Getting into Law School as a former dropout?

<p>Basically, I dropped out of college (due to laziness) in my junior year. I received an AA with a 2.8, transferred and got terrible grades. </p>

<p>The past few years I've been trying to make up for being a failure in life.</p>

<p>I worked my arse off, got another AA degree with a gpa of 4.0, transferred to my local university (3rd tier unfortunately :( ) and I am on track for graduating with around a 3.95 in applied mathematics and economics as a double major.</p>

<p>I've been interested in law school and I took the LSAT and got a 175 on my first try.</p>

<p>However there is one very big problem: my overall GPA. My overall gpa will be a 3.3 and according to some material I've read, this cuts me out of all the top-tier law schools.</p>

<p>Is there anything I can do about this? I don't deserve to carry my past with me.</p>

<p>First, ignore RealCamz because you cannot “impress” high end firms through your work. I don’t know where that nonsense comes from. Second, 3.3/175 can get you into a T14. If you’re a URM you can probably crack the T6. You’ll probably need to write a personal statement about your grade history. See if with study you can’t inch that LSAT up even higher on your real score and you can probably get a full ride somewhere worth going.</p>

<p>Eh, I prefer to have lower debt as my end goal is being a law academic/professor, not a lawyer. I intend to take a judicial clerkship and J.S.D after that. I suppose I can study more, but I studied for many hours already.</p>

<p>Good to know that a 3.3 can get me in t14 though.</p>

<p>Clerking isn’t something you “take,” even from Yale it’s something you apply for and hope. As for law professor, you couldn’t pick a worse time to go for it. Not only are law schools on the brink of collapse (meaning the market will be flooded with other, already experienced and credentialed professors) but a number of schools have already put hiring freezes in place. Also, so far as I’m aware the trend in law school hiring is for those with PhDs in other subjects, not SJDs. And on top of all that, there just aren’t that many job openings for law professors even at the best of times. If you don’t want to be a lawyer, I can’t recommend against law school strongly enough.</p>

<p>Does you overall gpa include transcripts from every single college that you have attended? You must include all of them</p>

<p>You stated

</p>

<p>Gotta include, the 2.8, the terrible grades from junior year, the new AA from CC and the grades from the current school.</p>

<p>Getting a job as a law professor is incredibly difficult. If you don’t want to practice law, I’d recommend against going to law school. Getting an SJD on top of your JD would equal a mountain of debt.</p>

<p>Apply to a lot of schools. Some will forgive the young years; some will hold it against you. You find out which schools are which by applying. </p>

<p>If you want to be a law prof, look up the bios of every tenured law prof at the law schools near you. Even third-tier law schools have law profs who went to top tier schools, were on law review, etc.</p>

<p>@ariesathena: What is the basis for thinking some schools will forgive his earlier grades? My understanding is that LSDAS calculates a student’s GPA and they require submission of all college level course grades obtained prior to the BA. That GPA is what’s reported to US News, and I can’t see any school (except maybe one with nothing to lose like Cooley) willing to take a hit to their stats just because it was a person’s “young years.”</p>

<p>While you submit your LSAC transcript, the committee also receives the school transcript so they can look look at when and were the grades were given. To take a few people with a 3.3 gpas is not going to be a hit to their stats because they will have enough 4.0/4.33 gpas to absorb it.</p>

<p>The overall gpa includes my 3.95 and my 2.8 and the grades from my junior year. Reason it rounds up to a 3.3 is because I decided to gun for a double major, resulting in 150 credits.</p>

<p>there is no “rounding up”. Your gpa is whatever it is</p>

<p>Demo: I was a splitter - engineering GPA, high LSAT. My acceptances were all over the place - Rejected by T2 schools, WL or accepted into top schools, everything in between. That was before the law school application market cratered. </p>

<p>Yes, lot of schools will be USNews driven. Others wills be forced to take splitters, not having enough other applicants. Some will overlook the bad initial GPA. Some will be impressed with the high grades in math and Econ. Some will want the math and Econ major. Other schools will be GPA driven. Some will already have enough high LSAT scores that they accept only people with high GPAs. some will be looking to bring up their median LSAT score.</p>

<p>Remember as well that just because the LSDAS does not send a transcript, you are not prohibited from doing so. I sent a list of courses alone with my application packet. The OP can highlight his most recent grades and, in an addendum, explain why his overall GPA is low. (And let’s be real. If you can’t figure out how to present facts in the best possible light, you don’t belong in law school.)</p>

<p>What do you mean by Law School application market cratered?</p>

<p>@sybbie719: Law schools may be willing to take someone with a lower GPA if they come with a high LSAT, but that is not the same as “forgiving” someone’s GPA. That’s just trading a hit to one stat for a bigger boost in the other.</p>

<p>@ariesasthena: Law schools do take splitters, which is why I said a 3.3/175 could break the T14. But that isn’t the same as forgiving earlier grades or focusing on major. I don’t believe the data supports either of those two assertions.</p>

<p>@Tyrone89: The law school application market is way, way down as more and more people are made aware of what a bad bet it is.</p>

<p>Blanket the bottom half of the T14. If you are an underrepresented minority, blanket the T14. As others have noted, apps are down, you might get a nibble. However, if you’re thinking about applying now, it’s pretty late if not too late for most school’s apps, but you should still do it because schools are waiting longer to fill out their class. </p>

<p>With that said, unless you absolutely must go this year, consider taking a year off and applying early next cycle if you don’t get the results you want this year. There’s no indication that apps will rebound next year, and even if they do, you will stand a good chance with a strategically targeted ED app to the right school. Northwestern will probably bite if you have more than one year of work experience.</p>

<p>Also, as others have noted, you should consider applying to some schools outside of the T14 and gun for scholarship money. However, I disagree that you should just apply to T20’s. I think you’ll be better off looking at a local market and trying to get into the best school in the region. For example, if you’re from Alabama and strike out at T14, Alabama Law with money will trump USC with money. This is because law schools are regional: even for the T14, outside of major markets your degree will only transfer to a region that you have ties to (aka you are from there, have settled permanently there, or otherwise have proven that you aren’t a flight risk).</p>

<p>For those who doubt OP’s chances: [myLSN.info</a> - Search Results](<a href=“http://myLSN.info/qqvbti]myLSN.info”>Search | MyLSN.info)</p>

<p>His numbers indicate that he has a real chance at the T14. Even with an addendum about dropping out, since applications are down law schools can’t afford to be so picky.</p>