<p>can someone clarify this for me: for the data you send in for law schools apps, how many semesters/quarters of grades will be included in it? is it kind of like college apps-- law schools admissions wont be determined by your final semester/final 2 quarters' grades?</p>
<p>It depends on when you apply. If you apply after you graduate, they'll consider all of your grades. They obviously can't consider grades you haven't received yet. I received my first law school acceptance in early January; if I'd been in college when I applied, I doubt they would have received any of my senior year grades before they considered that application. (For those of you experiencing an upward trend in grades, this could be another argument for taking some time off after college before you start law school.)</p>
<p>An upward trend might help you - but, from everything I've read (interviews with admissions deans etc) straight GPA is the most important thing. Honestly, I think it's not like high school where junior and senior year are significantly more important than freshman and sophomore years; in l.s. admissions, your overall GPA is really the controlling factor, with perhaps a slight bump if you have an upward trend. Don't overestimate the "trend" thing though... and, as Greybeard said, they might want to see your senior year grades, often to confirm that trend.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that the law school admissions process is VERY different from undergrad. Most likely, they will use the straight gpa (no changes for major, school, etc) and LSAT to rank their applicants, and they accept from the top down and reject from the bottom up. Your application, for the most part, will be read for about 10 minutes. That's LSAT, transcript, resume, cover letter, personal statement. Really - law school deans, for the most part, aren't going to dissect your application.</p>
<p>Not that a bad freshman year is the death of you - just take time off afterwards. Give them more grades to work with (your cumulative will go up if they can see all of the senior year grades), get some work experience... and be really, really explicit about it! Somewhere on your application, make a huge note of the upward trend (even calculate the GPA without your bad year or within your major or whatever) and say what went wrong (immature, trouble adjusting, etc). Just don't count on someone with 30 applications for every seat and enough people to fill a class with 3.7/165 kids to really pay that much attention to every detail of your application.</p>
<p>My point on the upward trend is that if it continues through the senior year, the applicant will have a higher straight GPA than he/she would have had applying as a senior, before the release of the last semester's grades. released.</p>
<p>Of course. Also, it confirms the upward trend (it's not just a randomly good semester) and it puts distance between you and the not-so-stellar student you were once upon a time.</p>
<p>Good advice. :)</p>