Advice on where to apply

[ashane33]

Hello,

I currently have taken the LSAT-flex in August and October. I'm already signed up for it again in November. I was hoping to just get your thoughts on my situation and how I should approach my applications for Fall 2021.

My goal LSAT is 162-165. Assuming I reach this goal, I would like to attend either USC or UCLA. However, my biggest discrepancy is in my UGPA. It's extremely low. Around a 2.6. However I graduated from ASU back in 2015, I served in the military after that for 4 years (and did really well), I will finish my M.S. degree from University of Miami with a gpa of around 3.75. I've also been an intern at a non-profit that works directly with prisons and the courts (so I've attended virtual court appearances and other events that are applicable to a lawyer). I'm clearly writing an addendum for my poor UGPA explaining that I wasn't really focused on school because my passion was the military and never really thought much about law school at the time (obviously going to make it well-written and give what may be a "valid" explanation of the grades. I also did have a few semesters were I did very well and was on the deans list).

Based off this brief info, I wanted to get your thoughts on how schools would look at an application like this? (assuming I have a good personal statement, resume, and letters of rec). I'm not too worried about other parts of my application besides my gpa. How do you think schools would look at this? It's clear my goals and mindset are completely different than it was while I was attending ASU, but I know how much weight is put on undergrad gpa for admissions. It would be a shame to have limited options because of something that occured over 5 years ago. It's clearly not an accurate reflection of my academic potential. I know if I was in undergrad now, this limiting factor wouldn't even be relevant

Any thoughts (hopefully positive haha) would be appreciated. Thanks

[ashane33]

Also, lets say my LSAT is 165

[Jeremy Press]

Hi shane,

Everything you've shared makes a ton of sense to me, and it's true that admissions officers put a little less weight on undergrad GPA where an applicant has significant work experience since undergrad. But you do need to be realistic about how the "numbers game" is most likely to play out, given the data that we have and what we know from experience with similar situations in the past.

Assuming a 165 LSAT (which is a great score, but keep November in your plans in case October doesn't land there), your chances of being admitted to USC and UCLA are very low. Traditional splitters (low GPA, high LSAT) need to meet (and preferably be above) a school's published median LSAT to have a reasonable, greater than ~50% chance of admission. UCLA's median is 169. USC's median is 167. If you look at graphs from the past few cycles on lawschoolnumbers, I don't see any admissions at UCLA or USC where the applicant had a 165 LSAT and a below 3.0 undergrad GPA. (See, e.g., http://usc.lawschoolnumbers.com/stats/2021).

What I would recommend is targeting schools where you're at least hitting the school's median LSAT (say, Arizona State) or preferably where you're at or above the school's 75th percentile LSAT (say, UC-Davis). You can still apply to USC and UCLA as dream schools, but it wouldn't be wise to have them as your only application options. If you're dead set on those two schools, you really need to be aiming for a 170+ LSAT score.

Let us know if this triggers any other questions!