Is the "Cumulative GPA" in the "Summary" box the GPA that law school admissions officers are going to use? It's just SO far off what I estimated it to be using the LSAC's guide to grade summary and 7Sage's calculator. It's much higher than my estimates and it has me worried I'm looking at the wrong thing.

Since we're compelled to report them to the CAS, do Summer School classes factor in to your undergrad GPA even when the Summer classes weren't part of your undergraduate degree?

Example: I earned a BA at University X. I took unrelated summer classes at University Y during the penultimate summer of my BA course. These summer classes contributed nothing towards my BA degree from University X.

Hi,

Was wondering how big of an impact a 3.65 GPA is vs a 3.66 GPA is for Law schools. I'm debating if I should take an extra class to raise my GPA, but I also want to make sure that I can get straight A's, not stress out too much, and study a little for the LSATs when I dont have midterms or finals. I'm kind of wondering what you guys think if taking the extra class is worth the headache?

.

Im nervous that my past is going to haunt me while pursing law school and taking the bar. I had a minor consumption at 19 and public intox at 21. I had a driving suspended when I was 16 for some insurance problem that I had no idea about. Am I screwed? I am 28 now

Hi!

I am planning to apply to law schools this upcoming cycle and was wondering if anyone could give me advice. I know that I primarily want to practice Environmental Law and have been doing a lot of research on which schools would be best. The top environmental law programs according to the US News rankings are not always T14 schools. I have been reading that to get a good Environmental Law job (working for EarthJustice, NRDC etc.) they often hire from T14 schools. Does anyone have any advice on if I should focus on only T14 schools or schools that rank highest in my area of interest?

Hello, all! I've been agonizing over this decision the past few weeks and would like some help deciding which school to attend. My narrowed-down options are:

My family is unable to make any contribution, I don't have a spouse, and my savings are minimal (only a few years out of undergrad). I'll be financing law school on my own. I'm a Texan, but I'm not set on practicing law in the south. I see myself working in the private sector. I haven't explored PI much, but I would like to have that as an option as well.

My heart is set on Columbia, but is it truly worth the crippling debt? I attended their ASD, and it seems the most common path is big law for 2-5 years to pay the loans down.

GTown has been knocked out of the T14

Wo.

I have another 1-2 years before I apply to Law School. Being a NTS, with student government leadership positions in Undergrad, 2 professional certifications, leadership positions in local Human Resources associations and 8 years of work experience do I need any other 'soft' skills to add to my application? Since I have a while before I apply, I figure I have time to add a few more things that could get me ahead of someone else in a tie-breaker. I also have a low GPA (3.5) so I feel I need as many legitimate, quality extracurriculars as I can get. I am becoming a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) volunteer this year and hoping that will also put me over the edge. Will that be enough? Am I overthinking this?

hey all! i'm prepping for the june 2017 lsat currently and planning on applying to law school this fall. i'm curious about what experiences you all have had within the legal field before law school.

tomorrow i start volunteering at the local municipal court resource center and am very excited to be on the front lines of our justice system. any other volunteers out there? what has your experience been? what about professionals? anyone working as a paralegal or law enforcement officer? or unpaid interns? did anyone fetch starbucks for a big law firm? or brew folgers for your local legal aid clinic?

were you inspired by working within the legal system to pursue law school? or did you already know that you wanted to attend law school and subsequently sought out a job/volunteer opportunity within the specific area of law that interested you?

any type-a personalities out there who mapped out a perfect post-undergraduate plan of two years of professional work before getting into HYS?

lastly, and perhaps most interesting i think, how did your pre-law school work/volunteer experience surprise you? did it change your goals when applying to law school?

curious to hear what you've experienced!

I've been reading a lot that most softs don't matter at all except in tie breaker situations. Is this true? I just did my LSAC GPA calculation and it dropped my GPA a whole point and a half (sigh) but I have extremely relevant work experience (negotiate contracts/represent individuals in arbitrations and employment hearings for a union) and military service. I'm kind of hoping that's still looked at, but the more I read on the subject the less important softs seem to be.

