4 ms·

The GPA is an important caveat. I scored in the 99th percentile on the LSAT, and still couldn't get into any of the top tier schools I applied to because I slac

The GPA is an important caveat. I scored in the 99th percentile on the LSAT, and still couldn't get into any of the top tier schools I applied to because I slacked off too much in undergrad.

dvt 9y ago
Yeah, with a sub-3.0 GPA even with like a 180 on the LSAT, you're basically out of the t14 (except for a few splitter-friendly schools if you get lucky). The good news is that if you scored in the 99th percentile on the LSAT, you probably don't need to go to law school to be successful :)
- zippergz 9y ago
  Yes, in fact I view this as one of the great "dodged bullets" of my life. Because I wasn't accepted by my top choice schools (I had several who I wasn't interested in beating my door down), I decided not to go to law school at all. In retrospect, that was the best possible outcome.
  - sgpl 9y ago
    Do you have an email I could reach you at? I'd love to ask you a few questions privately!
- geebee 9y ago
  Could be. I'd be interesting in knowing if there's a big difference between sub 3.0 STEM GPAs and humanities. The problem with humanities is that there's just no need to consider you, they are already going to reject a large number of people with high grades and test scores. I suppose if you were a STEM major, the schools might need consider applications that aren't perfect if they want a decent representation from the sciences and engineering. I'd be interesting in seeing some data on this. At a place like Berkeley or other difficult STEM programs with low GPAs, I'm prepared to believe that a 2.9 GPA doesn't indicate someone would have any trouble with law school. It's very different from running this GPA in history at a top private. It's also worth noting that elite law schools have vanishingly low attrition rates - Columbia, for instance, has a 1L attrition rate of 0.3%. Yale often has no 1L attrition. Although I don't have data by engineering schools, my experience in a grad program at Berkeley is that such low attrition would be inconceivable in STEM, even at the MS level (and without question at the PhD level, where attrition can be as high as 50%, really, over 100 times higher than at an elite law school).

The GPA is an important caveat. I scored in the 99th percentile on the LSAT, and still couldn't get into any of the top tier schools I applied to because I slacked off too much in undergrad.

dvt 9y ago

Yeah, with a sub-3.0 GPA even with like a 180 on the LSAT, you're basically out of the t14 (except for a few splitter-friendly schools if you get lucky). The good news is that if you scored in the 99th percentile on the LSAT, you probably don't need to go to law school to be successful :)

zippergz 9y ago
Yes, in fact I view this as one of the great "dodged bullets" of my life. Because I wasn't accepted by my top choice schools (I had several who I wasn't interested in beating my door down), I decided not to go to law school at all. In retrospect, that was the best possible outcome.
- sgpl 9y ago
  Do you have an email I could reach you at? I'd love to ask you a few questions privately!
geebee 9y ago
Could be. I'd be interesting in knowing if there's a big difference between sub 3.0 STEM GPAs and humanities. The problem with humanities is that there's just no need to consider you, they are already going to reject a large number of people with high grades and test scores. I suppose if you were a STEM major, the schools might need consider applications that aren't perfect if they want a decent representation from the sciences and engineering. I'd be interesting in seeing some data on this. At a place like Berkeley or other difficult STEM programs with low GPAs, I'm prepared to believe that a 2.9 GPA doesn't indicate someone would have any trouble with law school. It's very different from running this GPA in history at a top private. It's also worth noting that elite law schools have vanishingly low attrition rates - Columbia, for instance, has a 1L attrition rate of 0.3%. Yale often has no 1L attrition. Although I don't have data by engineering schools, my experience in a grad program at Berkeley is that such low attrition would be inconceivable in STEM, even at the MS level (and without question at the PhD level, where attrition can be as high as 50%, really, over 100 times higher than at an elite law school).