Hello all, I am currently attending a Community College. So far, I have completed 99% of my general IGETC classes that I need to get done. After all that, my GPA is currently at a 2.766 cries. I admit I slacked off a really good amount and did not put as much time and effort into my studies as I should have. Reason being, I had no idea what I wanted to do as a career. Which brings me to my next point… After numerous days of planning my future, I realized the world of Law is something that has always grabbed my attention and I feel it is something I can actually be good at, given I invest the right amount of time into it. Anyways, with my 2.766 major, I am thinking about pursuing a major in Political Science. It is an interesting topic in my opinion, and although debated, I feel as if it will be a good “intro” so to say, to actual Law. Now, what I need help with are a few things. I currently have a 2.766 GPA and that are only based off my general IGETC’s. If I start my political science classes, and work suuuuper hard from this point on (since I have no choice, really…lol), and hopefully get into a decent university to study my pol sci, what is my future looking like? Ideally, I would like to get straight A’s and nothing short of it for the duration of my stay at the community college because I drastically need help raising my GPA. I’m sorry for the long post but I’m really lost about all this and can use some help :(((((
Also, how high can I even raise my GPA before transferring to a uni…? Considering the fact I’m almost done with my IGETC classes. I guess I can take some transferrable classes i haven’t taken already to help bump up my GPA. (at this point, anything counts for me)
THANK YOU ALL SOOOO MUCH. i love the forum community here. any help is appreciated 
How do you know law is for you? Do you have experience working or interning at a law office?
no i have not, but ever since i was young law has fascinated me. just knowing how everything works and operates interests me.
@johnjohnson1
how much do you know about law school admissions?
i know it is unlike uc’s or csu’s in the matter of admissions. I’ve read its mainly based off your lsat score primarily, followed by ur gpa.
@johnjohnson1
Yup, you are a definitely right. It is 95% LSAT+ GPA (I am also going into law). It doesn’t really matter what undergrad you get into for your last two years. You should know that getting a job as a lawyer is primarily based into the law school you get into. I am not sure if you have heard of the the term T14 but it refers to a the top 14 law schools in the country in which if you are able to get in, you are highly highly likely to get a job. However, you have to make up your mind about what type of law do you want to practice and where do you want to practice. Do you want to work for the government or public interest groups? Or do you want to work for a law firm? Do you want to practice regionally in your area, or in more competitive areas (NYC,Chicago,LA). Now, (not to sound mean) but I hope you aren’t thinking of schools like, Yale, Harvard, or Stanford because those will be pretty much impossible with your GPA, even if you pull off all As for the next two years. However I think you have a strong shot if you get a 170+ LSAT and 4.0 GPA for the next two years at the lower T14 schools like Georgetown, Cornell, Michigan. Even schools like Vanderbilt,WUSTL, and USC are reasonable, especially if you get a very high LSAT score of 170+. One thing you don’t want to do is go to a crap law school, seriously it could ruin your life! LSAT score is also very important for scholarships which you absolutely WANT to go to law school (law school without scholarships is around 300k!). There are a lot of resources (I’ll link these in the end) to help you navigate your way. I don’t think you have any reason to lose hope!
To help you calculate you UGPA, I’m not sure exactly how about you can do that, but I think this could help:
http://7sage.com/gpa-calculator/
To look at individual graphs of law schools admissions which includes LSAT and GPA use this:
http://schools.lawschoolnumbers.com/
And to look at employment scores WHICH IS THE MOST IMPORTANT use this:
http://www.lstscorereports.com/national/
And a very helpful forum for law school or pre law school students
http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/index.php
Hope this helps!
WOW. That is all i have to say. Your response is exactly what i needed. Thank you sooo much for taking the time to clarify everything. As far as your question goes, I have no clue if I want to work for the government, public interest groups, or a law firm. I feel like I’ll lean more towards public interest or law firm, however 
Then again, the hell do I know about what they consist of or what it takes to be in either/or. And believe me, I know… my GPA is embarrassing even to myself. Like I stated earlier, my GPA is entirely based off my IGETC courses at my Community College, (which by the way I am almost done with.) Which I believe is good and bad: Good because I can begin taking the major classes (pre-reqs for transfer), but bad because my GPA won’t have much room to really change or fluctuate into a higher category. My plan is to take this 2.766 GPA which I currently have, grind through the very little amount of IGETC classes I need to take, take my political science major pre-req classes, transfer to a university (does it matter what university i get into, btw? :-? ), and after transferring, begin my political science major. Of course, my plan is also to get nothing short of A’s and B’s (hopefully A’s) throughout this WHOLE ^^^^ process. Hopefully, that will be enough time to raise my GPA a somewhat decent amount, do amazing on the LSAT, and start a career. UGH so stressful :)) #:-S
@johnjohnson1
-No it doesn’t matter what undergrad institution you transfer too, law schools only care about GPA and LSAT. In fact, they would rather accept someone with 4.0 from a state u than a 3.8 from Yale because it helps out their medians. My advice to you is to go to whichever one will be the cheapest because law school itself will be expensive.
