Taking any/all advice, suggestions and direction Forum

[AJordan]

Your numbers are making you pretty competitive already! Congrats! You’ve done great so far.

[Shredzeppelin240]

Your numbers are making you pretty competitive already! Congrats! You’ve done great so far.

Preciate your kind words!

[totesTheGoat]

kind of a sad update. My school's professor and registrar messed up a grade of mine so my gpa has fallen to a 3.93. It was a pretty insane situation, far too long to explain on here. Essentially, the professor was let go after it happened but the school wont correct my gpa because it was assigned late by the professor following graduation. They refuse to change it simply for the sake of policy - that no grades can be amended following graduation. I promise I'm not just playing victim's bias. This happened a few weeks ago and I was too upset/hopeful to update.

Ah well it isn't the end of the world. Hopefully I can makeup for it on my next lsat attempt. Happy summer and good luck july takers!

Uhhh, if they legit screwed up a grade and you have evidence that they legit screwed up a grade, don't just drop it and let it go. Pound on doors, sit in a dean's office until they relent, become a pest. Go over their head to the university administration. Do whatever it takes to get that fixed. "It's policy" isn't responsive to "why won't you fix the prof's fuck up?"

[Shredzeppelin240]

kind of a sad update. My school's professor and registrar messed up a grade of mine so my gpa has fallen to a 3.93. It was a pretty insane situation, far too long to explain on here. Essentially, the professor was let go after it happened but the school wont correct my gpa because it was assigned late by the professor following graduation. They refuse to change it simply for the sake of policy - that no grades can be amended following graduation. I promise I'm not just playing victim's bias. This happened a few weeks ago and I was too upset/hopeful to update.

Ah well it isn't the end of the world. Hopefully I can makeup for it on my next lsat attempt. Happy summer and good luck july takers!

Uhhh, if they legit screwed up a grade and you have evidence that they legit screwed up a grade, don't just drop it and let it go. Pound on doors, sit in a dean's office until they relent, become a pest. Go over their head to the university administration. Do whatever it takes to get that fixed. "It's policy" isn't responsive to "why won't you fix the prof's fuck up?"

I honestly did I know how crazy it is though. I'll try to summarize though cause it is is such a weird scenario. I had an online elective with a teacher who was not in my state. I emailed him five times asking to sign a pass/no pass form but he kept saying he would and forgetting. I went to our school's registrar and they told me to just CC them on the next email so I did. All emails sent to the registrar are supposed to receive a response but the one I CC'd never got one. My professor told me that as a safety net he even left himself a note that when he would enter grades in at the end of the year he would make it pass/no pass. All this took place at the very beginning of the semester. I was under the impression that my grade had been updated since I followed the registrar's directions and had the approval/reassurance of my professor. At the end of the year all grades are supposed to be entered by graduation. He emailed like the day before saying that his would be late. I had already received all my other grades and since I thought his would be pass/no pass I didn't think it mattered. He didn't enter the grade in until a week after I graduated but I never actually checked since I had all my others and a pass would not affect my GPA. It turns out that the registrar somehow missed my email, the professor forgot to enter in the correct grade, and he never actually signed and submitted my pass/no pass form. I was dumb and didn't notice this until I submitted my transcripts to LSAC. I just went through like a three week appeals process with the president and dean of academics (who are both interim so they feel they have little power) and they refused to change it. Their grounds are that the student catalog (which I didn't even know existed. This rule is not in our student handbook) has a clause that says all grades are finalized once a degree has been awarded. Believe me I pounded how outrageous this is since the professor didn't even enter it until after I graduated. I documented all the emails and messages between the professor and registrar. They refused to change it so I switched my argument to how the rule is way too absolute and they should change it for the sake of students and professors. Again, they refused. I asked multiple deans and professors after this for their help but they didn't think they could make a difference. Kind of a sad story for me sorry for ranting lol. At this point I feel as if my only other option is legal action which im hesitant to take.


EDIT: When I say the registrar is supposed to respond to all emails, when I CC'd them I received an automated response from them saying that they had received my email and respond to all inquiries in the order they are received. I thought that since I had confirmation they received my email and the person I talked to in person said it was an easy fix that they would just change it for me. There are obviously a few mistakes on my end where I could've gone greater length to confirm the grade, but the amount of mistakes on the administrative side and professor's side is astounding to me, especially when they refused to amend them.

EDIT: I say "like the day before" I can confirm it was 24 hours before.

