Newly Interested in Law, Quick Question

Graduate School Law School
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<p>Okay, first off, I apologize if this sounds like a totally unresearched question. I've only recently begun considering a path to law school. It's not about salary or anything like that, and I'm nowhere near committed. That being said, it is a path I'm very interested in.</p>

<p>So here's my situation. I go to the University of Virginia's College at Wise. It's a good school, but not a great school. I'm a sophomore with a 3.4 GPA, but it will definitely rise AT LEAST another tenth of a point. I'm not worried about my UVA-Wise GPA at all.</p>

<p>My problem is, ironically, in two classes I took years ago in high school. My junior year of high school, my father's health was in severe decline, health-wise. Now, I'm not out to make excuses. I had Pre Calc 1 and 2, totaling 6 credit hours, and long story short, I made D's in both. Again, not making excuses, but I was an emotional wreck who couldn't even be in class all the time. Oh, and it was a distance learning class. So it's not AT ALL indicative of my potential. Since this time, I've worked for a United States Senator.</p>

<p>Here's the situation. I had 24 other credit hours completed under dual enrollment while at UVA-Wise. The two math classes DID NOT - I repeat - DID NOT transfer to UVA-Wise. I didn't get credit for them, I thought I never had to worry about them again. </p>

<p>Apparently, I was wrong. They SINK my GPA to around a 3.2 and are almost insurmountable to get back to the GPA range for the school I want to go to (Wake Forest Law.)</p>

<p>So my question is this: Will they be factored in? I found some language somewhere stating that they would only be factored into the LSAC GPA if they were used to progress toward an undergraduate degree. But the overwhelming amount of evidence suggests that yes, two classes I took years ago will infact invalidate all the hard work I've put in so far. </p>

<p>If they ARE going to be factored in, do I have any options? As much as I'd hate it, would retaking them help at all? What about expunging them?</p>

<p>I'm more than a little depressed. Does anyone have good news?</p>

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<p>It’s the LSAT that will really determine where things go. No sense worrying until you’ve got some kind of reasonable handle on how that went.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the response.</p>

<p>I’m trying to get into Wake Forest, and their average GPA is around 3.5. Now, I know that GPA’s aren’t the end all of law school admissions, but as it stands, if those D’s count, I’ll have a 3.2. I want to be a lot closer than that. It just sucks that I’m going to have to worry about this when I shouldn’t have to.</p>

<p>I have every expectation of doing okay to great on the LSAT. It’s not that I worry about.</p>

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<p>If you’re below average on their GPA, then being above average on their LSAT will help a great deal. That’s really the key parameter at this point. No sense worrying about it just yet.</p>

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<p>I’m just really worrying about this.</p>

<p>It’s possible that two classes I took when I was 16 years old when ultimately change my life drastically in a negative way.</p>

<p>Do they consider classes that don’t count toward the undergraduate degree? It doesn’t benefit me in any way. It didn’t even transfer to my undergraduate institution. Will Wake Forest just see it and realize that it’s an outlier and ignore it, or will they look at my overall GPA and think I’m an underachiever and not admit me?</p>

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<p>All grades will before your first bachelors will show up on your LSAC transcript</p>

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<p>Even if I retake the classes?</p>

<p>I talked to the Dean at my school today and she said this was a non-issue. Basically, according to her, they’ll break out the GPA by institution and by year, so they’ll see that I was a JUNIOR IN HIGH SCHOOL when I made those bad grades, and that I’ve been trending upwards.</p>

<p>Thoughts?</p>

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<p>The LSAT is worth, roughly 60% of your admissions packet to most law schools. With teh GPA being about 30% for most. There are people at UVA, Michigan, Northwestern, Cornell, etc with GPA’s below 3.0. The lsat is really what matters. Also, you need to aim higher than Wake Forest, which offers marginal job prospects at best.</p>

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<p>I’ll do well on the LSAT. I’m not being cocky, but I perform a lot better on those than I do in class in general. So I’m not worried about it.</p>

<p>Does anyone here think that my low GPA on the few dual enrollment courses I took in high school will be a non-issue as well?</p>

<p>Also, regarding Wake Forest, they’re really strong regionally, where I am.</p>

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<p>^^^ ok, then it’s settled. If you believe you will do well on the LSAT than you have nothing to worry about. But seriously, if you can get a 170+, you’d be crazy to pass up UVA or Duke for Wake Forest if you want any chance at biglaw.</p>

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<p>Oh, I’m from Southwestern Virginia. I go to the University of Virginia’s College at Wise and go to Georgetown all the time. I’m going to apply to UVA, Duke, Georgetown, and William and Mary as reaches. But Wake Forest is the school I absolutely HAVE to get into, at the very least. I’m in love with the place, but I’ll go elsewhere if I get accepted at a higher pick.</p>

<p>You really think I should feel Wake Forest is safe? My OVERALL LSDAS GPA would be something like a 3.35, but my GPA at my actual undergraduate institution would be 3.5 or above. If I can score mid 160’s on my LSAT, with the BARE MINIMUM of a 3.35 LSDAS GPA, but 3.5 at my “real college,” should I be safe?</p>

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<p>splitters are never safe, but seriously, GPA’s don’t mean that much at all. </p>

<p>look at the following link, it would seem that if you score a 164 you are in. But again, i’m telling you, check out lawschooltransparency.com. Wake forest only had 50% of the class of 08 return salary info. And the hiring for that class was FAR better than it is now in this economy.</p>

<p>[LSN</a> :: Wake Forest University - Admissions Graph](<a href=“Recently Updated J.D. Profiles | Law School Numbers”>Recently Updated J.D. Profiles | Law School Numbers)</p>

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<p>I’ve talked to the Wake Forest Career Services people and they gave me a lot of information. Basically, Wake Forest’s alumni situation is sort of wear in that very few people actually make near what their average and median salaries are, if that makes sense. If you can get into Wake Forest and get in the top 10 of their class (which shouldn’t be hard,) you can work at any of the southern mega firms, which is fine with me.</p>

<p>I’m also over a year off to even applying to law school, so I have some time for the job market to recover. </p>

<p>I’m not committed to Wake, but it’s just my “base” school, if you will. It’s the back up school I’d be completely happy going to.</p>

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<p>What? Their career services office told you this?</p>

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<p>No, not that. But we did have a relatively frank conversation where they said that the top 10% of their class went on to work for some of the big Southern firms, and the rest usually worked at around $50,000/year. There’s a HUGE dropoff there. It’s statistically amazing to look at.</p>

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<p>Expecting to finish top ten percent, at any law school, is foolhardy.</p>

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<p>It’s not that I think it’s guaranteed or anything. I have no experience with law school. I don’t even know, yet, if I want to be a lawyer. I just have pretty good expectations of performing well at Wake Forest. I’m not over confident, but I’m also not out for obscene amounts of money. I think I would do well enough at Wake Forest to make it worth going there, I think is the best way to put it.</p>