-If you want to do public interest, you should definitely know that most top law schools have a loan forgiveness plan if you go into the public field. Also since public interest is competitive it is almost mandatory that you go to a top law school. I would say if you can push your overall UGPA more than a 3.0 you have a good shot at the schools on the lawschoolnumbers.com list #10-20 with a LSAT of 170+. Unfortunately, they likely won’t consider your (hopefully) positive trend in the coming years. They only care about your overall GPA number.
-You should do more research about law firms. Do you want to work for a biglaw firm (which is what I want to do)? Those jobs are competitive as well and require everything I said in the he previous point. A biglaw firm is basically a law firm with more than 500 lawyers working for them. And they pay starting salary of about 160k (without bonuses).
-Don’t aim for Bs!! Please aim for As because I think Bs (even just one) could hurt your chances. Let me know if you have anymore questions.
Thank you for replying! As far as GPA, you stated more than a 3.0… Now does that mean all I need to do is raise my 2.766 to a 3.3 for example in the next two years? (which include the remaining of my IGETC along with my major classes once I hopefully transfer). Because not to sound over confident at all (trust me :)) ) but that doesn’t seem like toooo much of a hassle does it? I mean, getting straight A’s is nothing I’m used to or ever have been used to tbh, but I feel because I have never really tried or put much effort into it. The classes I have put effort into, I got A’s easily. That seems to be my problem. And I believe you are correct when you say even a B will hurt my chances. But by that do you mean a B in my current community college classes will hurt me, or a B in my university for my pol sci major will hurt me? Or both?? Since law schools (I’m assuming) will be looking at current gpa which I’m sure transfers from the community college gpa to when i go to a university. I just really want to do what I consider my best and get the best grades i can to help me in my future because I’ve been slacking off the last couple years and its honestly time for me to get my act together 8->
totally random but just out of curiosity what major are you?
and ur right. I know little to nothing about the firms out there and what they consist of or what they are even about. I should glance through those to see which i find attractive. And as far as law specialty goes, Im also not sure of what ‘specialty’ i should be pursuing. i feel it might be a little early for that however, and i should just focus on getting amazing grades to improve my chances for literally everything mentioned by you and i ^^
Now i have another question i would love ur input on. knowing what I’ve told you, what do u think are some of my options. By that i mean i have a 2.766 GPA currently, am almost done with my IGETC’s so there isn’t really MUCHHH room for my gpa to fluctuate, and to be honest all i really have left are my pol sci transfer pre-req classes to take. Do you think it would be wise for me to keep taking general transferrable classes i haven’t taken yet, (regardless of the fact i don’t need anymore for my IGETC). the reason i ask this is because i want to raise my gpa and i feel that is the only way left for me to do it. i really want to raise that 2.766 to something high enough to get into a UC :((
which brings me to my next point… :)) :))
with a 2.766 gpa, as a transfer student, and after taking some more classes (if thats the right thing to be done) which UC’s do you think i can even get accepted to 8-> as a poll sci major transfer student
Bless you for bearing with me on all this you’ve been extreme help =D>
@johnjohnson1
-I am not sure if I did the math right on this (2.766+4.0/2), but the you should be able to get (if you get all As) a 3.38. Again I am not sure what your credits are weighted as and credit hours and other things like that. You should try using the GPA calculators around the internet. However, you shouldn’t think about getting a minimum or anything like, try for all As! The work ethic to get those As will be a good experience because from what I have heard law school if very tough!
-It doesn’t matter where you get the B grade because the LSAC, or the Law School Admissions Council (which is the organization that sends your transcripts and scores) doesn’t care where you got the B. The B will be the same to them wherever it came from. NOTE: Read up on how the LSAC analyzes and gets your GPA (called the LSDAS GPA) because it will end up slightly different from the GPA that is given from your institution.
You can read about it here: http://www.lsac.org/aboutlsac/policies/transcript-summarization
Law schools will only be looking at your overall LSDAS GPA, they don’t care what individual GPA you got at community college and at your transfer school.
-I am going to be a Pol Sci major!
