Premed turned prelaw but bad grades in premed classes

Graduate School Law School
1

Hey guys! I’m a rising junior and I recently made the decision to pursue prelaw instead of premed after a long time in denial. All of my extracurriculars, including internships and what I do at school, line up pretty well with prelaw, although my impression is that these don’t weigh heavily into admissions. Obviously, I will do my best to get a high LSAT score.

My biggest concern is, I consistently did poorly in my premed classes over the past two years, but quite well in everything else. My GPA, not considering my premed classes, is 3.9. My GPA with them included is 3.63—a considerable difference. To be clear, it’s not that all of my other classes were “easy.” I took other hard classes like physics, math, and Chinese language and maintained A’s in those. I know no one here can know for sure, but my question is: do you think law school will have any sympathy for the fact that I had poor academic performance in only this one area, which clearly was a mismatch for me?

I’m optimistic that I can end up at 3.7 at least by senior year, hopefully 3.75+, but I know there’s a pretty big boost for any incremental increase in GPA, and 3.75 is still not the best position to be in for top law schools.

2

no, LS will not care that you took ‘hard’ classes; they only care about cumulative GPA+LSAT score.

All you can do now is take courses in which you can earn A’s. Do not apply to LS until after you graduate, so you’ll have the last semester of grades (which are, hopefully, all A’s).

If you rock the LSAT with a 17x, you will be competitive for many of the T14, some with merit money. A 174 might even get a WL at Harvard.

Good luck.

3

yes, a 3.9 is better, but many are admitted to T14 schools even with sub-3.7 GPAs if that GPA is coupled with a high LSAT score. I know an applicant (no hook or URM) with a 3.59 GPA coupled with a 176 WL at Harvard and admitted to two other T6 schools and 3 other T14 schools, all with some degree of merit money, including, in one case, a full ride. Agree with @bluebayou to apply after graduation so you have that last semester of grades included in your GPA.

4

Thanks to you both who commented! I understand these circumstances, but fortunately I actually didn’t realize dual-enrollment GPA counted, and I did 64 hours of coursework in high school, so my GPA is actually right at 3.8.