<p>I want to go to a top law school, preferably Columbia, but I got a 2.67 gpa at Duke first semester. The reason is because I loaded up on pre-med courses and ended up doing badly. The next semesters I'm not taking any more tough science/math classes..</p>
<p>My questions
-Would going to summer school help boost my GPA?
-Would overloading on classes.. taking 5 classes a semester rather than 4 help significantly?
-If I got mostly A's from now on, can I still have a competitive GPA for law schools?
-How much will my first semester performance weigh me down in law school admissions? and what else can I do to help my chances?</p>
<p>If you’re clever enough to go to a top law school, you’ll be able to calculate your GPA is you get 4 oor 5 As each semester and how taking 5 subjects and 5 As will help.</p>
<p>is there any way the first semester is not weighed as heavily as the other semesters? meaning, do law schools look at purely just the number or the trend too?</p>
<p>Until you can prove to yourselves that you will be able to get all As on 5 classes, I would suggest taking it easy. Use some kind of calculator to give you an idea. From a rough calculation, if you take the same 4 classes each semester and achieve all As, your maximum achievable GPA is around 3.83.</p>
<p>all semesters are weighted equally. but i have heard Admissions Deans (specifically, the deans at Harvard & Yale) mention that they look favorably upon upward GPA trends. let’s say you’re highest possible GPA is a 3.83 (taken from above post). (by ‘highest possible’ I mean a 4.0 overall is ‘impossible’ for you–sorry, that sounds mean, but it’s true.)
Going from a 2.67 to a 3.83 overall is quite impressive, and a 3.83 falls comfortably within Harvard’s 25/75 GPA range.</p>
<p>Don’t worry. I got a 2.8 my first semester, got my gpa up to 3.64 and got a 175 on my LSAT. I haven’t gotten most of my decisions back, but I’ve already been accepted to some T14 schools. Use your 2.7 as motivation to do well for the rest of your time in college and to study for the LSAT. LSAT is more important than GPA in admissions for most schools, so study your ass off. One bad semester isn’t going to keep you out of law school.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry about it. I also got a 2.7 my first semester and, after just completing my 3rd semester, raised my GPA to a 3.6. Summer classes are a great way to raise your GPA as long as you are committed to them. I took a 10 units over the summer for that reason. Local community colleges are very useful for summer courses, but just make sure the courses transfer to Duke.</p>
<p>Hello there. I’m kind of in the same situation. I just transferred to UC berkeley, didn’t do too well this past (my first) semester. But I will do better for the rest.</p>
<p>Anyway, I’m just starting to research possible law schools and whatnot. I was wondering if they will combine my community college and UC GPA? Or look at them completely seperately? Are transfer students at any type of disadvantage? </p>
<p>You have to send LSAC all transcripts and I believe your LSDAS GPA will be a combination of your GPAs at all of the undergraduate institutions you’ve attended. I doubt you’ll be at a disadvantage for transferring; law schools don’t really care that much about where you went to college. It might look bad if you continue to do poorly.</p>