2.2 GPA. Taking the LSAT on June 3. Is it worth it? Forum

[redman443]

I know, my GPA is absolutely atrocious, but before you judge me and say "Does he even belong in law school?" Let me explain the entire situation. Ever since I was in the third grade, I have wanted to become a lawyer. I think that I have always been very bright, I scored great on my standardized tests in high school and scored great on the SAT and made mostly Bs in high school with some As and few Cs peppered in here and there. I was a member of the key club, leadership team and participated in student government. Despite my successes in high school, I had a very up and down undergraduate career. I started at a community college after I graduated from high school. I went through some very difficult family issues in my first half of my undergrad career and as a result, I had a difficult time adjusting to the rigor of college coursework. I dropped out of the community college the fall of my second year in undergrad and my family convinced me to go back and transfer to a university. I returned to my community college that following spring and over the next 2 semesters, drastically improved my GPA and in the fall of 2015, transferred to Auburn University, where I picked history as my major. I would come to regret this decision because I wanted to major in political science but my family convinced me to major in history because it is something that I would supposedly excel in. This was a big mistake and the issues that plagued me in community college reared their ugly head even more when I was at Auburn. When I say this, I am not looking for pity when I say this because I want those who are reading to fully understand my situation. My Grandmother, who is a very important figure in our family started having heart issues and my parents split and got back together in a short period of time. All of this had a large emotional effect on me and as a result, I failed spanish my first semester at Auburn and made Cs and Ds in my other classes. This became a recurrent issue and at one point, there was a question of if I was even going to graduate. When
I took my major classes, they would require alot of reading since it is history. I would read little to none of the material because I could not stay engaged or I was too anxious over the issues in my family. As a result, I would perform poorly on tests and papers. I did not want this to become my reality and I wanted to rebound and do well so, I went to a psychologist and I brought my personal and academic issues to their attention and the psychologist diagnosed me with probable attention deficit disorder. I gave the report, which was about 30 pages long to the accessibility office at Auburn to see if I was able to get any accommodations and I was given accommodations towards the end of my undergrad career which helped tremendously but the damage to my GPA had already been done. I did notice when I used methods to cope with attention problems and stayed engaged on readings, I would make As. So my undergrad story had a happy ending and I graduated with my BA but now I really want to go to law school. FSU or Florida to be exact. Auburn has this thing called the grade adjustment policy or GAP and I had my failing grades Gapped, which put my GPA at a 2.5 but I know that LSAC will probably factor in the grades I failed which would give me the atrocious 2.2 GPA. I am scheduled to take the LSAT on June 3, which I have been preparing for since early March. I would like to think I would have a shot if I scored a 167+ but I can't find any actual success stories that are similar to mine on google. Is there any point in taking the LSAT if a high score won't make a difference? I am not asking for pity or shame because no one can shame me more than I have shamed myself for my years in undergrad.

[albanach]

Long spiel explaining low GPA.

Two things. lawschoolnumbers.com doesn't show FSU accepting anyone with that low a GPA, however they do appear to accept almost everyone with an LSAT in the mid 160s. So maybe you have a shot.

Make sure you are very familiar with the employment prospects, and the actual cost of law school. https://www.lstreports.com/schools/fsu

Assuming you have graduated, your GPA is set in stone. My advice would be to separate yourself from it as much as possible by finding work elsewhere and doing well at it. Then work on getting a strong LSAT score. Combined, that's never going to get you into the T-14, but might open the doors to a better school.

[Kiwilaw]

Just chipping in to say that if you can achieve a 169, you should apply ED to WUSTL. They are the most splitter friendly school, and are ranked in the top 20. LSN shows that even those with a 2.0 and a high LSAT stand a chance. It's unlikely they will actually admit you ED since that comes with a scholarship, but they may kick you to regular decision and admit you then. Good luck

[SlipperyKipper]

I agree with albanach. With an LSAT score in the mid to high 160s, you should have a good shot at acceptance. Probably with a bit of money. I don't know if this would fit your definition of a "success story" but I was in a similar situation with a sub-3.0 GPA. I had a higher LSAT score, so I was a pretty hefty splitter. I gained acceptance into a couple schools ranked similar to FSU and higher ranked schools with $$$.

I second the advice that you should take some time and gain work experience and focus on studying for the LSAT. Your GPA cannot be fixed. So, you need to knock it out of the park with your LSAT score. It is definitely possible to gain acceptance into FSU and other higher-ranked T1s but, once again, that is all contingent on your LSAT score.

Good luck!