Law School Chances?

Graduate School Law School
1

<p>Hey everyone,</p>

<p>I'm new to this forum. I am sure this question has been asked many times but I was wondering if I could get some opinions on my options of going to Law School. </p>

<p>I started out at a Big 10 school in Indiana known for their engineering programs - started studying EE. Things didn't work out there academically or personally. I ended up transferring out of there with a 2.5 gpa on academic drop. I moved back home (MI) and transferred to a smaller tech-focused university in the Metro Detroit area. Here I did considerably better and graduated with a BSME and a Minor Ceritificate in Entrepreneurial Business with a 3.14 GPA (even after transferring did have a few dropped courses and re-took a couple courses).</p>

<p>I graduated with my BSME about 2 years ago now. I currently work as a Hybrid Battery Controls Engineer for one of the major automakers. I am also pursuing my Master of Engineering in Energy Systems Engineering from the University of Michigan. I'm about half way through the program (current cumulative gpa is: 3.8/4.0).</p>

<p>When I was in college I started up a business with 2 friends. In the process of that business I wrote and filed (with some assistance from a patent attorney - didn't have much $$ for the firm to write entire thing) a patent. This is what has drawn me to the patent law career path. I found the work really interesting and something I can see myself loving and pursuing as a career.</p>

<p>Now comes the question...do I even have a shot at Law School based on my previous academic history? I know my undergrad history is not extremely strong but I feel my graduate work is much better. Does that even factor in to the decission making process? How about good and valuable work experience?</p>

<p>Any suggestions or comments you could provide (without hating) would be greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>Thanks,
Roger</p>

2

<p>Law schools generally consider undergraduate GPA, and not graduate school GPA.</p>

<p>It’s hard to evaluate your chances without an LSAT score. Do well on that, and you’ll be inthe running at a significant number of law schools.</p>

<p>Your GPA probably puts you out of the running at the top tier of law schools; law school ranking carries less weight in the patent law world than it does generally in the legal community at large, however.</p>

3

<p>law school isn’t hard to get into, a good one is. the top law jobs are typically reserved for the top law schools ~ top 16. </p>

<p>you can evaluate your chance using the many LSAT/GPA calculators available online.</p>

4

<p>If you filed a patent that’s pretty impressive. </p>

<p>I suggest you go for business school instead, you can make it into a really good one with your said, work experience.</p>

5

<p>liu02bhs// i am not sure where you got the “top 16” term from.
In books and magazines alike, they use the term “Top 14” to indicate top ranked law schools that do not face any regional bias nationwide.</p>

6

<p>The T14 term is coined because historically there’s a gap between GULC/Cornell and UCLA/Texas/Vandy, and the fact the schools in the top 14 has shifted around, but never ranked beyond #14. However, the gap between #14 and #15 is getting much narrower these days, and BigLaw (especially the regional offices) put significant effort in recruiting at the top 16ish schools. I would even say for BigLaw jobs in Texas (and some of the surrounding states), UT has the edge over, say, GULC. Same with UCLA in the LA/SoCal area.</p>