<p>I went to a highly regarded private school in my state and came out with a 3.0 for my freshmen year. Straight B's. Since, I've transferred into a community college to get my grades up and save money for law school (I am dead set on it). Im majoring in poli sci and transferring into a good state school next year. This means I have a total of 3 colleges on my resume with the community college being in the middle. If I keep my grades up, get involved, and study for the LSAT's for 4 month's, do I have a good chance of getting into a top 50?</p>
<p>With a totally hypothetical LSAT there’s no way to tell what your chances of law school are. You want to aim an awful lot higher than the top 50 though. If you can’t make it within the top 20 you should not go to law school. You need to get your cumulative GPA to at least a 3.6. A+s count extra, so if your community college awards them try to get as many as possible. Then take the LSAT, get a real score, and come back here for more advice.</p>
<p>Say I’m aiming at Wake Forest, UNCCH, W&L, W&M, UMD, UGA and Emory. They are fine institutions. Do law schools actually calculate a cumulative gpa? I thought they look at the gpa given by your degree granting college? </p>
<p>They look at every single school you have attended. If you took college courses in high school, you must turn in those transcripts. You LSAC gpa comes from every school you have attended and all grades until your first bachelors degree.</p>
<p>@yoyomaaa: Calling them “fine institutions” doesn’t make it true. Spend some time on [url=<a href=“http://www.lawschooltransparency.com/]LST[/url”>http://www.lawschooltransparency.com/]LST[/url</a>] looking at their employment figures. Then compare it to the cost of attendance. You’ll notice a quick disparity. It’s not for nothing that I advise prospective law students to avoid most law schools. As sybbie said, law schools look at every college-level grade you’ve got right up until you get your Bachelor’s. Nothing after the BA/BS counts. Take advantage of that to load up on easy classes now. A little bit of fluff now can drastically improve your law school admissions process.</p>
<p>So if I’m taking a variety of classes between philosophy, political science, english, history, finance and criminal justice, I can use it to my benefit? I am considering taking a total of 5 year’s to complete my bachelor’s. This would be the only way for me to include all the types of liberal art’s classes I like. If I have a couple internships with legislators and good LOR’s, will this make me a more unique candidate? I feel like I am well rounded, but I do fully realize that GPA and LSAT are the two single most important factors. </p>
<p>Law schools don’t care about internships or LORs. It’s all GPA and LSAT. That said, employers like internships, so you should feel free to go for it. Especially if you can get graded for it.</p>
<p>Internships are always a good idea. Even if it doesn’t help you at all with law school, it would be a good idea to find out about how the industry works and how you feel about being a lawyer. I mean, if you take an internship and love it, it will motivate you to pour even more of your energy and heart into excelling at this even though it will require hard work and expense. And if you take an internship and find out it’s not for you… well, isn’t it better to find that out now than when you are 3L and you realize that the only thing you dread more than not having a job is the thought of actually having one?</p>
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<p>Not unusual; there are plenty of applicants to LS who have interned/worked in local/state/federal government and even run political campaigns.</p>