<p>I am a junior at University of Michigan hoping to apply to Umich's law school and a few privates of similar rank as well. Finances are not going my way right now and I am probably not going to have the cash on hand I need to do the LSAT and apply on time. If I take a gap year are schools of that caliber going to look down on it?</p>
<p>I am likely not going to be able to do anything impressive in that year. My reason for taking it are my funds allocated for the LSAT and applying have dried up, and as I did not take out my undergraduate loans thinking I was going to be paying them off with a BA in poli sci, I am afraid I will be working three jobs and just trying to scrape by in that year and hope I can get the money together to try again next year. I am not sure what else I can do.</p>
<p>It won’t hurt you at all. I would recommend though that you register with LSDAS and ask profs for LORs before you graduate.</p>
<p>From other posts by you, I think you went to a CC. If so, having two years of grades from UMichigan to submit when you apply --assuming they are good–will be of substantial benefit in the admissions process.</p>
<p>Do you think applying for Fall 2012 instead of Fall 2011 to have both years going to the law schools would be substantially better than applying with only one year? I hadn’t thought of that aspect of things. I would have to come up with something really clever during the gap year to keep my loans in deferment. My GPA at the CC ended up being about 3.6-3.7, and at Umich I am expecting that or above, most likely above if I do as well as I have so far. I was wondering last night if the CC GPA was too low.</p>
<p>I’m NOT a LS admissions expert and don’t purport to be. Based on anecdotal evidence, including the somewhat disappointing outcome of a young woman who used to post here and went to a CC and then a top college and applied with only one year of university grades, my impression is that it DOES help substantially to have TWO years of university grades when you apply. </p>
<p>If the extra year is likely to pull up your GPA --particularly if it might boost it above the 3.75 mark, then that’s an additional reason to delay your app. Add into that that it might be easier to get good recs from profs after you’ve been at UMichigan for two years, and I think there’s a strong case to be made for waiting. </p>
<p>Having said that, I think a visit to the UMichigan pre-law advisor is in order.</p>