<p>Hello -- I'm interested in law school and was wondering what my chances would be given my background.</p>
<p>I've an undergrad degree in engineering from a good school in India, and a master's from Georgia Tech. While my undergrad record is spotless with a good GPA (~3.7), I've a graduate GPA of 3.44 with one F, one C, a W (dropped) and an F in a pass/fail course. All those happened during the two semesters when I had some personal problems. In addition, one of the Fs and the W were not courses related to my core degree that I'd taken out of interest (German and Physics, respectively).</p>
<p>I now work at a top management consultant firm as a senior associate, making 120k+ - and in the years that I've been in the workforce, I've been promoted every single year.</p>
<p>Given this, I was wondering what my chances are at a top tier law school? I'm specifically interested in Harvard Law School since my fianc</p>
<p>a) Even with a 3.7, HLS is already pretty hard.
b) Graduate GPAs don’t really matter that much for law school admissions; one of my classmates at my T6 had Fs on his/her undergraduate transcript. It’s the final # that counts.
c) The graduate GPA might still hurt, so I’d submit an addendum.
d) I’d be looking for a 176+ in order to make that 3.7+graduate gpa good enough for HLS.</p>
<p>Graduate school GPAs are not used for law school admission. However, one reason for that is that grad school grades are assumed to be inflated, i.e., everyone gets A’s and Bs, and in your case you may want to explain away some bad grades. Having grad school and work experience are usually favorable factors. Nevertheless, your thoughts of Harvard will require you to score extremely high on the LSAT and, even if you do, you, like many who apply, will still only have at best a 15% chance of admission. In other words even if you are perfect does not assure admission to Harvard and you better be applying to a lot of others.</p>
<p>I see what you mean - and it does make sense not to put all my eggs in one basket, so to speak. </p>
<p>I’m studying for both GMAT and LSAT, so I figured I’ll give the schools in and around the Boston area a shot. If none of them accept me, I have a good enough job, which gives me some flexibility that I am certainly happy about.</p>
<p>On that note, does a background in engineering help or hurt for HLS? I understand that some schools prefer engineering majors for IP law, while others couldn’t care less.</p>
<p>Of course, the other obvious question was going to be if my ethnicity would hurt me. But I’m fairly certain that being East Indian would probably make me an ORM, and I’ve never been a fan of affirmative action in any form. :)</p>
<p>Cheers – and thank you for all your responses!</p>