I am curious what is the relevance and weight that will be placed on work and internship experience for law school admissions and then also (and perhaps more importantly) once one gets into law school and needs to find a job once in law school & upon graduation. I currently have no legal experience but am not sure how important it is that I gain experience before entering law school -maybe not so much because I believe it could harm my chances of getting in as I am afraid it would harm my chances of getting a job in or after law school. I am in my junior year of undergrad and at this point desire to apply to law schools this fall and go straight to law school after graduation. According to my pre-law advisor at my undergrad university (UC Berkeley), law schools do not place as much weight on experience (as LSAT and GPA) in terms of admissions. However, I am unsure exactly how much it would affect me after getting into a law school. Does anyone have concrete advise on this issue?

I know this question shouldn't and won't affect my studying habits (except for maybe lighting a fire under my ass), but I noticed that UCLA, my goal school, jumped to #15 in the most recent US News rankings. Is this going to make them more selective? I'm doing my best to make a 170 the next time I take the test, but I felt a little comfort knowing that if I have a bad day, UCLA's average LSAT score is a 167...

Hi everyone!

I'm kind of stuck with a few good offers, but a lot of silence.

Full scholarships from ASU and IU. (Took Feb. LSAT so I know I'm late to the game.)

Complete silence from: BU, Georgetown, Vandy, UVA, BC, UW. Has anyone else NOT heard from these schools? Afraid of what the silence means.

For some background, currently enrolled in undergrad at Purdue, hoping to work in foreign affairs or for a multinational corporation. Brother in Boston. Parents retiring in Phoenix. S/O in Seattle. Vandy/Georgetown were my reaches, but it looks like I could get in, given their LSN profiles.

Some of you know that my dream school is UTA, but my scores fall below the qualifications, and I am in that 0-10% range in LSAC for acceptance. I am not expecting miracles here, but I was wondering if I could push my chances up by a point by sending in a "Why UT?" essay to the admissions office?

If so, how do you go about that? Do you just send an e-mail attachment to the admissions office and title it with a "Why UT? Letter add on to admissions committee for consideration" type of thing? Also, if I wished to add an addendum , could I do the same?

My application was sent in about a month ago, and it's possible that I receive an answer soon. I may be too late, as a matter of fact. Still, in case I am not, are these things I should do? Or is it best to wait it out at this point?

I've been tearing up for the past hour haha. Never imagined I would be making a post like this on 7Sage.

Just wanted to thank this awesome community and @"david.busis" . The advice I received on this forum and blind review calls has been invaluable.

(3(/p)

Thank you 7sage. The waiting process of admissions has been brutal but this week I got into both of my dream schools! None of this would have been possible without this amazing community. I cannot say enough times how awesome 7sage is and everytime I see what is new it seems to be getting better and better. I love this community and owe so much to many people here. THANK YOUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!

First off, I wanted to thank 7sage and its awesome community for its support through this LSAT endeavor. It hasn't been a smooth and silky road, but i've made it through thanks to some webinars, lessons, and chat discussions. Thank you all.

I took the feb LSAT, and the re-take was a moderates success. I ended up with a 165, froze on the games and had to blindly guess on i think 8-9 questions. Still, I got into the University of Washington with that score, and i'll soon find out about scholarship info.

Im happy that I was accepted, but because i was scoring 170-172 on my PT's, (and feeling like I could still improve), my aspirations were a bit higher. So now, I'm deciding whether to just accept this route towards UW or wait one more year to take one last crack at the LSAT. My s/o was accepted at her ideal university, also here in Washington, and my whole family is here as well, so there is that additional consideration of even if I do get a higher score on another take and get accepted to a goal school, would I really be emotionally able to leave? It's also just still kind of hard thing for me to swallow to accept this last take as final, as i've figured out (as much as i can) the anxiety issue that made me freeze.

