GPA question / Personal Statement about a crappy GPA

[nashgal]

Hi everyone - I'm new here and it looks like you guys are a wealth of knowledge!  I'm comforted to know there's many more non-traditional students out there.  My situation is this: my current undergraduate GPA is a 3.67, graduating in December this year.  When my GPA from my first, alcohol-dazed try at college is averaged, it drops to around a 2.20.  It will go up a little when my current semester grades are added, but right now, my GPA isn't so awesome.  My first try at college was 8 years ago, and I'm trying to figure out how to convey the change and gain in maturity in my personal statement.  I really didn't have a great reason for blowing off classes back then, so it's not like I can write something inspiring that I overcame. 

Also, my practice LSATs have been in the 158-162 range.  I'm hoping to score a 164 or higher this October. Will my GPA totally hold me back from getting into a school that a normal 3.67/164 student would get into?

[blueskies6]

It will hurt you some, but since you've taken 8 years off you should have ample experiences to write about to explain how you've grown since you left college and things have changed for you.  Your personal statement doesn't necessarily have to focus on this- you can put your  grades explanation in an addendum to free up space to write about non-grades related thing about yourself.