<p>I am just wondering where I stand at the moment. I started at community college and got a 3.7 there before transferring to Michigan, it looks like my first semester will be a 3.3-3.4, 3.5 at most-- I was planning on applying to law schools for 2011. I just took my first practice LSAT, the June 2007, and scored a 160 cold with probably 5-10 minutes per section to spare. </p>
<p>My dream school is Michigan, I was thinking if I bring my GPA up next semester I'd apply to maybe one school higher ranked than Michigan (maybe), and two or three schools ranked a few below Michigan that are better matches and/or safeties. If that's as high as my GPA gets I was thinking Michigan would be my ceiling and I'd apply to 3-4 schools beneath it. Does that sound like a reasonable range or is my Umich gpa too low to even think about getting into Michigan and similarly ranked schools? I talked to Mich admissions about whether they'd look down on the community college bit and they said absolutely not, which is great if it's true because I did well there, but I can't imagine they'll put more weight on that than my grades at michigan undergrad. And I don't know how much my LSAT could offset the gpa, if at all. Presumably I'll be able to score a bit higher than 160 in June.</p>
<p>As for extracurricular stuff, which I have led to believe isn't particularly important--correct me if I am wrong, I want to go into civil rights or disabilities type law, and I have started an organization at my school for students with lds that promotes advocacy, am working on getting a state-wide student awareness project I started off the ground that should happen before I graduate, and I'll have major public speaking experience related to disabilities. So nothing legally related yet, just my particular area of interest. I am still trying to weasel my way into some sort of an internship program so we'll see if anything comes of that.</p>
<p>I'd originally set my sights MUCH, MUCH lower and am doing better than I'd anticipated out of high school, so if I appear completely out of my mind that would be why!</p>
<p>At this point, I don’t think there’s any responsible way to project out what’s going to happen. If you end up with a 3.3 from here on out, that gives you about a 3.5 overall and that’s low-but-possible for Michigan Law. On the other hand, you could be having a bad semester and proceed to rock; or things could get even worse; or… well, anything in between.</p>
<p>Similarly, there’s no responsible way to project out your LSAT score. You could probably score anywhere between a 160 and a 172; obviously, that’s a huge range. 3.6/172 is a pretty good shot at Michigan Law; 3.4/160 really isn’t.</p>
<p>No sense extrapolating numbers at this point. Just get the highest numbers you can, and make your application decisions then.</p>
<p>Your overall GPA is what matters, though it’s always great to have good grades.</p>
<p>But yeah, focus on doing the best you can and see where you can apply from then.</p>
<p>When they recalculate the gpa are they going to mash the two schools together into one gpa? That seems weird, though I suppose the schools will see both transcripts anyway.</p>
<p>Yep, they will combine the two. I don’t think law schools will place more weight on one transcript than on another. It’s the overall number that counts, and as a person who transferred between schools and whose GPA between them was about .2 of a difference, my admissions results were consistent with what one would expect with respect to my cumulative GPA rather than a GPA from one undergraduate institution or another.</p>
<p>Well that would certainly help, playing around with a calculator I found online that ends up being like a 3.6 the LSDAS way (obviously a rough estimate and maybe totally wrong), however they will include withdrawals and grades before retakes despite them not being calculated on my transcripts, which lowers it to like a 3.2… I wish I had been diagnosed with my dyscalculia and auditory processing disorder BEFORE taking math and Spanish my first semester instead of immediately after. >.< I retook algebra after failing and got a 3.0 and retook spanish after withdrawing and got a 3.7, that was the difference accommodations for my disabilities made. I’ll just have to keep trying to bring it up and knock the lsat out of the park, that’s a really unfortunate setback but there’s not much I can do about it now.</p>
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<p>That’s an excellent perspective. Learn from the past and apply the lessons to the future. You’ll do fine, I’m sure:)</p>
<p>And don’t feel like you’re disadvantaged by coming from a CC. I transferred to a top private UG from a CC-like school and ended up graduating with a 3.8+. Just relax; I’m sure you can do it!</p>
<p>Is that the sort of thing I should write a supplementary essay about when I apply or is that a waste of time? I did when I applied to transfer and I think it made a big difference in explaining why what happened there would never happen again, but with how competitive law school is I doubt they’d be that forgiving.</p>
<p>It’s definitely worth it to submit an explanation, but given how numbers-obsessed schools are, don’t expect the explanation to carry much weight.</p>
<p>twisted… a quick question…is that 3.7 your overall gpa of transferable classes @ the CC or way that all classes including nontransferable?</p>
<p>All of my classes were transferable. Does that make a difference?</p>
<p>I did find that I had an error in my calculation and my LSDAS GPA if I get the grades I am expecting is really a 3.4, not a 3.2. That made me feel a little bit better. I’m getting a little neurotic I guess. :P</p>
<p>No it does not make a difference. The LSDAS calculates all grades whether or not they were transferable. This includes retakes and courses you took in high school whether or not you received credit for them in college</p>