Hi all! I'm thinking about writing an addendum because my academic history is a little unorthodox. Considering the addendum is disliked, I wanted to get all of your opinions.

In high school I had a 3.92 weighted GPA. When I was studying for the SAT in 2012, I studied as hard as I could, but it was no use. I took a practice test and received a 1440/2400. Considering the predictive value of the SAT and future success, I was discouraged from even applying to colleges. I didn't take the SAT because I didn't want to waste money to confirm a low score and directly enrolled in a community college. When I was accepted as a transfer student to UC Berkeley I was terrified because high school was more rigorous than community college. However, I worked two jobs and graduated a semester early with a 3.92 GPA. My high school GPA was coincidently a direct prediction of my UC Berkeley GPA and future success.

When I took my first LSAT diagnostic I received a 138. I spent the next 6 months studying and in September 2016 I received a 147. I was devastated, but I continued studying because I was determined. I was working a full time job, with a 2 hour commute, and spending a minimum of 3 hours a day studying during the weekdays. (Weekends, of course, I spent 4 hours minimum.) I continued this schedule for a year and half until I took the June 2018 test and received a 161. Although this is a great score, I'm still convinced it's not reflective of my abilities*

My issues include:

My goals:

*Before, I hear another retake argument, I think it is safe to say that studying the LSAT for a total of 2 years is as good as it's going to get. I've memorized all the practice tests and taken them multiple times.

Do you guys think they will remove the LSAT as an admissions requirement? I've ran into a couple of articles about the ABA removing it as a requirement for the law school admissions process, leaving it up to the schools to decide if they want to use it.

I have been studying to take the November 2018 LSAT and I have some concerns regarding my chances of admission to Canadian schools.

First off, I graduated from the University of Oregon with a cumulative GPA of 2.93. Yes, I am painfully aware of how low my grades compare to every median. I do not have a high GPA because I suffered from clinical depression as a freshman and it tanked my average. It reached the point where the UO actually kicked me out of school and I had to petition to get back in after a year of community college.

I went to a psychologist and psychiatrist, received the help I needed and got myself enrolled in classes at Lane. After a year, I managed to get back into the University where I performed great and received A's and B's. I earned a 3.8 in my last year, a 4.13 in my last term and wrote a kickass undergraduate thesis.

Despite all of that, I am feeling discouraged that even with a solid explanation for my low overall GPA and a strong trend line upon my return, I will be unable to attend school. I am going to hit this test as hard as I can, but I am not sure how rigid schools will be regarding GPAs.

I am curious if any of you have a similar predicament to mine or know how strict Canadian schools are with their medians. I know UBC has a discretionary category and most other schools only take certain portions of an applicant's overall GPA.

Any help or information would be greatly appreciated! Also, good luck to you all!

I'm looking at this (https://classic.7sage.com/admissions/lesson/when-to-write-a-non-required-addendum/?ss_completed_lesson=14725) lesson in the admissions course and I feel like I might be in a gray area. I think I'm pretty bad on standardized tests and, like everyone else who considers writing an addendum for a low LSAT score, I feel my score isn't representative of my intelligence or my ability to excel in law school. The lesson says the following and I think I might fall in this camp and would like your opinions on this:

If you have a history of scoring low on standardized tests but performing very well in school—for example, you scored a 14 on the ACT, but got straight As in difficult classes—you have legitimate grounds for writing an addendum.

My earlier standardized test scores have been all over the place but they have never been exceptional. While I didn't get a 14 on my ACT, I got a 24 and 25 on my first and second takes, respectively. My SATs went from as low as 1690 to as high as 1850. While an 1850 isn't horrible, there's still some room for improvement. I got into a top school and took some pretty hard classes and finished with an LSDAS GPA of 4.0+. What do you guys think about writing a low LSAT score addendum on these grounds?

So slightly ridiculous question, but I’m basically half Eastern European and half Filipino. I’ve always been confused on whether I should be describing myself as Caucasian and Pacific Islander or if I should indicate I’m Caucasian and Asian. And any chance either one helps with admissions? I’m assuming not, but wondering if anyone has any thoughts about it!

Hello all!

So I am trying to brainstorm various topics or events that I could write my personal statement about. There is one particular experience I had a while back that I am thinking could work well for me. During my first semester of college, I was experiencing some symptoms related to drug induced lupus where I would have severe joint pain to the point of not being able to get out of bed on one occasion. While this was going on, my father (who has never been a very emotional man) had a breakdown due to other family issues that landed him in the psychiatric ward twice over a two month period. It was a difficult situation, trying to stay upbeat while it was usually painful to walk long distances and while my family was having a hard time dealing with my father's situation. I also vividly remember trying to calm my father down when he was having overwhelming anxiety attacks at home between stays at the psych ward. I was able to remain positive and support my family emotionally while also working a part-time job and landing on the Dean's List that semester (although academically it was my worst semester).

