<p>Hi, I have a question regarding my strange college situation:</p>
<p>I attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as a fine arts major for a year but had medical complications and had to leave halfway through my second semester due to medical reasons. I had complications my first semester as well, and failed two courses. SAIC had no GPA's so ultimately I left the school with 9 credits and two failures. Disastrous, and does not reflect my performance well since I am generally an A/B student, national merit, etc.</p>
<p>Because of the medical expenses from my first year, I had to return to Florida for school. I'm midway through my second year at the University of Central Florida as a philosophy major/art history minor and doing well with a 3.75GPA. My horrible performance from SAIC didn't affect my GPA, but my transcript is a bit of a mess right with the failed courses and sudden withdrawals from all my classes second semester.</p>
<p>So while at UCF I realized I wanted to pursue art law/ intellectual property law/ or something along the lines of law for the art community, and am interested in Duke's JD/MA Art History program.</p>
<p>Basically what I am asking is, all else aside (let's assume I maintain a high GPA and score well on the LSAT), will my first year fiasco with failed courses on my transcript (even though they do not affect my GPA) be a problem if I'd like to get into Duke's JD/MA?</p>
<p>I also understand that UCF is not particularly the best school, but was unfortunately my only option at the time and I feel it would hurt rather than help me to transfer a second time up to UF.</p>
<p>Would doing a masters at UF after I graduate help out? I would rather avoid this option as I don’t want to be in school forever but I really do have my sights set on Duke’s JD/MA</p>
<p>Unfortunately your law school transcript through the LSDAS, will have the grades from every school that you attended. You will have to send all of your transcripts to them. This will definitely drag your GPA down. However, you will need to write an addendum explaining your situation.</p>
<p>If you end up with a high LSAT and a low GPA, you will be a splitter. It is hard to predict where splitters will be accepted. You will have to apply to each program separately. If you score a really high 170+ LSAT, your best bet would be to apply to Duke law through their priority application process, which happens late summer, early September.</p>
<p>Hey, cool thanks for the reply. That sucks though! Just to clarify- even though my GPA doesn’t factor in my grades from SAIC, the LSDAS will? Considering that the three courses I do have credit for from SAIC are all fine arts courses that I don’t really care about, could I just leave out SAIC altogether and only use credits from UCF? Or am I obligated to send both no matter what?</p>
<p>Damn that’s a real killer. I knew my SAIC grades wouldn’t look to good but I didn’t think they’d be factored in to my GPA at all. BUMMER.</p>
<p>Well either way thanks again. I mean I’ve got the next year and a half to prep for LSAT and I test well so hopefully that can make up for the GPA.</p>
<p>One last question… I am gay and Puerto Rican-- will this change anything?</p>
<p>You are obligated to send in all transcripts no matter what. If you took college courses in high school and received hs credit, you must still send in the transcripts. Leavin out your transcripts will come back to bite you in the butt. You would fail the C&F, will not be admitted to the bar, leaving you with almost 200k of debt and a worthless piece of paper. Send the transcripts, kill the LSAT and let the process play it self out.</p>
<p>Law schools are always looking for diversity. Being Puerto Rican will make you a URM, but you would not get a significant bump and it will not make up for a bad gpa/scores. It would only help you if you were in the range.</p>
<p>Mostly, IP requires you some science background, you got your Art History/Philosophy background, that is a little bit far away from IP. You may need a either Chemistry/biology/Physics degree, at least Undegraduate degree.</p>
<p>How about Real Estate law area? Actually, you know that what Real Estate industry mean to Orlando/South Florida. If you take Real Estate law area in a school like UFL/Florida State, you can got job in Florida an other major markets. That gives a higher chance to get a job than IP in the Florida.</p>
<p>sybbie’s answers are “spot on.” I just want to add one thing she didn’t–the LSDAS calculated gpa is “fixed” as of the point where you get a bachelor’s degree. A master’s degree is a “soft factor,” like being PR or gay…but getting one will not change your LSDAS gpa. </p>
<p>I disagree a bit with 009811’s post. I don’t think valtergeorge wants to be a patent attorney. I think he wants to represent artists. If this is his aim, I’d suggest that he take some courses or otherwise get experience in digital archives, etc. rather than art history. This means getting a masters degree in library science or information technology rather than art history.Hey, maybe art history is what you love, and there’s nothing wong with that. But if you want to represent living artists, I don’t think art history will be much help.</p>