<p>I am currently enrolled as a Junior at JMU for Spring 2012 coming from NVCC with an associates. I have always wanted to go to UVA, and I had a couple questions regarding some choices I could make. I'm studying International Business and would like to go to law school.</p>
<p>Would it be smarter to attend JMU until I receive my Bachelors Degree, then apply for UVA's law school, coming out with a relatively high GPA?</p>
<p>or </p>
<p>Attend UVA as an undergraduate student, and then apply to UVA's law school?</p>
<p>I would like to attend JMU for the next two years, and hopefully get into UVA's law school, but if I'm more likely to get in being an undergraduate of UVA, then I suppose it is the smarter decision. Thanks for the help everyone!</p>
<p>Wow, I’m sorry, I was not unaware this sub forum was for 2012 graduates. My mistake everyone. Will this thread be moved or should I repost it in the appropriate section? Thanks</p>
<p>Because UVA’s law school is ranked so highly, I don’t think you will have any significant advantage coming from UVA as an undergrad vs. JMU. If you want to go to JMU, then that’s where you should go!</p>
<p>One, there is no guarantee that you will get a higher gpa at the lower ranked school.</p>
<p>Two, you should be pushing yourself to reach your full potential.</p>
<p>Third, even if you get a 4.0 gpa at the lower ranked school, there is still no guarantee you would get into UVA law school anyway.</p>
<p>Fourth, there are many other law schools besides UVA. If you go to UVA undergraduate, and do well there, you might get into an even higher ranked law school than UVA.</p>
<p>As for law school, I would think VERY hard before pursuing that route.</p>
<p>I understand your response, but I’ve been accepted to JMU already, where if I want to go to UVA, I’ll have to take some time off, putting me behind and losing my deposit. (graduating from community college) </p>
<p>I will be doing my best regardless of which school I attend, and I do realize UVA Law school graduates are having a very hard time finding work. </p>
<p>In other words, I do In fact want to attend JMU for my undergrad, and would love to attend UVA for law. I just wanted to know if UVA undergrads have an advantage for being chosen.</p>
<p>UVa Law seems to get a huge chunk of its in-state students from UVa undergrad (35), while W&M has 12 alums in the class, and GW has 7. JMU doesn’t even provide at least 5 alumni in the UVa Law School class to be included in this list.</p>
<p>Wow, that is a huge chunk. Thank you for sharing the link. Unfortunately not the kind of data I was hoping to see. I’m going to try and research how many graduate students from JMU apply as well as from UVA. I am only allowed to attend JMU for one semester before deciding if I want to transfer to UVA. After that I will be one semester away from becoming a senior and not have that option. Thank you again.</p>
<p>As you may have recognized, Globalist’s information doesn’t demonstrate that going to UVa undergrad is an advantage because it includes neither the number of students who applied from each and nor the number of students who were accepted but chose not to attend. I’m not sure that information is available anywhere. It seems logical that many UVa undergrads would choose to apply to law school at UVa so they would get to live in Charlottesville three more years! In fact, these numbers could reflect an alternate conclusion: it might be harder to get into UVa Law School from UVa undergrad because you’d be competing with so many students from the same university.</p>
<p>I originally assumed the same. I came to the conclusion that I should stick with JMU and appear to be a large fish in a pool filled with little fish versus a large fish among many others. I am not in anyway saying JMU is not a good school, but it is true that UVA will have more students with a higher GPA ect. than JMU. I’m going to work very hard and make sure I do my best in order to stand out.</p>
<p>Two thoughts. Firstly Schokolade, I think UVa Law probably pulls from the UVa undergrad pool more than any other Virginia school. Look at the profile of each class. The high numbers from UVa are pretty consistent - usually more than double that from any other Virginia school including W&M. (Definitely check out the Classes of 2011 and earlier, which actually list all the schools including JMU.)</p>
<p>At this point however, I think you shouldn’t stress about it, Dann09. If you do really well at JMU, you still have a shot at getting into UVa Law as long as you have strong grades and LSAT score.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot Globalist. I think I will take your advice and just relax about my decision. I’m going to continue to work hard and do as well as possible over at JMU and prepare for the LSAT. Thank you again for your responses and the links provided.</p>
<p>My D graduated from a top NESCAC college with a 3.1 GPA, went to work as a paralegal in NYC, became the head paralegal on a major case.
Spooked by her “low” GPA of 3.1 she left her job to study for the LSAT’s.
Got a score in the 97 percentile.
Also got a rave recommedation from a partner in her firm.
Applied ED to UVA and got accepted.
Advise;
Get into the best college you can.
Get the absolutely best grades possible.
Study hard for the LSAT.
Hopefully you’ll get excellent LSAT scores.
At this point, you will be able to ascertain which law school you’ll qualify for.
My D’s only regret was investing so much time into extra-curriculum activity that it hurt her cum. She wishes she had at least a 3.5. That would have taken much pressure off her to excel in the LSAT.
Good luck!</p>
<p>Spend some time over on the Law School forum portion of this website. It may help persuade you to consider some alternatives to law school. One of the many problems with law school is that the number of law school graduates has drastically increased over the last 20 years, while the number of law jobs has decreased. Most people say don’t bother with law school unless you can get into one of the top 14 or 20 schools, or unless you can go cheaply and would be happy with a governmental or public service job.</p>