These thoughts have just been bouncing around in my brain for a while, and mostly I think just writing/posting this will help the decision making process. But still, any thoughts/opinions?

Thank you all again for being such an awesome community these past months.

So I recently have been considering schools and careers beyond what I originally have thought of doing. I am curious aboutthe University of Virginia's Law School and would love to hear anyone's experience with them (interviews, what they're looking for in an applicant, etc.). Thanks!

If LSAC does not process your transcript before the application deadline, are you just screwed? I know you can still submit your application to the school even if your transcript and LORs are not processed, but do the schools consider your application to be incomplete and just not accept it?

Hey,

I've been put on the preferred waitlist at two t-14 school and wont know if I got off the waitlist until after May. However, one of the non- t-14 but still really solid school gave me until May,1st to accept the full scholarship public interest fellowship and if I don't accept it by then, I won't receive the full ride. However accepting the fellowship means that I have to withdraw my application from all other schools. Honestly, I want to be a public interest lawyer and the school which I received a full ride to is a very strong program for that. However, the two t-14 schools I was waitlisted at have more name recognition but since I was waitlisted I assume I wont be receiving much if any scholarships to go into those schools even if accepted, is that a correct assumption? Is getting the risk of the waitlist at a t-14 worth passing up a full ride scholarship?

**Edited this post because this is the internet and therefore I need to be extra careful that the intended meaning is conveyed.

This is an email I received today from a law school. I've received several emails from law schools daily since writing for the LSAT last December. The problem is that I didn't reach my target score, so every successive email serves as a reminder of my formerly misguided prep (I immediately unsubscribe). But this email alarmed/amused me.

This is a Tier 8 law school apparently so desperate to fill their classrooms that they don't even ask you to take the LSAT (or the GRE). It's alarming because I regard this sort of email as predatory -- particularly for students who may not know better or are feeling down about a poor score. And it's amusing because, well, it's just so absurd! It's absurd because here is a school whose sole premise for why we should apply there is that we don't need to take the LSAT.

To anyone out there frustrated with their first, second, or third take, your score doesn't define you. The 7Sage community is here to support us all in our LSAT pursuits so that when it's all said and done, we're left without regrets. But for some of us, despite our wishes, dreams, hard work, or expenditures, Law School may not be the best option. If you are even considering a school such as the one who sent me this email, please, PLEASE contact a Sage, Mentor, or Tutor in this community and chat. I promise there will be no shortage of knowledgeable people ready listen and share feedback.

"Instead, it considers an essay test that the school itself has developed and most importantly, it is read and graded by a full time MSLAW professor who, based upon years of practical and academic experience, is well qualified to assess an applicant's ability to think and write well. The requirement of a mandatory interview, the review of an applicant's entire record in school and the work force, and the essay aptitude test enable the Admissions Committee to identify worthy students who would be denied admission to traditional law schools simply because of their LSAT scores.

Applications are still being accepted for the Fall 2017 Semester. Apply Today!

Best,"

Hi all,

I have a question. I am applying to law school this fall, but am wanting to take some courses as a visiting student at Columbia's MSW program in Spring of 2018. Would I still have to send those transcripts to LSAC/CAS even if I am applying in the fall and will be completely done with applications by December of 2017? I checked online and it said I should send all transcripts, but is the best thing to do just call and ask the schools?

My only concern is risking looking like I don't know what I want to do if I take some MSW courses... the reason being for, honestly, just academic pleasure. I am really interested in social work.

Thanks y'all,

Trying to decide whether it is worth it to go to a T-8 in US or stay in Canada to go to UBC; sitting on a good offer from T-8, admission but no $ from UBC. Am a dual citizen, and want to practice in public interest or move into legal academia; no biglaw aspirations.

https://today.law.harvard.edu/gre/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=hls-twitter-general

I wonder how many other schools will make this change and how soon.