it looks like you need to aim for mid 170s+.</p>
<p>Let's put it this way: imagine that we are retrospectively *analyzing a hypothetical student who failed for a while before getting his life back on track. He proceeded to ace everything, bringing his GPA to around a 3.3 *overall, including everything as LSAC calculates it. Since he was a very good standardized test-taker -- this student probably got close to a 1600 on the SATs, for example -- he also aced the LSAT. He got into USC, and nobody was horribly surprised to hear it.</p>
<p>Hey thanks for the replies guys. That is exactly what I was looking for. I just wanted to know that I have a chance. I think that with enough prep, I will be able to score well on the Lsat, and from what you said, I gather that they will take recognition of my upward trend in grades.
Im hoping that although I may only be able to improve my GPA to around a 3.4 by graduation, that they will understand that without my freshman year, it would be much higher.
So when I have LSAC send my info to the various schools I will be applying to, will they mainly look at only my cumulative GPA, or will they also look at my grade trend?</p>
<p>They look at both cum GPA and trend, but it's mainly cumulative GPA. Law schools love rankings and a huge part of the way they keep their schools ranked high is 1) matriculating class's LSAT 2) class's GPA. The way to compensate for a low GPA is to get a really high LSAT. </p>
<p>You should take a diagnostic LSAT to see where you stand. If you are in the early 160s/upper 150s you have a shot of hitting 170+.</p>
<p>If you start below that (early 150s, upper 140s), you have potential of hitting early 160s, but in general not upper 160s or 170s. </p>
<p>It varies by person though. I know someone who started with a 159 diagnostic and hit a 160 on the actual test after 3 months prep. I know someone else who started in the 140s and hit 160 after 3 months prep. </p>
<p>Some more random samples from first diagnostic to actual LSAT (on average 3 months prep):
163--->172
163---->170
158---->172
164---->174
169---->high 170s
152--->160</p>
<p>Anyway these are just from people I know but in general good test takers tend to do well on the LSAT, just like on the SAT, MCAT, etc.</p>
<p>Cool. Thank you for the great reply. I really appreciate you putting in the time to help out like that.
I have printed out a diagnostic test, and will take it when I get a chance, which should be soon.
Also, how hard would it be to transfer to one of the schools I mentioned, if I got into say, USD or something around that ranking?</p>
<p>Transferring to USC from say USD would be doable, especially if you get good grades at USD. Transferring into a UC from a private school is very tough though, so I wouldn't hold out too much hope for that.</p>
<p>I believe that UCLA reserves around 40 transfer spots each year. Some of the higher ranked schools in the T-10 do not have reserves, and only accept transfers if people drop out.</p>