GPA trends / how they're taken into account

Graduate School Law School
1

<p>my situation:</p>

<p>past - did dismally for 2 years in a community college, racking 5 Fs (retaken for and replaced by A's) and a D (also retaken for an A). during the two following years, i did what i could to clean up the mess, managed a ~3.7, held down to a 3.5 from two C's gotten during those first two years...
also, my transcript reflects a very abrupt change. from one semester of (F, F, C, W), the next, beginning the two-year clean up, was (A, A, B, B). the change wasn't due to any extenuating circumstance that i can think of.. i wish i had some compelling turn-around story, but i don't. i worked a lot. i had money in my pocket.. i just didn't care about school. after two years of not caring, i started to care, and there came the grades..
++ held a job (25-30 hr/wk) during all four of those years. full time when out of school. </p>

<p>present - i transferred to UCLA and am currently in the last quarter of my first (junior) year studying philosophy. so far, my gpa here has been 3.7, and i'm fairly sure i can keep that up, if not improve on it slightly. </p>

<p>also, i've got some soft factors, but nothing terribly special -- internship, pre-law frat, pre-law society, hopefully justicecorps next year, etc.</p>

<p>alllllso, i plan to travel for a year, teaching english and generally getting lost, after filing law school apps, after graduation. i'm 23, now. will be 25 when i graduate, and i suppose 26 when i start law school, if that makes any difference.. </p>

<p>my questions: </p>

<p>how am i going to be looked at when it comes to law school admissions? will they cut me some slack? </p>

<p>is it worth crafting some BS story to explain those first two years? </p>

<p>***with a decent LSAT score (~165, +/- 1 or 2), and keeping my UC gpa at ~3.7, will i still have even a prayer for schools like Boston U, UCLA, USC, Vandy, Notre Dame?</p>

<hr>

<p>any comments / advice / speculation is welcomed and appreciated.. just try not to be too much of a dyck about it. i'm nervous enough as it is. </p>

<p>thanks</p>

2

<p>First of all congrats on turning things around.</p>

<p>Law schools will request transcripts from every school you have attended. </p>

<p>Now the part you may not be happy with:</p>

<p>Even though you were allowed to do grade replacements if the F’s are on your transcript, dispite the fact that you cleaned things up, the LSAC is going to factor back in for every single one of the original grades. </p>

<p>This means your 3.7 is going to take a hit once the grades get factored back in. When you submit your transcripts to the LSAC and take the LSAT, you will have a better idea as to where you stand.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Probably not going to be cut any slack for this.</p>

<p>Is all lost? I do not think so, the more distance you can put between you and these grades (about 5 years working, or 2 years at the peace corp or teach for america), I think the better off you will be.</p>

3

<p>thanks for your response. </p>

<p>yeah… i realize that the gpa will include all grades in the average. but let’s say i describe what my shortcomings with a little more nuance… explain the unavoidable circumstance that led to my failure… if i do that and then draw attention to the immediate and dramatic improvement, and mention that, if considered from that time forth (the time at which i actually began earning college credits), my gpa would be 3.7… what then? it was my understanding that applications are supposed to be holistic. i don’t think that a 3.0 lsgpa (or whatever) accurately represents my abilities. will the LSAC?</p>

4

<p>bummmpppppp</p>

5

<p>[Calculation</a> of GPA by LSDAS](<a href=“http://lawschool.pashalaw.com/pre-law-students/application-process/calculation-of-gpa-by-lsdas.html]Calculation”>http://lawschool.pashalaw.com/pre-law-students/application-process/calculation-of-gpa-by-lsdas.html)</p>

<p>Certain grades will not be included in your GPA such as:</p>

<pre><code>* Original Grade for repeated course
</code></pre>

6

<p>The site you provided gives incomplete information, it is always best to go to the source. About original grades for a repeated course(s), the LSAC states the following:</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Back to my original statement, if both grades are on the transcript, they the failing grade will be factored in the LSAC gpa.</p>

7

<p>I’ve never had to do academic renewal, but it’s my understanding that the original grade gets removed from the transcript and because the original grade is absent LSAC will not calculate it.</p>

8

<p>That is a potential doozy. Some law schools, and also depending on how does your undergrad college work when it comes to credit transcripts, you might wind up screwed on terms of failing grades that were repeated. </p>

<p>My personal advice whenever one is in a position of about to fail a class and is planning to apply to law school - drop it. A W is always better looking than an F that might actually just wind up averaged with the A or the B that you later got on a repeat.</p>