<p>let's say a kid goes to community college for 2 years. Not because he didn't have the grades and test scores to get into a university but because he wants to be at home for 2 more years and likes that it will be much cheaper this way for him. now let's say this student transfers into UVA for the last 2 years and gets his bachelor degree in history. He gets grades from UVA that are in range for T14 law schools and LSATs that are in range for T14 law schools as well. </p>
<p>Exactly how much more difficult will it be for this applicant, who started off at community college, to get into a T14 law school?</p>
keep in mind that your community college GPA will also be calculated into your LSAC GPA for law school applications.
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<p>ok. so if i get a 3.8 at community college for the first two years will that look better than someone who had a 3.6 for the first two years at UVA?</p>
<p>I wouldn't say that your 3.8 cc grades, will necessarily look better than the 3.6. I was talking to a Boalt rep yesterday at a law school fair, and she told me that some evaluators will have biases for and against certain institutions, but a lot of them just want to see that you did well where you were. That being said, doing well at a cc looks different than doing well at UVA because of many factors, including grade inflation and difficulty level...</p>
<p>The real question (that has STILL not been answered by many people) is after transferring with 2 years, you only have one year to make enough contacts for letters of recommendation - which can be difficult. WILL law schools look "down" on an application where you have at least one if not more letters of Rec from a school you transferred out of (especially if the new school is a much more respected school such as a top 10?)</p>
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ok. so if i get a 3.8 at community college for the first two years will that look better than someone who had a 3.6 for the first two years at UVA?
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<p>No. In fact, you can expect t14 schools to weigh your UVA GPA even more than your CC one.</p>
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Letters of recommendations are usually from professors who you've only taken one class with anyways.
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<p>That is awful advice. A student should ideally have taken at least three classes with a professor before requesting a recommendation. Oh, and yes, recommendations are a fairly big deal.</p>
<p>Isn't that hard to do, to have three classes with one professor? I guess there is a lot of variables -- major, school size, etc -- but, in general, is that fairly easy or is it something you have to plan out in order to achieve?</p>
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Isn't that hard to do, to have three classes with one professor?
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<p>Not at all. I was a sophomore transfer, and this is my third semester with one professor, and my second with another. By summer of next year, I should have completed three courses with both professors.</p>
<p>You will want a professor who can write a recommendation that demonstrates his familiarity with your work, accomplishments, personality, and ability to perform well in law school. One course (unless it is a tutorial of some sort) will only give him a smattering of the aforementioned categories. </p>
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is it something you have to plan out in order to achieve?
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<p>This is hard to answer, especially for Hoyas; at Georgetown, students do not know the course-offerings for the following semester until late in the prior one. I have been extremely fortunate to be able to work with one of my professors for three (and probably more) semesters.</p>
<p>Even if you cannot take courses with them, doing research, co-authoring publications, and just keeping in touch with them are all good ways for him to understand you in ways he could never understand the student who sat at the back of a 100-student-large lecture.</p>
<p>Not all of us have the privelege of going to private schools where professors care about the students or professors teach classes consistently enough for you to be able to take a class more than once.</p>
<p>I would just get the A in a class and a recommendation from any professor I can in that time and worry about the rest later. The best kind of professors allow you to write your own rec giving you a chance to really pump it up.</p>
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Not all of us have the privelege of going to private schools where professors care about the students or professors teach classes consistently enough for you to be able to take a class more than once.
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<p>...too bad, I guess.</p>
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I would just get the A in a class and a recommendation from any professor I can in that time
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<p>That is unfortunate.</p>
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The best kind of professors allow you to write your own rec giving you a chance to really pump it up.
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<p>Those are perhaps the worst kind of professors.</p>
<p>nspeds, you speak as if you are an authority on the matter. Are you in law school now? How did you get in? What was the process like? </p>
<p>I would disagree on the part about writing your own letters. That is a way to allow you to expose parts of your profile that the recommender might or might not bring up. It can be a good starting point for their letter about you. </p>
<p>I was asked by one professor to write my own letter in advance. He then used this as background along with an interview to determine what to write. </p>
<p>At this point, I am probably bailing on the LS thing anyway, which is kind of bittersweet. :(</p>
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nspeds, you speak as if you are an authority on the matter. Are you in law school now? How did you get in? What was the process like?
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<p>The answer is "no" to the first question. I have two counselors right now: one is the former dean of admissions at UChicago law school, and the other has coffee every week with the dean of admissions at GULC.</p>
<p>If you want to disagree, I do not care. I will defend myself, but I have no real reason to start convincing people. Take your own risks and see what happens. I am just here to say what I have heard. You can choose to believe it or not; the key aspect of your choosing it is that it is your choice.</p>