[totesTheGoat]

I emailed him five times asking to sign a pass/no pass form but he kept saying he would and forgetting. I went to our school's registrar and they told me to just CC them on the next email so I did. All emails sent to the registrar are supposed to receive a response but the one I CC'd never got one. My professor told me that as a safety net he even left himself a note that when he would enter grades in at the end of the year he would make it pass/no pass. All this took place at the very beginning of the semester.

In your shoes, I'd look up the ombudsman's office and pull them in. That's insane!

[Shredzeppelin240]

I emailed him five times asking to sign a pass/no pass form but he kept saying he would and forgetting. I went to our school's registrar and they told me to just CC them on the next email so I did. All emails sent to the registrar are supposed to receive a response but the one I CC'd never got one. My professor told me that as a safety net he even left himself a note that when he would enter grades in at the end of the year he would make it pass/no pass. All this took place at the very beginning of the semester.

In your shoes, I'd look up the ombudsman's office and pull them in. That's insane!

I know right? I didn't even know this existed thank you for pointing me to it!!

[Shredzeppelin240]

Update on the Ombudsman office. I reached out after being directed to it and they got back to me a few days ago. They let me know that they only have jurisdiction over the bureaus and staff and can't do much with private universities. I wasn't expecting much so I'm not too disappointed. It also is kind of closure knowing at this point I've tried about everything.

I'm also back from my trip so I can finally get back into consistently studying again!

[Shredzeppelin240]

Another kind of a disappointing update. I'm not sure I posted it earlier but I was able to slightly change my trip so that I could make it in time for the July test. I got off of a 12 hour plane ride on Saturday and took it on Monday. I'm hoping it was because of the plane ride but I thought it was hard despite most other takers noting they thought it was straightforward. My first section was LG, seemingly the most straightforward, and I was just completely stuck. I almost walked out of the test center after it I felt so drained afterwards. I ended up completing the test but am already propping myself so I'm not too disappointing when I get my score back. At least I get to cancel.

I also got a tablet. I really enjoyed it by the end of the test I think it will work out great. Unfortunately where I was there was no wifi which you need to practice on Ipads so this was really my first time taking on a tablet which may have also had an effect. Who knows. Gonna keep grinding anyways.

[LawSchoolLA23]

Thanks for posting your journey on this forum! It’s been amazing to read about the strides and improvements you have made. Are you still shooting for a 170+?

[Shredzeppelin240]

Thanks for posting your journey on this forum! It’s been amazing to read about the strides and improvements you have made. Are you still shooting for a 170+?

Definitely!

[Lawman1865]

Hey, just stumbled on this, awesome stuff. I think it's great having a thread where people can see the kind of dedication and effort that can translate into a great LSAT score. Nice keeping with the updates, a 168 is a fantastic score, and hope the July test went well and you finally get that 170+. And if not, the cancel is a great opportunity.

As an aside I knew somebody in a similar situation, got screwed over by a professor who ended up getting let go after that semester, got a B+ and ruined his 4.0, but he moved past it and it didn't prevent him from the grad program he wanted to go to.

[Shredzeppelin240]

Hey, just stumbled on this, awesome stuff. I think it's great having a thread where people can see the kind of dedication and effort that can translate into a great LSAT score. Nice keeping with the updates, a 168 is a fantastic score, and hope the July test went well and you finally get that 170+. And if not, the cancel is a great opportunity.

As an aside I knew somebody in a similar situation, got screwed over by a professor who ended up getting let go after that semester, got a B+ and ruined his 4.0, but he moved past it and it didn't prevent him from the grad program he wanted to go to.

Well thank you for the kind encouragement!! Hopefully I can similar outcomes as your friend!

[notinbiglaw]

Your work ethic and dedication is inspirational.

[Shredzeppelin240]

Your work ethic and dedication is inspirational.

Thank you for making my day!!

[Mccoyology]

Wow thx for the quick response. No my GPA shouldn't change then. I was just unsure how they calculate it.

You can see https://www.lsac.org/applying-law-schoo ... marization for the actual rubric, but yes, if you don't have any "forgiven" grades or other previous college grades, your GPA shouldn't change.

I had no idea Harvard was regarded a little lower then YS. Could you point me to a source where I could read more about this? I believe you, I just think I was overestimating how much I knew about the top law schools given this information eluded me.

USNWR https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-sc ... w-rankings is generally accurate. The top thirteen schools are generally regarded as the "best" in the country, roughly in the order they're ranked in USNWR. Based on TLS' collected wisdom, and on personal observations, the prestige pecking order is approximately:

Yale
Stanford
Harvard
Chicago
Columbia / NYU
Penn / Michigan / Berkeley / UVA / Duke
Northwestern
Cornell

There's some disagreement about whether Chicago's actually better than Columbia/NYU, or whether Penn should be lumped in with Columbia/NYU, but generally the order above is accurate.