While I think it could work well for a personal statement, I have seen some suggestions not to use stories or events that took place some time ago. While my specific life event did not occur in high school or earlier, it did occur in my first semester of college after graduating high school. My question is whether the fact that this event took place nearly four years ago will matter to adcoms? Are they looking for more recent personal development?

Thanks in advance for the help!

Hi everyone,

I am planning on taking the September LSAT and possibly applying ED to UC Davis if I manage to get a 160 because 7sage's law school predictor suggests that with ED I would have a 66% chance of admission. However, I also plan on taking the LSAT in November and I believe I will at least get a 163. That said, if I get admitted ED will they have less incentive to offer me more financial aid/ scholarship money? Making sure that I get into a good school is important to me, but getting the funds to go to said good school is also extremely important to me.

In summary: I don't want to apply ED if it might reduce my chances of getting a good financial package. Will it reduce my chances?

Thank you all.

Hi everyone,

I was hoping to get some insight on my chances of being admitted to Melbourne University for their JD program. I'm a student from Canada expecting to complete my degree with a low 70s and an LSAT score of low 160s.

Thanks for your help in advance!

Good evening,

I have been working on my law school application materials to apply ED. If I am set on attending a particular school, would it be wise to personalize all of the recommendations and essays to the school (UGA)? Also, how soon should I schedule a tour of the school after I apply?

Thank you so much!

Hi everyone, I'm scheduled to visit two schools in southern California next month. I'm leaning towards business casual (slacks and either polo or long sleeved button up), but want to make sure I'm not committing a fashion faux pas. I feel like a suit / tie is too much and my normal socal uniform of berks, board shorts, and tee shirt may be a bit casual.

Thoughts? and thanks!

I recently attended 7Sage's webinar hosted by (I believe) David Busis, where he talked about international students applying to US law schools. An interesting thing he talked about was that international students face a disadvantage when it comes to law school admissions because of a variety of reasons, including GPA conversion, language, and financial issues. However, I am not sure if the same applies to my case. I am an international student studying at top liberal arts school in the US (which means that I won't have language or GPA conversion issues). In this situation, would I still be at a disadvantage, solely based on the fact that I am not a US citizen?

Hi everyone,

I'm just wondering if anyone has any insight as to the value a master's degree holds in the admissions process? I personally have trouble with the LSAT but my undergrad GPA is fairly high and I have a 4.0 GPA from a master's degree. I'm hoping that I can rely on this at least a little but if anyone knows what kind of value it holds, any insight is greatly appreciated! In case it changes anything, I am applying to Canadian law schools.

Thank you!

I'm going to L.A.W.S. and I want to be prepared with intelligent questions and things to say. Does anyone have any suggestions?

URM AAf 3.4 169 shot at Yale?

Title says it all

I’m 28

Lots of good softs

Work experience

I can’t retake

I have a conference call scheduled with a very well-respected lawyer, who also taught at a T14 for a few years.

What questions should I ask him???

Good evening,

I already have individuals who have agreed to write letters of recommendation for me. In addition to my resume, what other information should I send to my LOR writers? They have interacted with me a good bit, but don’t know everything about me. What suggestions do you all have for information that I should get to these individuals?

Thank you so much in advance!

Hello,

I am a non traditional student, out of college for over ten years now. I was hoping to just take the july LSAT but its looking like my schedule has definitely impeded my studying. If i took the test in November so i can really take the proper time for PTs would that be putting me at a disadvantage admissions wise? I already have a bit of an uphill battle due to a low UGPA.

Hello everyone.

Long story short. Life happened and it took me 6 years to graduate. I had multiple semesters I had to withdraw from which resulted in 36 hours of W's.

The LSAC has calculated these W's as F's and my 3.5 gpa is now a 2.62.

On this page https://www.lsac.org/aboutlsac/policies/transcript-summarization#excluded under the heading Grades Excluded from Conversion, the very first point on the list is "Withdraw, Withdraw/Pass—only if the issuing school considers the grade nonpunitive"

So my question is, if my final transcript shows a 3.5 wouldn't these withdrawals be non-punitive? I am understanding the word punitive as my school would use these W's in my GPA calculation as zero.