-As far as your options go I think you are in luck that you are living in California. Because Berkeley Law, which is a top 14 school, is what’s called a “splitter-friendly school”. This means that Berkeley admits lots of students with a low GPA but a high LSAT score (or vice-versa). Berkeley is only one of the two t14 school that is splitter-friendly along with Northwestern Law School. Also you will get in-state tuition if you get into Berkeley Law! I have put in your projected numbers (171, 3.3) into this website ( http://www.lawschoolpredictor.com/wp-content/uploads/Law-School-Predictor-Matcher.htm ) which is very accurate and I got this list:
Your Reach Law Schools
Berkeley Law
Georgetown
Your Target Law Schools
University of Virginia
University of Michigan
Northwestern University
Cornell University
UCLA
Very very good schools! But again its all about that LSAT score. Try to take it only once because some of these schools frown upon people who take it more than once. 171 is the magic number!
-Do anything that will help you keep your GPA up. Like I said law schools don’t really care what classes or major you take. In fact it is advised against to take pre-law or criminal justice as a major because they don’t want you coming in thinking you know everything.
-I can’t really be of much help when it comes to what schools you can transfer to. Sorry 
My advice is to go to whichever one is the cheapest that you can get accepted at because it won’t matter what undergrad you went to.
Hope this helps!
@Mastodon97: Generally correct with a few minor adjustments. Boalt is splitter friendly only in that they favor GPAs somewhat more than most T14s. A 3.38 probably won’t be getting in. NWU is also basically out unless OP gets some work experience, as NWU is one of the few schools that cares about such things. GULC is actually fairly likely with a solid LSAT score since, at the bottom of the top, they are hurting for good scores to buff their numbers.
Also, BigLaw firms paying Cravath scale are now in the minority, as I recall. The standard starting salary is about $145,000, which is still quite a bit but less than 160k.
However, none of this matters if law isn’t a good career choice. OP has no experience with law but is “just fascinated” by it. That is not enough, not the least reason being that the practice of law has almost nothing to do with “knowing how everything works.” OP needs to spend some time actually getting real experience. If you haven’t, you should do so too.
@Demosthenes49
Oops, my bad. I forgot Boalt is only GPA friendly. You are probably right that Boalt is probably out of the question, especially now that I look at the admissions graphs and, I also forgot about the work experience for NWU.
I think you are wrong about the salary though. I looked through all the law firms in the 2015 Vault 100 (I know I am a loser) and I found only 16 law firms out of 100 that payed less than 160000. And these law firms were mostly in locations that aren’t typical for biglaw firms (if that makes any sense) in places like Miami, Dallas, Houston. Also, most of these firms were in the lower rung like #80-100 and I would think that most t14 graduates wouldn’t accept a position when they have much better options. I think 160,000 is the industry standard for top 50 BigLaw firms, in which OP is probably likely to get in if he graduates from a t14 like GULC.
Please correct me if I am wrong though!
Elite law schools are probably out of reach from where you are. There are still many paths open to you.
Transfer someplace like Sac State, (good poly sci program and close to state capitol) and do your best. Boost your law centric experience with internships/jobs at local law firms and/or at the capitol. Study your butt off for the LSAT and see where you are in a couple of years.
Good luck.
Why has law always “grabbed [your] attention”?
I am a lawyer and certainly don’t find the law inherently interesting. Nor have I ever been interested in “the law”, even before or during law school.
Yet I’ve been practicing for nearly 2 decades.
To have a fulfilling career in the law, you may wish to have stronger reasons that law “grabb[ing your] attention”. I like it and figure that it’s been a good career for me because it uses the skills that I was good at in college: reading, writing and analyzing things mostly on your own. A career could be any subject, from architecture to anything else, and as long as it allowed for a lot of solo time reading and thinking, and very few meetings, I’d be fine with it; it wouldn’t have to be law.
@Mastodon97: [This link](Firsthand) may be instructive, especially since you said you have an interest in BigLaw. NY firms are more likely to pay on the Cravath scale than other major markets, and NY is what Vault mostly analyzes. Across the V100 across the country, however, many markets see lower numbers.
I also recommend you spend some time at Law School Transparency looking at employment data. It is far from certain he will be employed at all from GULC, let alone landing BigLaw, let alone landing a v50 (although the vault scale is essentially meaningless outside NY).
@Demosthenes49
Oh yes. I know that Georgetown is probably the least likely place where you can get a biglaw job out of all the t14s. I was just saying with his numbers that might be the only option he has if he wants to go into biglaw. Also Georgetown has a higher large firm score than the schools that are ahead of it on LST that is not on the t14 (Vanderbilt, UCLA, and Emory).