<p>Thanks in advance for your responses. You guys offer great perspective. </p>
<p>My question is how high to aim. My grades are a 3.4 undergraduate in Civil Eng, a 3.6 masters in Structural Eng (top 10 program), and a 4.0 half way through the course work for a PhD in Structural Eng (top 20 program). Under the right circumstances, I plan to give up the PhD and go to law school. My practice LSATs range from 168 to 172.</p>
<p>I have been working four years in engineering and have obtained a Professional Engineering License. Some of my experience has involved the preparation of expert witness testimony. As you might guess, my area of interest is Construction Law. Specifically, I want to defending guys who do what I currently do.</p>
<p>Will the top schools care that I have improved my grades over time. Will they care about, or even understand, the relevance of my graduate work and experience to Construction Law.</p>
<p>They're not going to care about the GPA increase because it happened across three programs. The GPA they'll be looking at is the 3.4. They might give you something of a break for being an engineer and give some consideration to the graduate work, though probably not a whole lot. The critical thing is just to do well on the LSAT; you could easily get into several of the top 14 if you break 170. Which schools specifically is impossible to say without an LSAT score.</p>
<p>I'm assuming you're going to write about how your work experience relates to your decision to go to law school, which is fine.</p>
<p>Ya your LSAT is really important. The grad work will be very helpful but you need a good LSAT to back up your degrees. Market yourself! Make sure your personal statement and such do you justice.</p>
<p>Save your application fee and don't apply to Georgetown; you aren't going to get in. Their main focus is GPA. I asked if they considered other factors - difficulty of major, medical crises - and their response was that, come hell or high water, you better have a damn good GPA if you want to get in. </p>
<p>I know someone with a 179 LSAT & a 3.5 from an Ivy who was waitlisted at G-town. </p>
<p>With a 170ish LSAT, you'll have a strong chance at the other schools.</p>
<p>Georgetown is probably yield-protecting; they're not going to bother accepting somebody with no chance of actually attending. If anything, their numbers indicate that they're LSAT-focused, which makes sense for such a large school given the relative scarcity of high LSAT scores.</p>
<p>Guys, thanks for the thoughtful advice. I havent really studied LSAT yet, but it is painfully obvious where I need to focus: get faster at the games. I was able to significantly boost my games section by studying for the GRE back in 1999. So, I hope to lock in 172+ and, given your advice, feel fairly confident I would have a fighting chance at at least one of the schools I mentioned.</p>
<p>If you haven't already, get the Logic Games Bible from Powerscore and go through the entire book. Then just take all of the practice exams you can. </p>
<p>
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If he's not an in-state resident though he's probably not going to get in with just average stats.
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<p>True, though again, it's possible that one of two of the schools will give him a break on the GPA because he was an engineering major, especially if they need to boost their LSAT numbers.</p>
<p>Americanski, you breached a popular point of discussion. Is there a realistic engineering boost I should give myself in evaluating the stats? I am operating under the assumption that some schools will totally disregard major and some would credit me an extra 0.1 to 0.2.</p>
<p>I doubt it. Top 14 schools game their gpa and lsat scores up if they can. The only benefit I would see from you having those degrees is if the patent law program at the school could use a boost in terms of qualified applicants.</p>
<p>Polite Antagonis, you mean to tell me that they dont feel for me for having lost countless weekends to get a B in Advanced Finite Element Analysis (by the skin of my teeth). They arent impressed that I hung in there with my buds from Thailand who were doing calculus in kindergarten. </p>
<p>Just kidding, I know they are nothing if not for their rankings.</p>
<p>I was an engineer before I came to law school. I worked much harder in my engineering classes than in my liberal arts one and got worse grades for my efforts. I also had enough medical disasters during college to make it a minor miracle that I made it out in four years (with two majors). My GPA was pretty horrible during those three semesters.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, it was pretty obvious that I got almost no boost for being an engineer - and a liberal arts grad - and having the toughness to get through some pretty rough stuff - try orgo, EE, diff eq., materials, Greek, and having to teach yourself thermo... while there's a tumor growing in your body.</p>
<p>But nooo... I wasn't some poli sci major who took yoga and womyn's studies electives.</p>
<p>Once I finally got in the door (was waitlisted at the school I'm currently attending), I did fine - grades are good, did Moot Court; I'm on a journal. Getting in the door, however, is the rate-limiting step. </p>
<p>ariesathena, I am familiar with your previous posts on the subject and I admire what you have done. I trust that your hard work will pay, eventually. It is a shame that engineering is generally not well understood. I believe a lot of Americas success depends on our ability to innovate. The guys in the top 10% of my engineering class have changed fields. I will advise my children to steer clear of engineering.</p>