I have also looked at the site https://www.lsac.org/transcriptkeys/igugs-search.aspx

My school has this listed:

Excluded From Both LSAC and School☼ Calculation

☼Passing grades from systems with fewer than three passing grades (e.g., High Pass/Pass/Fail) are not necessarily excluded from the school's GPA calculation.

Unconverted: CR,P

Omitted: AU,GNR,I,IP,NG,NGR,NR,W,WN

Nonpunitive: (This section is BLANK)

So the Nonpunitive section is blank but W's are listed under Omitted. Maybe I am answering my own question here but do I have a shot at challenging the LSAC's GPA calculation?

Thank you in advance and good luck to everyone here.

PS. I'm kind of starting here to feel the situation out and will contact my registrar soon.

Hi all,

As a splittter I know I have a really good chance of ending up on the waitlist and I would love to know if after taking the September and November LSATs (and probably getting waitlisted) if I should also count on taking the January LSAT to try to get off the waitlist. Should I even consider taking the June LSAT to get off the waitlist???

Or do I just have to proceed with sending out LOCIs and crying? (LOL)

ALSO: Unfortunately, waiting for the next cycle and re-applying is definitely not an option for me.

Thanks!

Hi all. I'm an international student so please excuse me for my poor writing.

So I plan on applying this cycle, having taken the June LSAT and waiting till the results come out next week. In the meantime I intend to proceed with my application including the personal statement and LORs, but I am having some difficulty deciding whom to ask for a Letter of Recommendation.

I'm in my senior year at college at the moment and I'm pretty confident that I've done a fair job in getting good grades. But when it comes to my relationship with professors, I'm not as confident that most professors I have taken courses from know me well enough to write a convincing LOR.

True, I have had some meaningful interaction with a few of them and I know for sure that they would not hesitate to recommend me, but I'm not so certain as to whether I should ask them; I've only taken a single course from each of them, which I would say is not a very convincing indicator that the recommender is well aware of my qualities.

In short, is it a bad idea to ask a professor for LOR even though I took only one course from them? I would appreciate your advice.

So, anyone got suggestions how to stay sane with adhering to the course and somewhat progressing during gap year(s)?

I initially had planned on taking the September 2018 exam but life decided to show me that "adulting" is more important.

How do some of you balance working/finding work that would "beef up your resume" while studying for this monster of an exam?

I'm aiming to try to get into USC or UCLA for Fall 2019 or 2020.

Yeah, that's right not a typo. Sorry for the long post, but allow me to explain. I have been working on my BA for almost 10 years, and have made many different career/life moves in that time. When I was younger I was very impulsive, not in a reckless sort of way, but I was pretty unafraid of making big, life-changing decisions pretty much on a dime.

So in 2009, I was in my second semester at my local community college when my girlfriend broke up with me and the financial crisis really began to hit home for my family. These two events made me really question what I was doing and what I was working towards in school, and I decided that I wanted to do some serious travelling before continuing with my degree. So I withdrew from 3 courses and got a restaurant job while finishing the other 2. In September of 2009, I registered for 3 courses to take while I was working, but ultimately decided to withdraw from these courses too and got two more jobs, so I could save more money. That's 6 W's so far.

I saved for this trip, and wound up going for a 16 months backpacking trip that lasted from 2010 to 2011. I visited 25 countries on 4 continents. I'm hoping I can somehow use this fact to spin the massive number of withdrawals I have from this part of my education.

While abroad, I applied for university and got in, with the aim of becoming an engineer. In 2011, I returned to school, took a bunch of math and science courses, and got into Engineering school; however, when I started the next semester, I realized I really didn't enjoy math and science all that much. So I withdrew from 2 of the 5 courses I was taking (calculaus and matrix algebra), finished the other three, and enrolled in a history and a poli sci course for the summer, with the aim of majoring in International Relations. We're at 8 W's now.

I was accepted into the IR program, but on starting my next year of study, I felt a lump in my throat. I went to my doctor, who referred me to a ENT specialist. While this lump turned out to be benign, it totally derailed my studies and changed my perspective on life. I found myself asking myself: if I had 1,2,3 years to live, what would I be doing? And the frank answer was, I wanted to be a bartender. While working at restaurants to save the money to travel, I'd developed this huge interest in cocktails, wine, spirirts, etc. Once I'd realized this, even after discovering I was healthy, I just knew I couldn't stay in school. I had to pursue this dream, as silly as it may be. I withdrew from all five of my courses, and started beating down the door of all the best bars in the city. That's 13 W's now.

