3.0 GPA, Practice LSAT/GRE Conversion Suggest 165 range Forum

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TheBerg179

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3.0 GPA, Practice LSAT/GRE Conversion Suggest 165 range

Post by TheBerg179 » Fri Aug 03, 2018 6:18 pm

Hello all! So my UG GPA is right at a 3.0 but I had a significant improvement in the last two years of undergrad. I started community college 9 years ago and had pitiful results for the first several years. I took a year off and got a 3.77 from then onward at a state school, and just received an MA with a 3.78 GPS from a Big 10 school. Now of course my grad GPA will not be calculated with my undergrad GPA, but will the significant upswing in grades (nearly a 3.8 in the last four years of classes) be taken into account? Assuming I do, in fact, score around a 165 do I realistically have a chance at law schools in the 30-50 range? I also wonder if my academic background would come into play; I want to become an immigration lawyer and I have a global studies MA and I am fluent in Spanish and Russian. At the very least, I feel like this might give me the chance to write a compelling personal statement.

I guess my question really boils down to wondering how much GPA, LSAT, and personal statements matter? Which aspects are generally considered the most important? Thank you!!

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4LTsPointingNorth

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Re: 3.0 GPA, Practice LSAT/GRE Conversion Suggest 165 range

Post by 4LTsPointingNorth » Fri Aug 03, 2018 7:30 pm

Is 3.0 your LSAC calculated GPA? (This number is arrived at once you submit all of your transcripts from community college and your degree-granting institution to LSAC). Your LSAC GPA is king and does not take any graduate school grades into account.

As far as law school admissions are concerned, your LSAC GPA and your highest LSAT score are what matter. These are the admissions numbers that law schools have to report for their own institutional rankings purposes.

A pronounced upswing in grades and good graduate school grades may help you win a tie-breaker against an applicant with nearly identical uGPA and LSAT scores as you, but they won't help you outperform your numbers.

Your immigration lawyer aspirations may help strengthen the impact of your personal statement assuming you're able to submit a convincing narrative around that, and your foreign language skills will be a big help in your eventual job search (though not much of a help in the law school application process).

Finally, because immigration law isn't particularly lucrative, you will really need to get significant scholarship money in order to have a chance at financial solvency in your post-top-law-schools.com. So if a T30-50 school is your target, with your GPA you more realistically need a 169-171 on the LSAT to have a shot at admission plus any amount of merit based financial aid.

Regarding your last question, uGPA and LSAT each matter a lot, and together they matter an overwhelming amount more than any other aspect of your application. The other stuff can slightly help you if done well, or can really hurt you if done poorly, but these other factors won't save you from your numbers.

TheBerg179

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Re: 3.0 GPA, Practice LSAT/GRE Conversion Suggest 165 range

Post by TheBerg179 » Fri Aug 03, 2018 9:25 pm

4LTsPointingNorth wrote:Is 3.0 your LSAC calculated GPA? (This number is arrived at once you submit all of your transcripts from community college and your degree-granting institution to LSAC). Your LSAC GPA is king and does not take any graduate school grades into account.

As far as law school admissions are concerned, your LSAC GPA and your highest LSAT score are what matter. These are the admissions numbers that law schools have to report for their own institutional rankings purposes.

A pronounced upswing in grades and good graduate school grades may help you win a tie-breaker against an applicant with nearly identical uGPA and LSAT scores as you, but they won't help you outperform your numbers.

Your immigration lawyer aspirations may help strengthen the impact of your personal statement assuming you're able to submit a convincing narrative around that, and your foreign language skills will be a big help in your eventual job search (though not much of a help in the law school application process).

Finally, because immigration law isn't particularly lucrative, you will really need to get significant scholarship money in order to have a chance at financial solvency in your post-top-law-schools.com. So if a T30-50 school is your target, with your GPA you more realistically need a 169-171 on the LSAT to have a shot at admission plus any amount of merit based financial aid.

Regarding your last question, uGPA and LSAT each matter a lot, and together they matter an overwhelming amount more than any other aspect of your application. The other stuff can slightly help you if done well, or can really hurt you if done poorly, but these other factors won't save you from your numbers.
Thank you, this is an outstanding answer. Much appreciated!

Law 202x

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Re: 3.0 GPA, Practice LSAT/GRE Conversion Suggest 165 range

Post by Law 202x » Thu Aug 09, 2018 1:49 am

What were your GRE scores? And how did you obtain the conversion? Because if you did it from GRE -> LSAT I would submit to you that it doesn't work like that. The student pools are quite different groups and by and large, I would say that graduate school readiness is much higher among the LSAT cohort than the GRE cohort. But I do know a formula where you could convert GRE to SAT to LSAT which would give you a more accurate picture, I believe.

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