Impact of Failing a Class on T14 Admissions?

Graduate School Law School
1

Hi! I hope this scenario hasn’t been asked about recently. I’m new here but tried using the search function to find something that would answer my question, but I found nothing helpful that was very recent.

So, in my sophomore year, I took organic chemistry and failed. The only reason I was in the class was due to my parents (who are both in medicine) pressuring me to at least give the pre-med route a try, since I enjoyed and did well in gen chem. Since they were paying, I figured I could at least give it a try. Well, I hated it more than any class I’'ve ever taken and as a result didn’t put in the effort necessary to do well (though I did okay in lab). I also took an intro biology course that semester and ended up with a B-

I’ve ended up majoring in Statistics and minoring in poli sci after completely dropping any ideas about pre-med. I’ve done very well in all of my stats and poli sci courses (never anything less than a rare B+) and will be graduating this spring with a gpa around 3.5-3.55. I’ve also taken enough math courses (like analysis) and computer science classes to hopefully apply to grad school if getting into a top tier law school doesn’t work out.

I took the LSAT in June and got a 179. I know that score makes me competitive for top law schools, but will my GPA and failed class hurt me? I also have a C- from calc-based physics that I took in high school as a dual enrollment class.

Will I be wasting my time to apply places like HYS or CCN? I’ve had multiple people tell me the failed organic chem and mediocre science grades will make me an auto reject despite the high LSAT score.

I’m not applying until the next admissions cycle (my parents are getting divorced and selling our house, which is really shaking up our financial situation, so I’m taking a year off to get some financial stability).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

2

You can apply of course just have several backup schools.

If HYS inquires abut the F you had better have a better excuse than this. It sounds like you failed the class to spite your parents.

3

@annabella95, you clearly are a VERY high-IQ person who took a few classes that weren’t a match.

Yes, your F and your overall GPA are strikes against you, but you can offset them by taking more than a year off and working. You can certainly go to somewhere like Cornell (certainly a very prestigious school anyway) and then transfer up the ladder after your first year of law school.

4

HYS is highly unlikely, but still worth the app fee (unless it would cause a financial hardship) but I’ll bet that NYU bites on that 179…perhaps several of the T14. (forget about Boalt, however.)

I’d recommend working for a year, so you get that GPA boost from senior year grades, and apply broadly.

5

I agree with bluebayou. With a 179 LSAT, you’re clearly super-intelligent, and attending NYU (or Duke or the like) can put you in exactly the same position on Graduation Day as attending HYS anyway; once you’re in that range of schools, particularly with decent to good grades during law school, you’re splitting hairs.

6

HYS isn’t happening with a 3.5x/179, but CCN are reasonable targets.