Hi,
Stanford is my dream school, I am taking my bachelors at a state school and plan to apply to Stanford law school for my JD in 2023. I did PSEO and if I had an impeccable resume, personal statement, and letters of recommendation with a 180 LSAT, would I even be considered because I predict I would only have a 3.3 gpa when I graduate because I tanked due to corona? I just don’t want to go through all that work just to have my application thrown out at first glance just because I would have such a low gpa.
It would be a tough sell because GPA and LSAT are the two most critical factors in law school acceptance. You’ll be competing against applicants with a 180 AND better GPAs. That’s not to say that acceptances of splits don’t occur but usually those applicants have an unusual/remarkable story that explains the lower GPA.
1 Like
Why is Stanford your dream school?
1 Like
I love the location, I have always wanted to go there, it is one of the best colleges in the world for law, it has a excellent alumni network, I would have an edge over other people in my career, and while it does not guarantee a job, I would have a better chance of having one compared to if I went to a different place.
You will get great law jobs and go far by working extremely hard and having passion and love for what you do. Stanford won’t help you with that. Only you.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking any one school is going to be your “ticket” in life. It’s not…not even close.
You are your own ticket.
2 Likes
As with colleges you need to cast a wide net when you apply to law school. Just one example, a good friend’s child applied to law school this cycle, 3.9 GPA, 175 LSAT: the T10 schools plus BU and Fordham. Results: Accepted to Columbia and BU. Waitlisted or rejected at the rest.
Even near perfect stats don’t guarantee acceptance just like the school you attend doesn’t guarantee a job. Definitely go to the best school that accepts you but you’re in charge of what happens afterwards.
3 Likes
The most recent law school applications cycle saw a surge in applications and unusually high LSAT scores as a result of modified testing due to Covid.
In prior cycles, one with a 3.9 GPA & a 175 LSAT score would have had much better results.
First Column is Low GPA Accepted. For Stanford it was 3.82
Essentially, a 3.3 GPA amounts to an automatic rejection at any T14.
1 Like
As with the law, stick to known facts, and assuming that you can score a 180, when millions of others could never clear 170 is not a good strategy. Your GPA is too low for Stanford, unless you bring a large Hook, such as Olympic Champion, adn even that is probably not good enuf for Stanford. (just throwing that out as the Trials are ongoing right now.)
For example, Katie Ledecky had previously expressed an interest in law school, and her GPA was a 3.99 after the first two years of undergrad. So even the Olympic champs can bring the grades.
That said, a high LSAT (17x) adn a couple of years of work experience could score you a spot in the lower T14.
My son attends a top 10 LAC and for a time was considering law school. He had the exact stats of students from his college and where they were denied and admitted to law school. Some of them did get into top law schools with 3.3 GPA if they had a high LSAT score.
1 Like
Important to know which “top law schools’” and whether or not the applicants were URM.
Very unusual for a non-URM to be admitted to a Top 6 law school with a 3.3 GPA.
Unusual for a non-URM to be admitted to a Top 13 law school with a GPA of 3.3.
(Georgetown, the 14th ranked law school, admits a large class each year and is the most likely to admit a non-URM with a 3.3 GPA and a high LSAT score among the Top 14 law schools.)
Top law schools are typically divided into “top 3” (Harvard, Yale, & Stanford), “top 6” (H,Y,S, and Chicago, Columbia, & NYU), and “top 14”.
2 Likes
Found the statistics…I do not know if these students are URM’s or what their major was but in the last five years these are where graduates of a top LAC went to law schools with 3.3 GPA’s: Harvard (1) UChicago (2) Duke (2) Vandy (1) NYU (4) Columbia (4) UPenn (4) Georgetown (2) Northwestern (5). All did have high LSAT scores. So while it may be unusual to be admitted with a 3.3 I don’t think it means an automatic rejection. P.S. There were also admits with GPA’s of 3.2, 3.4 and 3.5.
lawschoolnumbersdotcom shows all or almost all claim URM status.
and since this thread asked about Stanford, only one student has been accepted with a 3.3 GPA in the past 5 years. URM female with strong ECs: worked thru college, worked after college. Another similar student was accepted with a 3.4.
2 Likes
I would be interested to see where on lawschoolnumbersdotcom it has the URM status of the students. I looked but can’t find it - can someone post the link?
you can change teh search parameters on their site to include/exclude ED, URM, and other criteria.
There are at least a couple of ways to determine URM admissions on lawschoolnumbers website. The easiest way is to go to a graph of admissions decisions for a particular law school & place your pointer over any dot on the graph.
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.