Relevant to you, Yale/Stanford are substantially harder to get into than Harvard and down. Harvard and down focus mainly on LSAT and GPA; Yale/Stanford generally require super strong softs in addition to stellar LSAT/GPA.

I don't know why people throw away GULC. Just puzzling, and insight?

[cavalier1138]

I don't know why people throw away GULC. Just puzzling, and insight?

Part of it is just to make fun of Georgetown for losing the number 14 slot a couple of years ago. But it's also partially due to its lagging biglaw/fedclerk numbers. GULC takes a very large class, and a significant portion of them will strike out at OCI. Some people argue that this number is offset by the number of students bound for PI/gov, but other top schools with similar PI/gov placement still have stronger biglaw/fedclerk numbers.

[Mccoyology]

I don't know why people throw away GULC. Just puzzling, and insight?

Part of it is just to make fun of Georgetown for losing the number 14 slot a couple of years ago. But it's also partially due to its lagging biglaw/fedclerk numbers. GULC takes a very large class, and a significant portion of them will strike out at OCI. Some people argue that this number is offset by the number of students bound for PI/gov, but other top schools with similar PI/gov placement still have stronger biglaw/fedclerk numbers.

Thanks. My ambitions are Government work, Big law is not something im interested in so, I need to look up the stats but part of the reason I am shooting for GULC/UVA is externships and network to DoJ, DoD etc.

[Shredzeppelin240]

I don't know why people throw away GULC. Just puzzling, and insight?

Part of it is just to make fun of Georgetown for losing the number 14 slot a couple of years ago. But it's also partially due to its lagging biglaw/fedclerk numbers. GULC takes a very large class, and a significant portion of them will strike out at OCI. Some people argue that this number is offset by the number of students bound for PI/gov, but other top schools with similar PI/gov placement still have stronger biglaw/fedclerk numbers.

I hadn't realized they lost #14 a few years back. That's kinda funny/brutal people still take jabs at them lol.

[QContinuum]

Part of it is just to make fun of Georgetown for losing the number 14 slot a couple of years ago. But it's also partially due to its lagging biglaw/fedclerk numbers. GULC takes a very large class, and a significant portion of them will strike out at OCI. Some people argue that this number is offset by the number of students bound for PI/gov, but other top schools with similar PI/gov placement still have stronger biglaw/fedclerk numbers.

Thanks. My ambitions are Government work, Big law is not something im interested in so, I need to look up the stats but part of the reason I am shooting for GULC/UVA is externships and network to DoJ, DoD etc.

Speaking for myself, at least, I don't have any intent to rag on Gtown due to its USNWR ranking. Rather, I refer to the "T13" instead of the "T14" because Georgetown's placement power is more in line with the T20 than the rest of the T13 (from Cornell and up). Georgetown's combined BigLaw & federal clerkship placement numbers lag behind Vandy's - so it's hard to justify categorizing Gtown a notch above Vandy. Makes more sense to lump Gtown in with the rest of the T20 schools.

For folks primarily interested in fed gov work, it absolutely still makes sense to apply to Gtown - and, in fact, at a similar price point it may make more sense to attend Gtown than, say, Cornell (which isn't particularly known for its government placement prowess).

[Mccoyology]

Part of it is just to make fun of Georgetown for losing the number 14 slot a couple of years ago. But it's also partially due to its lagging biglaw/fedclerk numbers. GULC takes a very large class, and a significant portion of them will strike out at OCI. Some people argue that this number is offset by the number of students bound for PI/gov, but other top schools with similar PI/gov placement still have stronger biglaw/fedclerk numbers.

Thanks. My ambitions are Government work, Big law is not something im interested in so, I need to look up the stats but part of the reason I am shooting for GULC/UVA is externships and network to DoJ, DoD etc.

Speaking for myself, at least, I don't have any intent to rag on Gtown due to its USNWR ranking. Rather, I refer to the "T13" instead of the "T14" because Georgetown's placement power is more in line with the T20 than the rest of the T13 (from Cornell and up). Georgetown's combined BigLaw & federal clerkship placement numbers lag behind Vandy's - so it's hard to justify categorizing Gtown a notch above Vandy. Makes more sense to lump Gtown in with the rest of the T20 schools.

