Disclaimer to my Mom: I’m going to talk about my college GPA, but not in specifics. So you’re free to read on… if not I can’t blame you.
Further Warning: This post may not be too interesting to you, but I needed tangentially vent what runs though my head every day now that law school admissions hangs over my head daily.
So here’s the 411. While I would consider myself a bright kid and intelligent, I have also been an academic slacker, as my parents can testify. I have always been able to earn As in college classes, but have often been too lazy or turned off by the subject matter (my Business Management minor) to dedicate myself to the work. The only exception off the top of my head to my I’m-capable-of-making- straight-As position is mathematics; that part of my brain stopped developing after 2nd grade. If I were to be asked what 6 times 7 is, I would most likely pull out my cell phone and scroll to my calculator. I loathe math and it feels the same way about me I think. Anydangway, BYU has a repentance-clause to your undergraduate grade point average (UGPA)– if you repeat a class (say you got a C) and the second time earn an A (say you got… an A) then the C (also read 2.0) would be erased completely, “white as snow” as Isaiah put it, and replaced with a 4.0. Sounds like a good deal huh? I always thought so. If I got a grade I didn’t like in a class (maybe a C or below or something), I would frown but in the back of my mind, I always knew I could take it over and replace it good as new. Thanks to this forgiveness policy my BYU UGPA is somewhere in the 3.middle area. Not too bad for someone that hasn’t been working at full capacity for all 4 years I feel.
HOWEVER, there’s a catch.
In the course of learning about the application process to law school, here’s what I’ve found out. All applicants to law school must submit their undergraduate transcripts (and all other material- letters of recommendations, addendum, blank checks, etc.) directly to the Law School Admissions Counsel (LSAC). The LSAC are the gods of law school admissions- you must go through them. What these sadists do is take your transcript and calculate their OWN version of your GPA to pass on the law schools! Yikes! Two things in this process are working to my disadvantage. First is the way BYU assigns grades: A A- B+ B B- etc. According to BYU, an A is a 4.0, A- a 3.7, B+ 3.4 and B 3.0 and so forth. Well…. The LSAC (page 27) knocks you down a touch: A is still 4.0, but An A- is 3.67, B+3.33, B 3.0 and you get the picture. I mean, a 3.4 and 3.33 isn’t HUGE, but multiply the difference over 140 credit hours and you’re definitely not looking as great as candidates from some other school. OH! And apparently some colleges out there reward A+’s?? And the LSAC gives them 4.6s or something crazy like that! No fair! But the difference this made to my GPA wasn’t crushing– what was worse was the second thing that worked to my disadvantage. Remember that whole retake-and-repent forgiveness policy at BYU? I guess it’s just a BYU thing. The LSAC calculates EVERY class you EVER took, even repeats. I’ve repeated… several classes, and so my GPA took a definite hit. When I learned of this rule, I calculated my UGPA according to these two conditions and found that my position is discouraging…. …. But not impossible!
There’s a website called LawSchoolNumbers.com where you can look up a law school and people have self reported their UGPAs, LSAT scores and sometimes majors, colleges, extra curriculars, etc. While some are flamers (fake personas), a lot are believeable and anonymous. It’s an uberpopular site for people like me who obsess about getting in. So I looked up a few schools I’ve thought about: San Diego, Baylor, BYU, SMU, blah blah, and scrolled down to find my GPA buddies- then I look at what they got on the LSAT and see if they got in or not. Here’s what I’ve found and is my current North Star:
The ones that get LSAT scores of 163ish or below are not looking great.
The ones that get LSAT scores of 168-172 are doing great!
So plan of attack:
- Like many of them, I can emphasize my extra curricular- several unique internships, lived in a foreign country– I’m bilingual, I worked almost all through college and participated in a lot of extra curricular activities (they take that into consideration when looking at GPA- a kid with a 4.0 who never had a job vs. a kid with a 3.8 but worked 40 hours a week? You tell me.) So sell them on how awesome I would look sitting in their classroom! Lucky them
- Give 130% on the LSAT!!!! This, they say, covered a multitude of academic sins (me). Considering with Zero studying I already score in the 80th percentile, I plan on studying my brains out to aim for a 170. 166 would be ok, 168 optimal, 170 fantastic, 172 cigars all around. Above that and I probably cheated. (LSAC advisors- I’m joking and P.s., I think you’re a very attractive man/woman).
So that’s about what’s going through my head right now. I’m taking one class this spring- Women Studies (it’s for my gender requirement OK???) and studying for/taking the LSAT, summer one P.E. class and my last psychology (major) class while preparing my applications– personal statements, begging for letters of recommendation, blah blah. Then Fall, a few more classes to wrap up my minor and general classes, worse comes to worse re-taking the LSAT (I don’t know what my cut off is– below a 166 should I retake it? Hmm…) and in October or so I’ll command the LSAC to send my completed applications to a half dozen law schools. And by command I mean pay out the nose for them to do that.
Robbers.
I now have to take the LSAT and see what schools I should apply to. My UGPA will only include an addition of spring and summer classes which total 6.5 credit hours– if I FAIL them all my UGPA will drop .0001 point and if I ace them, while it’ll look like a ‘good upward trend’ will only raise it .00001 point. Yes siree, college is practically obsolete for me- my grades are all but set in stone now. And I figured that out right before finals week- NOT the best time to realize school is a lost cause ha ha. Once I know my exact LSAT score, and since I know my UGPA within a 99.9% accuracy range, I’ll have a fair idea of which schools I’m guaranteed to get in, the schools I have a good chance of getting in, schools I’d love to get in but it’s a stretch, and the schools where it would have to be a very very cold day… I want to be optimistic apply to mostly reach schools, with a safety school or two to choose from, plus BYU. It seems like a formality to apply here. My chance of getting in being white, male, mormon, not hot marks are pretty slim. Even if the heavens parted and I did get in, I don’t know that I’d go here…
At the moment I’m leaning towards California or Texas. Cali is beautiful, large LDS population (future wife?), and beautiful again. Texas is a great place, nice weather, I’m a resident still (I hope), and cost of living is low. A lawyer making 70k in Texas is like making 100k in New York or California. It’s ridiculous that you have to shell out a 400k just for a decent house– in Tejas you can live like a king for that much cabbage. And I’m rambling.
IF you want an INCREDIBLE student take a look at this bloke. Just reading about him makes me want to take a nap.
“He was also a finalist in BYU’s competitive polka competition.”
That fact obliterates all else, and not to his benefit.