Graduating from Yale Undergrad with a Bad GP

Graduate School Law School
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<p>Ok, I'm going to be graduating from Yale undergrad next year. Would it be advisable to take a leave of absence and take summer classes and fall semester classes from my state school just to raise my GPA? I took two classes there this past summer and made an A+ and an A. My GPA at Yale is 3.4. I've only made one A the entire time I have been here, and that was freshman year. </p>

<p>Or, what if after I graduate from Yale, I decide to pursue another B.A. at my state school which is extremely easy and offers the fabulous A+. GPA seems to be such a deciding factor and I want to go to law school.</p>

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<p>I don’t think your second GPA will count after you graduate from your first one. Maybe you could take a bunch of easy state school classes or cc classes during the summer. IDK about the leave of absence, though. Also, you can work really hard and get a good LSAT score.</p>

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<p>Do the math. </p>

<p>How many (summer) A’s are required to even move your gpa 0.1 (from 3.4 to 3.5)?</p>

<p>A second BA will be ignored by law schools.</p>

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<p>A 3.4 is not a bad gpa. It’s average. If you haven’t already done so, walk over to the career services center and ask to see a copy of the law school grids. That will give you an idea of the sort of LSAT you’ll need to get into different law schools. Study hard for the LSAT and you’ll have some good possibilities.</p>

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<p>^^actually, a 3.4 is below average at Yale which has a mean of 3.5+.</p>

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<p>Can you give me a source for that claim? </p>

<p>I just checked. For the class which entered law school in the fall of 2009, the median GPA of Yale applicants was 3.57. </p>

<p>Usually, law school applicants have higher median gpa’s than the student body as a whole. </p>

<p>So, while 3.4 is below average for law school applicants, I think it’s about average for all Yalies.</p>

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<p>Rereading my post above, it sounds too “nit picky.” My original intent was just to say that a 3.4 is not a “bad” gpa.</p>

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<p>No, it isn’t a bad GPA. With a high LSAT score, you can get into law school, just not a top one.</p>

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<p>With a REALLY high LSAT OP could get into Columbia. But obviously that’s moot in the absence of an actual LSAT score.</p>

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<p>sry jonri, my post was not intended to pick nits, but to point out that the OP’s gpa is below the average student at his/her college, i.e., in the bottom half of the graduating class, which any adcom will immediately see. A 3.4 from Y is different than a 3.4 from Caltech, which is above its mean (of 3.2). </p>

<p>Now perhaps adcoms only care about the actual number…that I don’t know.</p>