<p>I want to attend law school (usc,ucla, loyola law) I did not do so well an my undergrad.
Chapman U Major Legal studies 3.01
CSU Dominguez Hills Master degree 3.6
lsat 160
What are my options? What do I have to do to get into these schools ???</p>
<p>Your masters GPA won’t factor in at all.</p>
<p>Are you an URM? I’d suggest retaking the LSAT as well.</p>
<p>[Top</a> 2012 Law School Rankings](<a href=“http://www.top-law-schools.com/rankings.html]Top”>Law School Rankings)</p>
<p>Judging by your stats, getting into any of the schools you listed will be extremely unlikely. Your GPA is below the 25th percentile of almost every law school in the top 100. Your LSAT is not terrible, but is only the median score for Loyola. I’d say your chances are slim at best. As for other California schools, your LSAT makes you a splitter at Chapman, UoP, USF, Santa Clara, and that’s about it. If you are interested in those schools, I would say you have a shot at each of them. </p>
<p>Here’s the deal. You have a crap GPA and a middling LSAT score. Guess which one of these you can actually improve? </p>
<p>Take a look at the employment stats of the schools you are competitive for
([LST</a> Score Reports](<a href=“6 Keys to a Stellar Law School Resume - Professional Resume Writers”>6 Keys to a Stellar Law School Resume - Professional Resume Writers)) and ask yourself if you are comfortable with those odds, particularly considering the debt you will have to take on. If not, retake, retake, retake. </p>
<p>Of course, if you are a URM, your chances can change rather drastically. The advice is relevant nonetheless. RETAKE.</p>
<p>Yes I fall under the (URM) Would that really make a difference ?</p>
<p>Add 5 to 7 points to your LSAT score.</p>
<p>In my situation should I go back and get another B.A degree to get a higher GPA ?</p>
<p>If I got 3.5 in my new b.a degree would that really help?</p>
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<p>Sorry, only the first degree counts for lsac gpa. (And that is the only number besides lsat that law schools care about.)</p>
<p>Your 3.01 GPA is set in stone as the LSDAS only recognizes one’s first undergraduate degree coursework in calculating an applicant’s LSDAS GPA (your final LSDAS GPA may vary slightly from your undergraduate school GPA calculation).</p>
<p>You’re unlikely to be admitted to USC or to UCLA with such a low GPA regardless of your LSAT score.</p>
<p>Would I have a better chance in getting into a part-time law program at loyola law school. Not sure if they have low-req (gpa,lsat) for part time students?</p>
<p>You’ll be admitted to plenty of law schools. Many will gladly take your money. The real problem is getting into a top law school so that you have some job prospects that might enable you to repay your law school student loans. In short, better to avoid law school unless at a top ranked law school or on full tuition & fees scholarship at a less than elite law school.</p>
<p>Just wondering Axelrod, how do you define top ranked, top 6, top14, top 20 top 30? Obviously higher is better than lower but the OP’s choices range from 15 to 51. Would you call all three “top” law schools that would provide most of its graduates with a good shot at employment?</p>
<p>The most common definition is the Top 14 law schools because they tend to attract recruiters from across the nation. Additionally, many schools place well in their geographic region. But, while law school tuition continues to soar, employment prospects outside of the Top 14 are dim.</p>
<p>The Top 14 is often further refined into the Top 3 (Yale, Stanford & Harvard) & then the Top 6 (add Columbia, Chicago & NYU). These schools tend to offer the best placement opportunities although other members of the Top 14 sometimes lead the pack for biglaw placement (Northwestern, Penn & Cornell). Most believe 13th ranked Georgetown to be the laggard of the group.</p>
<p>But, if shooting for small firm work in Montana, then the Univ. of Montana Law School may be the best bet. The Top 14 place mainly in the major law markets which are dominated by New York City based firms.</p>
<p>So would you say that schools just below the T14 like UCLA, UT Austin, Vandy, USC and maybe even Georgetown are not likely to provide opportunities for employment that would justify the hefty pricetag? That is unless looking to work in a small firm or public sector job in the region of the school?</p>
<p>^^there are a lot of ways to slice and dice numbers, but UCLA has reported that only 30% of its grads ended up in a large law firm or federal clerkship. In other words, less than a third of the class got jobs which will allow them to pay back debt. 70% did not.</p>
<p>Texas does better than UCLA, but TX is also a much stronger economy and Texas loves to hire locals.</p>
<p>Georgetown is closer to 40%, but with an extremely large class.</p>
<p>Bluebayou: Where do your numbers come from. I also noticed you didn’t comment on Vandy and USC.</p>
<p>I went to the LST link Mobyoctopad provided and I have to wonder where those numbers come from. There are some really surprising findings in the employment scores. For instance it seems that chances for employment are better at GW and even more surprising, USNWR #70 LSU, than several T14 schools. Baylor which is ranked 51 does slightly better with employment than UT Austin (USNWR 16). And just because I am familiar with it I find it shocking that St Mary’s a Tier 4 law school has a higher employment score and lower a under employment score than Georgetown, which looks pitiful on LST site considering its T14 rankings.</p>
<p>Are these real numbers and how does a perspective student find the real numbers? I say this very tongue in cheek, but why pay to go to Georgetown if you can get a full scholarship to St Mary’s. I expect this would be a very real option for many students who were admitted to Georgetown. Furthermore I could see that GW would be a safety for students looking at Georgetown as a reach yet it would seem that in the same market the GW students have a much better shot at a job than the Georgetown students. Is this for real?</p>
<p>GWU is well known to have dismal employment prospects. One law professor’s blog even notes that GWU & one other top 30 law school are terrible investments (I can’t recall, but Minnesota may be the other that he named). GWU is, however, a solid choice for those qualified to practice in the area of patent law.</p>
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<p>Chances of getting a Biglaw job coming out of a tier 3 school: less than 5%.</p>
<p>Chances of getting a Biglaw job coming out of a lower T14 such as Georgetown: ~40%.</p>
<p>Why do people pay sticker to go to Georgetown over full ride at St Mary’s? Because they want to have a 35-40% better chance at a good legal job.</p>
<p>Just to be clear, I was just trying to make sense of the employment scores on that LST link mentioned in post #3. It is easy to draw some unexpected conclusions from that data. The question was where does a perspective student find the real information about the employment outcomes of a school they are considering? As illustrated, basing a decison on that data could be a big mistake.</p>