<p>I started taking Community College Classes when I was 15. When I graduated from High school, I had 47 college credits, and a 3.7 or 3.8 GPA. I was a very good student. I started at university, as a bio major because I was in love with medicine and zoology. Well my plans changed once I started classes, and realized I had no aptitude for it. I never took chem or physics of math in high school (my mother had homeschooled me other than the community college classes, and i couldnt keep up in subjects i had no prior foundation in). I hated it. </p>
<p>Long story short, I had a really rough couple semesters. I took really hard classes and just got burnt out. This year,I changed my major to Psychology and decided that I was better suited for law school. My gpa is climbing quickly and I'm doing very well, in addition to loving my classes for the first time in my life.</p>
<p>I just read something about the CAS service though--they collect all your transcripts. I've taken online classes from several community colleges. And I know for a fact, out of all of those..I have a F in a statistics class. I also have a 1 credit F in a chemistry lab. And 2 W's..both in the same math class. Im panicking. Will this greatly hurt my chances of getting into law school? My undergrad GPA at university is good, AS IS ONE OF MY COMMUNITY COLLEGE GPA'S (the one wiht 47 credits.). I'm panicking.</p>
<p>I should also mention I have since passed the math AND the statistics class at university. I’m willing to take the online stats class and the chem lab over again, but I really dont want to, nor am I sure if it would make any difference?</p>
<p>ALL grades count for law schools; all must be reported, regardless of how old you were when you took them. There is no such thing as grade replacement.</p>
<p>However, your situation will qualify for a good reason to write a GPA addendum to your LS application. In other words, you could note that you took a couple of classes when you were 15 and did poorly, lowering your overall gpa. And since you were homeshooled, you were unprepared for science classes…</p>
<p>Don’t panic. Yes all of the credits will be taken into account for the GPA that is sent with your applications. You can also submit a personal statement to explain the Fs and semesters that were rough. </p>
<p>It’s frustrating since the LCAS GPA appears to be most signficant for admission cut-off purposes (although applicants do flag their GPAs in their majors). You have a LOT of company. Plan on preparing extra-hard for the LSAT, since that component of your application will be critical. You might end up being a “splitter,” with a higher LSAT score and a lower GPA. The application process is rockier for splitters, since schools’ are harder to predict for splitters. (If you’re going to be a splitter, it’s reportedly much better to have a high LSAT score and lower GPA than the reverse.) </p>
<p>My kid also had some rough classes as a college freshman, and later achieved a high GPA. He was stressed out too when he realized that his first semester’s grades brought down his LCAS GPA. He submitted a personal statement with his applications, explaining his first semester grades. He got onto a few wait-lists where his GPA was in the lower 25% of admitted student profiles. He doesn’t know whether the personal statement explaining the GPA, the fact his transcript showed a big improvement, or other soft factors were the reason that he made it onto wait lists. He ultimately was admitted to a wait-list school, did really well and transferred to a much higher ranked school. He passed the bar and got a job this summer, so this story has a happy ending – although this was obviously doing it the hard way and there were negatives. For example, you don’t get scholarship $ when you get admitted off a wait list, and transferring can mean that you lose law review or opportunities for OCI (2L summer job) interviews.</p>
<p>I’m assuming that you can’t be talked out of law school, by the way. Many of my kid’s classmates are still job hunting. It’s as bad as everyone says.</p>