<p>Extracurriculars: Started 2 businesses, Debate Team, Columnist for school newspaper.</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure my chances to Yale, Harvard, Stanford are pretty much ruined. What about the lower T-14 schools like Georgetown, Cornell, etc...? And what about top 30 schools?</p>
<p>Details matter in assessing chances, so I hit your posting history. Within the last six weeks, you have posted that you are a sophomore at Cornell, are on academic probation and have to go to a community college before you can return to Cornell. In another post, you've just finished your junior year. In one post, you were an engineering major; in another you are in the ILR school but are switching to CS in CAS. </p>
<p>You also say that you were a transfer student and the 3.8 --or was it a 3.7?--you earned first year was from U Miami. You have said you want to go into I-Banking and that you have an extremely high GMAT score. </p>
<p>In one post, you have a 170 LSAT. In another you have a 176. </p>
<p>Oh, I guess I left out the post where you have been admitted to some sort of visiting student program at Harvard. </p>
<p>So, I'll make a wild guess and assume that some of your posts are hypotheticals. I''ll make an educated guess and assume you are a sophomore and that you haven't yet taken the LSAT for real. Maybe you have, but not many sophomores have taken both the GMAT and the LSAT--and the LSAT twice at that. Not many juniors have either.</p>
<p>You are consistent though about the fact you had a bad sophomore year. With that bad a soph year, at the very least wait until after graduation to apply to law school if you want to at that point. You'll need two more years of good grades to balance out the bad soph year. Then you'll need to know your REAL LSAT score for anyone to assess your chances. Your CC GPA will count and so will the Fs and D you got as a soph--if those are real--even if you retake the course and get a better grade.</p>
<p>Oh, and if the ECs are real--which I admit I'm a bit skeptical about--slow down on them and focus on your GPA and later your LSAT. The ECs don't matter much.</p>
<p>hey jonri - thanks for the response. The LSAT score I put here was based off practice exams that I took....(took 3 of them and they all landed within that range). Of course it says nothing about what my actual LSAT would be, but based on my SATs (2250), I do pretty well on exams of that sort.</p>
<p>The ECs are real; I have started 2 businesses during the year of academic warning (and that is part of the reason why I received such poor marks - I simply didn't have enough time to study - my textbooks were still in its shrinkwrap at the end of the semester buried under business plans - no joke). I am also writing a column for the school newspaper, but I might quit soon simply because I won't have the time to do it and I want to focus everything on my academics from now on.</p>
<p>But, assuming I do make a top LSAT score, and with my GPA, how likely would I make it into a t-14?</p>
<p>I guess veracity isn't something you particularly value. </p>
<p>Look, I don't know how much of what you posted is true. I haven't a clue. However,based on the fact that you might drop your newspaper column, I assume that you haven't graduated and that you therefore don't know your senior year grades. And if you are going to have to go to a community college, then that transcript will also be included in your GPA. Thus, you really don't know your sophomore, junior or senion year gpa. Thus, when you refer to "my gpa," you are engaging in wishful thinking. You've never gotten a 3.8, but suddenly you are sure that you will do so for the last two years of college.Or maybe it's one year. </p>
<p>Oh, and you do get some slack i--just a little--if you were an engineering major--though who knows if you were--and were you your first year</p>
<p>So, at this point, you don't know either your GPA or your LSAT. (There's a big dif between a 170 and 176 LSAT.) Nobody can predict your chances at any law school without that information. Plus, nobody can tell you now how competitive LS admissions is going to be 2-4 years in the future. </p>
<p>Do yourself a favor. Stop worrying about your LSAT for the time being. You can't apply to LS -or at least I wouldn't suggest it--without taking at least year off between college and LS. You can take the LSAT AFTER you graduate. In the interim focus on your gpa. When you know your REAL final goa and your real LSAT, come back.</p>
<p>One final remark--from what I've seen, 3.0 is an important threshold. Try hard to get your final gpa --I mean the REAL one--above 3.0.</p>
<p>since your user name ends in "88," you will be a junior next year, and your junior and senior year GPAs are entirely made up, just like your LSAT score. if you took roughly the same amount of credits freshman and sophomore years, your GPA is about a 2.4. Because your freshman year GPA was from the university of Miami, according to your other posts, your Cornell GPA is a 1.1, which is not remotely comparable to a 3.11. Even if you did well junior year, your freshman GPA from U Miami doesn't count in your Cornell GPA, and your senior year GPA has no bearing on law school admissions. Even if you get a 4.3 both semesters next year, you probably still won't be able to get your GPA up to a 3.0, unless you take a ton of credits and manage to get straight A+s. Given your past performance, this is unrealistic. Even if you do manage to get your GPA up to the high 2.0s or 3.0, you will need a spectacular LSAT score to compensate. The only ways to guarantee an LSAT score in the 99th percentile are: (a) being a *<strong><em>ing genius, or (b) studying consistently and learning the ins and outs of the test. I'm getting the impression that you're not disciplined enough for option b, so your best bet is being a *</em></strong>ing genius.</p>
<p>His first year at Miami adds into his overall GPA, it doesn't matter what his Cornell GPA is, it is all averaged together. But yea, the stats are all made up, and you don't have much of a shot.</p>
<p>Hey Jonri,
I was doing a search for lsat chances online and came across this thread. I saw how detailed you were in your response to that kid making up stories. I was wondering if you can give me an analysis or any tips as far as where I stand on getting into law school.</p>
<p>School: James Madison University
Year: Senior
Major: Finance Minor: Economics Concentration: Pre-Law
GPA: 3.801 cumulative, 3.94 in-major
LSAT: My practices have been consistently 158, but I begin a Kaplan class this weekend and it goes until the beginning of October for the LSAT on October 1st. I feel like after the class I should be between the 160-165 range. I'm not a slacker and I have actually spent the whole summer studying for the lsat, but my problem has been finding a quiet space to really see what my scores would be like.
