I attended the LSAC forum this weekend in Dallas, and I had some questions about getting accepted.
My GPA is a stellar 2.1, but my LSAT score is a 170. So the schools I talked to were pretty random in their responses. Berekely said “no way”, while UVA was surprisingly warm. Other schools that gave positive responses were Illinois, Indiana-Bloomington, and Wisconsin.
So I was wondering if anyone has any advice on things I can do to increase my chances of acceptance. I know that my statement is going to be very important, but I was curious if anyone had other, more subtle advice or experience. Sadly, my GPA doesn’t show a marked improvement, etc, but I have semesters of 4.0 and, uh, less good semesters. These are scattered fairly randomly. One strong reason for my crappy performance was MUDding, but I don’t really have a good excuse.
So any tips or advice would be great.
Look into upgrading to wealthy parents?
Two of the schools that you got a warm reception from, UVA and Wisconsin, are highly-ranked national schools, and Illinois and Indiana are nothing to sneeze at, so if you can get in schools like that with a 2.1 GPA, more power to you. I would try to embellish postive extra-curricular aspects of my resume (aside from MUDs) as much as possible.
I wouldn’t limit my possiblities to national schools (and IIRC you have a pretty fair one in Austin). A good piece of advice that I got when I was applying to law schools was that, in addition to applying to national schools, decide where you want to practice when you graduate and apply to all of the law schools in that area. You can tell that I really followed that advice, since I went to Boston University Law School and now live in Chicago.
I agree with Mr. Levine. Some schools put more emphasis on the LSAT than your GPA, especially if it has been a few years since you graduated. They realize you may now have your head on straight, and look at the LSAT as a more contemporary indicator of your likely performance. Night programs can be more forgiving about that, but make sure you find one at a decent school and not some unaccredited nonsense.
Heh, BTW I am from Kansas. I drove to Dallas to meet this admissions advisor (she has connections). I’d rather not stay in Kansas, thought KU is decent and there is a low cost of living.