I wound up working as a bartender for five years. At the end of my career, I had won numerous awards and managed bar programmes for some of the most decorated bars and restaurants in the country; however, the late nights and booze were getting old. I realized it was finally time for my to go back to school. In September 2017, I enrolled in two courses just to try to school out again. I enjoyed it but didn't know what I wanted to do still, so I didn't register for any courses for the next term.

Instead I went to woodworking school for 6 months. I liked it, but I realized my romantic notions of manual labour did not accord with the reality. And the pay was terrible. So in 2018, I came back to university AGAIN and decided, screw it, I'm just going to major in English, which I love. It's been amazing, I can't believe I didn't do it sooner. I have been taking just English courses for the past academic year and was just accepted into English Honours. Stupidly, I wasn't enjoying one of my profs teaching styles, and withdrew from one of my courses. That's W number 14. This was a totally avoidable W and, in light of everything else, I shouldn't have done it. Oh well.

Additional info: I am writing the September 2018 LSAT and am currently PTing in the mid-to-high 170s. I have a 4.0 GPA over all my courses, despite all the interruptions and course changes. I am close with many of my profs and will have several strong academic references. I have 2 more years of academic study left (since I opted for honours, which takes a few more credits) and am fully committed to my life path in a way I never was before. Also, there will be no more W's.

So what should I do? How much will this effect me? Will the things I did while out of school help to justify the W's I got when leaving school multiple times? How should I acknowledge the events described above?

Thank you if you took the time to read this wall of text.

Background:

I scored a 164 on the Feb. 2018 LSAT. This was the low end of my PTing range of 164 - 172. GPA of 3.93. Attended a higher-end state school. I work at a legal aid firm as a paralegal, before that I was an AmeriCorps member at the same firm. I have eclectic undergrad experience including winning a grant to research public defense in my state (and actually doing the research), also majoring in English Lit and concentrating on Caribbean literature, and being a very proficient (but mostly amateur) classical musician. I'm probably headed for public interest, making scholarship money important. My spouse and I are in a financially stable position, though.

Question:

My question is pretty specific; I already know I need to retake the LSAT. However, before retaking the LSAT (probably on the new November date) I'd like to craft a really good ED app and send it either to Berkeley or Northwestern due to their scholarship offerings for being accepted ED. Generally, it seems like ED and an early cycle app would increase my chances of getting in and I like both of these schools enough that I'd go to either. Any thoughts on which?

Pros of Berkeley: historically seem to weigh GPA more highly, might like an applicant with demonstrated experience, devotion to public interest, and interesting background. Once my spouse and I establish CA residency, the cost decreases, and there's the 60K scholarship split over the three years. That would probably be affordable for us.

Pros of Northwestern: personal connections including a supervisor who went there, a professor from undergrad who knows admissions counselors and professors and would provide a solid recommendation. The full-ride scholarship seems like a double-edged sword: yeah, it'd be great, but it seems unrealistic. My chances of EDing Northwestern probably depend a lot on retaking the LSAT. But maybe those personal connections would help?

Thanks in advance! I really appreciate it.

Hi everyone,

I studied abroad my first year of college (new program) and had an okay GPA (3.4). I went back to my home university and spent nearly a whole year sick with the worst bout of asthma-bronchitis I have ever had (I missed a ton of classes, choked on air, could not speak, intense fatigue, etc.). I still maintained an okay GPA (3.0-3.2--I can't remember) but I missed the deadline to withdraw from a science GE I was taking (Astronomy) and although my university does not consider P/F in their GPA calculation--I have heard that the LSAT does and that a Fail= an F. I have not officially submitted my transcripts to the LSAC but I'm guessing my overall GPA will end up being pretty low (3.26-ish).

Should I write an addendum? My first semester Senior Year GPA was a 3.5 and my second semester GPA was a 3.7--so there was definitely an upward trajectory...I just don't want to seem like I'm making excuses, but my sickness seriously messed up my year. Sometimes I would try to attend class and then have to excuse myself to have a 10 minute coughing fit outside the classroom...And I'm not even exaggerating.

Also, my major GPA was MUCH better than my cumulative GPA--is that something I should point out? I was an English Literature major with a minor in Forensics and Criminality and so all the science-y GE courses messed up my GPA. My overall GPA was a 3.36 and my major GPA was a 3.56 (this is before the LSAC calculates my GPA). Also, I went to a competitive university in California--do law schools take this into account?

Any advice is very appreciated.

Thank you.

I wish someone could hold my hand through this process and help me every step of the way. Does anyone tutor people on this stuff? God, help me.

Diversity statement question:

Personal statement question:

*Trigger warning (violence)-- because I'm a millennial, and it's a thing we do...

I feel like a lost puppy.