Admissions Chances

[Lawschoolbound44]

Hi,

I'm wondering about my admissions chances to T14 schools. I'm an African American woman. My weakness is my undergrad GPA. I have about a 3.2 cumulative. My freshman year I was at a 3.75 at a small liberal arts school, then transferred to a highly ranked state school and my gpa plummeted. I have an addendum laying out my struggles with depression. I have ADD as well but I didn't want to go into that because I don't want admissions officers in the back of their heads to assume I got my LSAT score from test accommodations which was not the case. I took the LSAT twice, solo study for both. 166 the first time, 170 the second. After graduation in 2016 I went straight into an internship on Capitol Hill for a House Committee. After summer I got hired as a Research Assistant, then a few months ago as a Legislative Assistant. I have a personal letter of recommendation from my ranking member who's served in congress for several decades and one from my boss, our Chief Legislative counsel, both very very strong letters. I only have one academic letter but I've thought this through and undergrad really just wasn't a strong time so I figured one strong one is better than adding an extra weak. I'm hoping my job experience where I've taken on some huge responsibilities and really showed off my research and writing skills will help to offset my dismal GPA. My personal and diversity statements are strong and I'm just wondering with all of this combined what's even worth my time?

[Dave Killoran]

Hi,

I'm wondering about my admissions chances to T14 schools. I'm an African American woman. My weakness is my undergrad GPA. I have about a 3.2 cumulative. My freshman year I was at a 3.75 at a small liberal arts school, then transferred to a highly ranked state school and my gpa plummeted. I have an addendum laying out my struggles with depression. I have ADD as well but I didn't want to go into that because I don't want admissions officers in the back of their heads to assume I got my LSAT score from test accommodations which was not the case. I took the LSAT twice, solo study for both. 166 the first time, 170 the second. After graduation in 2016 I went straight into an internship on Capitol Hill for a House Committee. After summer I got hired as a Research Assistant, then a few months ago as a Legislative Assistant. I have a personal letter of recommendation from my ranking member who's served in congress for several decades and one from my boss, our Chief Legislative counsel, both very very strong letters. I only have one academic letter but I've thought this through and undergrad really just wasn't a strong time so I figured one strong one is better than adding an extra weak. I'm hoping my job experience where I've taken on some huge responsibilities and really showed off my research and writing skills will help to offset my dismal GPA. My personal and diversity statements are strong and I'm just wondering with all of this combined what's even worth my time?

Hi Law School!

Thanks for posting over here—it's nice to have more room to discuss these questions.First off, congrats on the great LSAT—that will really help offset that GPA. By the way, in your addendum, I assume you also address that the issues that caused the low GPA are now handled, right? That would be a smart play there.

You are right about the GPA being an issue, but you do have other factors in your favor, and what appear to be some strong LORs (if you haven't check out my seminar on those: PowerScore’s Law School Letters of Recommendation Webinar. If you can nail your personal statement (See: The PowerScore Ultimate Law School Personal Statement Resource List). So, is it worth your time? The short answer is yes.

The longer answer is that your chances are better towards the bottom of the T14, as I'm sure you suspected. But at schools like UT and Georgetown, you are certainly in the running. At the schools after them in the T25, your chances are quite strong, and at schools like Vanderbilt and Notre Dame you have very strong chances.

You even have reasonable chances at some higher ranked schools, in particular Michigan, UVA, and Northwestern. With those schools, it's more in the range of 50%, but I could easily see a school like Michigan accepting you (that 170 score is right in their wheelhouse, and they can use someone else's high GPA to offset yours).

I think it is worth your time, and would bet that your chances of being accepted to at least one T14 school are good. And you are a lock to be accepted at at least one T25 school, if you added those.

Thanks!