<p>I have a 3.6 GPA and scored a 152 on the LSAT. I'm planning on retaking, but I doubt it will increase tremendously. I've had an average college career- internship with a US senator, administrative jobs on campus, etc. One unique thing is that I graduated with my bachelor's in 5 semesters instead of the typical 8 semesters.</p>
<p>Will graduating a year and a half early help my chances at all? And what are my chances of getting into a law school with that low of a score? I'm obviously not looking for T14 here- I'm talking schools like CUNY, Hofstra, Roger Williams, Syracuse.</p>
<p>You may do a little better on the retake, with a lot of studying. My kid managed to go up a few points by studying like crazy. Of course, some people drop scores too. You have a chance of getting into a T4 school like Roger Williams or a school with hundreds in each class like Hofstra, as you can see from law school numbers. Your chances may be better since the number of applicants is dropping. It’s no secret that chances of employment from those schools are extremely poor, and the schools are extremely expensive. </p>
<p>Typically law school admissions are all about the GPA and LSAT numbers, especially where applications are competitive. Of course, soft factors might play a factor if everything else is equal. If you’re competing for a spot against someone else with the same GPA and LSAT, perhaps your soft factors would outweigh theirs. If their GPA is in engineering and yours is in criminal justice, their GPA might trump yours. No way to tell.</p>
<p>Even if you can get in, as a parent and a practicing lawyer my recommendation would be not to do it. Seriously. Take off a year, work, think about it. Don’t do it. Talk to 3L students at the schools you are considering. 1L students still think that they will be the exceptions, and that everything will be wonderful. The 3L students are the ones who actually realize that they are going to be graduating with a lot of debt and no job prospects.</p>
<p>Of course my own kid didn’t listen to me, and is a new lawyer. Fortunately, he found a legal job although many from his 2012 graduating class (a public university’s law school, so at least the cost wasn’t as bad as some of the schools you cited) are still unemployed. His job doesn’t pay much, but others in his class are extremely envious.</p>
<p>There is a site known as 'Law School Predictor." Do a search on Google. I found it to be quite reliable and accurate. What it will show is that the LSAT is MUCH, MUCH more important than the GPA. A very high LSAT and mediocre GPA will still get you into a T1 law school, while the reverse isn’t true!</p>
<p>You need to ask yourself: why do I want to go to law school? And why do I want to attend these law schools. If the answer to question #2 is “because they are the only ones I can get into” I’d recommend re-thinking the whole process.
Everything in law is about pedigree, and these are all second level schools(RWU is a tier 4 school per USNWR). You’d be facing an uphill climb in your job hunt from any of these.
So get the facts: visit law school transparency to see employment rates, and if you’re local to any of the schools stop by and talk to some third year students. At that point they’re looking for jobs and will be direct about the school, debt, and their employment prospects.
Debt is the other issue; these are all expensive schools. It’s a business decision; it’s only worth attending if you can manage the debt and get a job upon graduation. If you believe that for these schools, the answer to both is “yes” then attend.
But get the facts first.</p>
<p>Crankypants Aries will point out that your LSAT score is a good predictor of our ability to pass the bar, and a 152 is not much above the point at which it is questionable that you would pass.</p>
<p>Retake the LSAT, not only to help you get into law school, but also to help you earn how to take time-crunched multiple choice tests that mean a lot for your future. </p>
<p>I will also point out that this is a time when your undergrad school and major may matter quite a lot. Usually, they don’t, but here, it will show if you are just a bad test-taker, or if the 3.6 doesn’t mean that much.</p>