ECA: President of Pre-Law Society, President of JMU hockey, Student Advisory Council Board for College of Business, Top 5% of my class, Assistant to the Mentor Program, and Peer Advisor.</p>
<p>I would like to go to school in New York City and I am realistic. I would love to go to Fordham which is my top choice, then Brooklyn and Cardoza. Let me know if you think I can do better than a Fordham or anything you would suggest whether it be go to a higher ranked school over living in NY or anything else. Thanks for your help and I really appreciate it.</p>
<p>Digangkc, it is dangerous to assume that your score will see a jump of 5-7 points under any circumstances. I think it is more so when you're taking a course with Kaplan. Kaplan may simply be the only professional test-prep company available in your area, but in all honesty, they're really the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to LSAT prep. If you have the chance, skip Kaplan and either work with a company like PowerScore or Test Masters, hire a tutor, or simply self-study using PowerScore's Logical Reasoning and Logic Games Bibles. I do a lot of LSAT private tutoring and some classroom instruction, and the vast majority of students I work with come to me because they were dissatisfied with the experiences they had with Kaplan. </p>
<p>That said, your GPA is fine and shouldn't really keep you out of any law schools in your range. If you can get in the 160+ range, you're probably good to go at Fordham.</p>
<p>Putting in a 3.81 (in major gpa is unimportant) and a 160, I found that in the fall of 2007, your odds of getting admitted to Fordham were substantially less than 50%. Your gpa is fine--just a tad above F's 75th percentile for the full time program. However, the MEDIAN LSAT at Fordham for the full time program is a 166. The 25th percentile is a 163. So, I think you'll need at least a 163 to have a good "shot" at Fordham full time, assuming that you are a white or Asian candidate. </p>
<p>As for being in NYC...I live here and I love it, but why do you want to be here? Generally, my advice is that if you can't get into a top 14 law school, the best course of action is USUALLY to go to the highest ranked law school that admits you which is located in the area in which you intend to practice. So, if you can get into Fordham and are sure you want to be in NYC, I think it's a good choice. But are you from NYC or have another good reason to know you really do want to practice law here? Are you a Virginia resident? If so, I'd really give some thought to applying to William & Mary, which would be, I think, a lot cheaper for a Va resident. Personally, I'd suggest that over paying top $ for Brooklyn/Cardozo. </p>
<p>What is JMU hockey, though? Do you PLAY it? If you are a varsity athlete, that would give you a bit of a boost. </p>
<p>Another option is to go part-time to F, work your heart and soul out, and if you do well, transfer into day. A friend of my kid's did that--made law review, went one summer and will graduate in three years. However, there are no guarantees that will work, of course.</p>
<p>I am currently a professional engineer in the semiconductor's field. I have been working in this field for about 5 years. I was formally working in Bell Labs as a scientist. For most of my career I was a researcher, I have worked in the biomedical field as well. I didn't do well in my Bachelor's in chemical engineering, my GPA was like 2.5 from University of Toronto, but I did better in my Masters in electrical engineering from Columbia University with a 3.4 GPA, all course work. I am doing quite well as an engineer but I am hoping to go into Patent Law. Didn't do my LSAT yet. I am Asian and female...does that matter?</p>
<p>So, my question is, for someone who has been working for a while in a large tech company, is my low GPA going to be a problem? And which schools should I apply to? </p>
<p>The GPA is going to be a problem, no question. Race and gender will hurt you a little as well. The Master's itself will help a little, but the Master's GPA is not included. The big thing is that at this point, you need an LSAT score before we can start estimating -- even remotely -- what kind of law school you should apply to.</p>
<p>The good news is that patent law is one field where the name brand of your law school isn't particularly crucial.</p>
<p>Thanks for the answer. I guess law school is different from MBA school in the sense that they don't care so much for work experience. And engineers, are they a plus or a minus to a law school? I know it is silly to do hypotheticals but if my LSAT score is above 160, which schools would I have a chance for?</p>
<p>Well, work experience matters, but it's not the dominant factor like it is with an MBA program. Engineering is also a mild plus, but the game really is dominated first by numbers.</p>
<p>Above 160 is a hard range to explore, because that's still an absolutely gigantic range. 180, and you might have a solid shot at some T25 schools. 160 itself, and you might be in more trouble. Even a couple points -- 165 vs. 167 -- can matter an awful lot. I know how anxious you must be, but any predictions around a specific point are premature at this time.</p>