"major in anything and go to law school"

[eviljeff]

[ QUOTE ]

Cliff notes : 2.2 gpa. 4.0 last semester 180 lsat harvard - yes/no

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highly unlikely. this would basically eliminate GPA from the admissions calculus.

[runner4life7]

i dont think ill bother taking the lsat then, im not dying to be a lawyer, it was more, if i could still somehow get into top tier with a 180 then id go but only a top tier otherwise its just not worth the time and effort to me.

thanks for the info.

[FlyWf]

Apply to a crapload of places, runner. Florida State was the only law school that accepted me and I applied to like 10 Tier 2 schools.

A 2.2 and 180 should get you into the Tier 1, but probably not T14. T14 is the real Tier 1, USNews does not accurately capture the plateauesque decline from 3rd->4th, 14th->15th, and wherever in Tier 2 you stop placing regionally and become TTT.

I'm not sure if it's worth it to try to transfer from my decent school to a T14. Can we tangentize the thread to give me advice?

As payment I offer this:

[XXXNoahXXX]

runner,

yeah im pretty sure law school is not for you.

[eviljeff]

[ QUOTE ]

I'm not sure if it's worth it to try to transfer from my decent school to a T14. Can we tangentize the thread to give me advice?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'd guess that if your grades/other stuff are good enough to get you into a T14, then they're prob. good enough to get you around the same job you'd get from the T14. major consideration would be later on in your career having a better degree for when you switch jobs.

[FlyWf]

You make an excellent point. At what point does trying to transfer from a inferior school make sense? As the school quality goes down the academic success required to transfer somewhere good increases.

What drives transfers, then? It probably delays graduation, increases cost of attendance, probably hurts your chances at externship opportunities, etc.

[XXXNoahXXX]

FWIW, I am at BC and was told that with my stats I'd be a good transfer candidate to NYU or Columbia, with a shot at Harvard.

I decided that the scholarship money I was receiving and the comparable job prospects meant that it didn't make sense for me.

Granted, if I was really gunnin for a SCOTUS clerkship or a teaching position down the line, maybe I would have considered it, but with the exception of a handful of firms, theres not much that I can't at least get my foot in the door.

In addition, despite loving the big names, I think a lot of firms are starting to recognize that being in the top 1% at Cardoza is probably >>>>>> bottom 10% at yale when it comes to ability, motivation, etc.

Of course, if you can transfer to a HYS AND kick ass, then maybe it'd make sense for down the line marketability, but I think a lot of people transfer for the wrong reason.

or maybe i'm just rationalizing my own decisions, but whatever.

[HLS2k6]

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no chance at top school. yale could fill their class with people with 175+ and 4.0 cum.

Your best shot would be to get a stellar LSAT, get into the best school possible (probably a low to midlevel), then bust your ass and transfer.

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This is not entirely correct. The difference between a 170 and 180 LSAT is major, as is the difference between Yale's selectivity and the rest of the T14. One of the unique things about the LSAT is that the last 15 points (25%) of the range separate the top 10% of test-takers, and it gets significantly more top heavy for literally every point above 170.

If the OP could pull a 180 and a 4.0 semester and a good, honest story about how and why he turned things around, he could easily find himself in the running for several T14 law schools and would be a lock for a tier one.

If the OP is going to be waiting until the following fall to apply to law school anyway, he should go to an extra year of undergrad and pad his grades. Spread those 17 credits over 3 semesters with other electives or add a second major, earn a 4.0 this spring and next year and supplement those applications with the continued good grades.

FWIW, I did very poorly when I started college and was also academically suspended like the OP. I had a 3.3 cum after finishing my last 5 semesters at straight 4.0 When I applied my senior year of ugrad around I had a 2.8 with 3 consecutive 4.0 semesters and a 179 LSAT and a good story about turning my life around, and was accepted at several top schools (including Michigan, Chicago and Columbia). I applied again the fall after undergrad and was accepted everywhere I applied save Yale. I graduated from HLS in 2006.

[eviljeff]

when I took the LSAT it was impossible to get a 179

[HLS2k6]

[ QUOTE ]
when I took the LSAT it was impossible to get a 179

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If you're referring to the old scale, it was far more top heavy. I read a quote years ago in some admissions guide that there were sufficient perfect scores under that scale that the top couple of law schools could fill their entire classes with perfect LSATs, whereas under the new scale there were barely enough perfect scores to field a baseball team.