I’m a Canadian. I left my first university(which is pretty famous) for seriously low gpa(below 1.5) and went to a college. Now my cumulative gpa is 4.0 and I’m considering to transfer to university for a bachelor degree so I can apply to law school. I took a sample lsat test and I scored 165 . I’m pretty confident after one year’s prep I can score over 173 so I am not too worried about this. But the gpa at my first institution is really haunting me. I’m aiming for top 3 law schools so if the chance for law schools like HLS, CLS, SLS(I know I had 0 chance of getting into YLS) are pretty slim, I wouldn’t put too much energy on the lsat… Thanks for your advice.
LS admissions comes down to two numbers – GPA+LSAT – so, realistically, unless you have one heckuva hook, all three law schools are out. Assuming your 1.5 is the score for your first year, a 4.0 for the next three years only gets you to a 3.35 cumulative which is in auto-reject territory. A 180 probably wouldn’t make a difference.
Sorry.
I encourage you to study hard, but the folks that actually score 173 above is a very very small group. I am of that bright folks can study themselves into a high 160s, perhaps 170, but a 173+ is rarified.
1.5 is not my first year gpa. It’s actually two years… Then I left this school. I was hoping leaving the first school would somehow purge my record…
Sorry, but nope, leaving the first school is not going to purge your record. your law school gpa will factor in every college/university that you have attended. All things being equal, this may end up dropping your gpa to ~2.75.
Your best bet is to do what the majority of law students to top tier law schools* do: work for at 1-3 years in a law firm and then apply to law school. Your experience will give you something to offset you early marks.
*60% of the starting class at HLS, for example, have been out at least a year.
Since all college grades count, you probably ought to take the time to figure out your current cumulative GPA, and then project changes to it based on very good grades as you finish your bachelor’s degree. Since the application process is heavily numbers-driven, this will give you a sense of approximately where you will stand; once matched with an LSAT score, you’ll have a lot of the information you’ll need to see if you’ll be a competitive applicant at one of the extremely selective schools you’ve listed.
I agree with the above posts, particularly @collegemom3717’s post. Take some time off after college/university and then apply.