For folks primarily interested in fed gov work, it absolutely still makes sense to apply to Gtown - and, in fact, at a similar price point it may make more sense to attend Gtown than, say, Cornell (which isn't particularly known for its government placement prowess).

Thanks for responding, I think that's my point. For people who want to work with the feds GULC seems to have more pull. As far as networking goes Georgetown has a major pull in DC. I'm not saying T13 doesn't have the pull but the networking, and Alumni as far as I am to understand UVA and Georgetown take the cake.

[cavalier1138]

Part of it is just to make fun of Georgetown for losing the number 14 slot a couple of years ago. But it's also partially due to its lagging biglaw/fedclerk numbers. GULC takes a very large class, and a significant portion of them will strike out at OCI. Some people argue that this number is offset by the number of students bound for PI/gov, but other top schools with similar PI/gov placement still have stronger biglaw/fedclerk numbers.

Thanks. My ambitions are Government work, Big law is not something im interested in so, I need to look up the stats but part of the reason I am shooting for GULC/UVA is externships and network to DoJ, DoD etc.

Speaking for myself, at least, I don't have any intent to rag on Gtown due to its USNWR ranking. Rather, I refer to the "T13" instead of the "T14" because Georgetown's placement power is more in line with the T20 than the rest of the T13 (from Cornell and up). Georgetown's combined BigLaw & federal clerkship placement numbers lag behind Vandy's - so it's hard to justify categorizing Gtown a notch above Vandy. Makes more sense to lump Gtown in with the rest of the T20 schools.

For folks primarily interested in fed gov work, it absolutely still makes sense to apply to Gtown - and, in fact, at a similar price point it may make more sense to attend Gtown than, say, Cornell (which isn't particularly known for its government placement prowess).

Thanks for responding, I think that's my point. For people who want to work with the feds GULC seems to have more pull. As far as networking goes Georgetown has a major pull in DC. I'm not saying T13 doesn't have the pull but the networking, and Alumni as far as I am to understand UVA and Georgetown take the cake.

Eeeeehhhhhhh... kinda.

This assumes that you do well enough at Georgetown to get into an honors program or biglaw, which is not a guarantee. If you want to go to a less competitive federal agency (not DOJ, SEC, etc.), then yes, Georgetown is probably a better choice than a lower T13, except for UVA.

But if you want to go to DOJ, a competitive USAO, SEC, FTC, etc., then HYSCCN are going to have plenty of connections to leverage and are likely going to keep doors open for you without requiring the same class placement as Georgetown would to keep those same doors open.

Don't discount networking entirely, but school pedigree makes a big difference in legal hiring. Lots of students come into law school banking on their ability to make connections and schmooze their way to the top, only to discover that a lot of jobs have school/GPA cutoffs.

[Mccoyology]

Eeeeehhhhhhh... kinda.

This assumes that you do well enough at Georgetown to get into an honors program or biglaw, which is not a guarantee. If you want to go to a less competitive federal agency (not DOJ, SEC, etc.), then yes, Georgetown is probably a better choice than a lower T13, except for UVA.

But if you want to go to DOJ, a competitive USAO, SEC, FTC, etc., then HYSCCN are going to have plenty of connections to leverage and are likely going to keep doors open for you without requiring the same class placement as Georgetown would to keep those same doors open.

Don't discount networking entirely, but school pedigree makes a big difference in legal hiring. Lots of students come into law school banking on their ability to make connections and schmooze their way to the top, only to discover that a lot of jobs have school/GPA cutoffs.

Understood, for me its between UVA, GULC and PENN. I'm from the DMV area and my wife isn't a fan of me going to UVA or PENN as I refuse to commute daily from Maryland. Looking to do National Security Law so I will def. heed you advice.

[totesTheGoat]

Understood, for me its between UVA, GULC and PENN. I'm from the DMV area and my wife isn't a fan of me going to UVA or PENN as I refuse to commute daily from Maryland. Looking to do National Security Law so I will def. heed you advice.

You remind me of myself as a 0L. A piece of unsolicited advice: go all-in on law school or don't bother. Trying to fit it into your existing life doesn't work and can easily become a worst of both worlds situation.

[CardozoLaw09]

Wow this is an awesome and inspiring thread, your dedication to studying and striving for a 170 is admirable.

If you're a 0L, this is how you do it!

[Shredzeppelin240]

Wow this is an awesome and inspiring thread, your dedication to studying and striving for a 170 is admirable.

If you're a 0L, this is how you do it!

Wow! Thank you for the kind words and for bearing through all my updates!