What is the best way I can maximize my chances at getting into UCLA?

Graduate School Law School
1

<p>I've come to understand that they're very GPA heavy. Well, I can't say that I've been the most studious in my college career because I currently have a 3.1 GPA. However, I'm taking steps to improve that (I'm a junior). I don't think it's going to go up very much because I have some pretty heavy course loads if I want to graduate on time. I already took the LSAT and got a 180. </p>

<p>UCLA is my number one choice. I wanted to attend there for undergrad, but I went somewhere cheaper instead. I can't see myself living on the east coast really and my girlfriend of 5+ years is pretty much set on going to grad school at UCLA (it's the best for what she wanted wanted to do). I don't think it matters, but my major is Applied Math. I also intended to live in California for most of my life.</p>

<p>Should I not waste my time applying?</p>

2

<p>To maximize your chances, maximize your A’s from here on out. Reduce your course load. Take a summer session class. Apply to LS after you graduate. Take a gap year so you have a full year of senior grades, which are hopefully mostly A’s.</p>

<p>LS is 95% two numbers, and two numbers only: GPA+LSAT. And the UC’s generally favor GPA more than LSAT, while most other law schools weight the LSAT more heavily.</p>

<p>btw: there is no guarantee your GF will get into UCLA for grad school, which is extremely competitive, and no guarantee that you will even be together in a couple of years.</p>

3

<p>With a 180 and time left to graduate, pad that GPA as much as possible and apply to Stanford and Berkeley as well as UCLA and USC.</p>

4

<p>You will almost certainly be in the bottom quartile of GPAs and your LSAT will definitely be in the top quartile. Here are UCLA’s stats:</p>

<p>[UCLA</a> School of Law Facts](<a href=“http://www.law.ucla.edu/about-ucla-school-of-law/Pages/ucla-school-of-law-facts.aspx]UCLA”>http://www.law.ucla.edu/about-ucla-school-of-law/Pages/ucla-school-of-law-facts.aspx)</p>

<p>Pad your GPA, take easy classes if possible, take one or two over the summer. Understand that your LSDAS GPA is comprised of all the courses you take until you reach your first bachelor’s degree.</p>

5

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<p>And $10 million bucks, the OP would be wealthy. I’m guessing that there is no such score.</p>

6

<p>Well, he could be lying about the 180, but who cares? The only one he’d be hurting is himself since he’ll get advice tailored for someone else.</p>

7

<p>I was looking at that, too - wondering who takes the LSAT during December of their junior year. But, anyway, was thinking what Demosthenes did - the OP would just be hurting himself and/or wasting his own time.</p>

<p>I will further point out that getting a 180 LSAT is much, much harder than getting a perfect SAT score, or even a perfect 800 on any one section. There are usually only a few dozen, at most, people who hit that mythical number in the entire year of LSATs - yes, a few dozen out of over a hundred thousand people. </p>

<p>For that reason, there’s also precious little difference between a 177 and a 180 - schools really do not care if you are in the 99.9th percentile or the 99.99th percentile.</p>

8

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<p>And silly us, since we wasted our time to apply to his post, which in reality, should be: ‘My gpa is really low for a Top 20 LS, but if I rock the LSAT, can I still get accepted?’</p>

<p>Of course, the response on cc would be, ‘get back to us after you rock the LSAT.’</p>

9

<p>I’ll get over it.</p>