Ping: Folks who have been through the law school process
 

A few questions:

1. While the general rule of thumb seems to be 60% LSAT score, 30% undergrad GPA, 10% other, I'm uncertain as to what qualifies as undergraduate GPA by law schools.

Is it the degree-granting institution only, as LSAC seems to suggest on their academic profile listing, or is it the entire GPA? (Which would be a headache for me to figure out, since there's five undergrad schools, one of which I earned an AA at).

2. Also, does graduate coursework and/or GPA figure into this at all, or is it in the 10% other category?

3. Best books to get/study for LSAT prep?

4. Are the LSAT prep classes worth it, or are they essentially a money grab?

I did a search on the forum, but much of the information seems to be about 9-10 years old, and I couldn't find anything about multiple undergraduate schools, so I figured I'd start a new thread.

Thanks. :)

Heh. 1 and 2 are best asked of admissions officers, but they wouldn't want to tell you. Let me just point you to lawschoolnumbers.com as a way to get a grasp of where LSAT/GPA combos fare at different schools.

3 and 4... my experience was that of the non-prepper; I took a free diagnostic, was not disappointed with my score, did a touch of self-study, scored about the same on the real thing. My roomie, on the other hand, shelled out the several hundred for Kaplan's prep class, took it seriously, and shot from a ~153 diagnostic score to a ~164 LSAT score. That's a pretty substantial payoff in terms of your applicant profile.

Yeah it's just that my aggregate undergraduate GPA as a whole is going to be noticeably lower than my undergraduate GPA at my bachelor-degree granting institution (where I was an honors graduate), so I'm not sure which of the two qualifies, or if it differs from school to school.

I suspect my graduate GPA won't count as much as I'm hoping for, which is unfortunate as it's something like 3.98 or 3.99.

I'll take a few practice tests and see how I'll do just to get a rough barometer and baseline, and see if that indicates one way or the other re: the course. Thanks for the feedback.

Izulde presents "The perpetual student dynasty" ;)

I doubt admissions offices will hold a couple of lost years at other colleges against your undergraduate record--at least, not much. I believe your feeling about the graduate-level GPA is right, but, then, non-professional graduate programs tend to give out nice marks, in my limited exposure, so that information isn't as useful in distinguishing people.

For more context, since the LSAT score distribution is on a standard normal distribution, my buddy's scores line up with around the 60th %ile for his diagnostic and the 90th %ile for his actual score, after taking his ~$800-$1000 Kaplan class seriously.

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The more important conversation might deal with the prospect of law school itself. At that point, I expect others might be able to chime in, as well.

:D

SI

:D

Agreed. I'd be happy to talk more about this when the time comes . . .