D-1 athlete, 168 LSAT, 2.45 GPA what are my chances????

[rmatha]

I played football at the University of Illinois and a short stint with the New Orleans Saints, after football I started my own bar business, ran it for 2 years and recently sold it. I scored a 168 on the June 09 LSAT, my undergrad GPA was 2.45. I realize my undergrad GPA leaves a lot to be desired but I'm wondering if anyone has thoughts on my chances to the following schools:

Georgetown
Northwestern
Notre Dame
Indiana, Indianapolis
Loyola, Chicago
Depaul
Chicago Kent
John Marshall Chicago

Thank You in advance!!

[;;;;;]

I played football at the University of Illinois and a short stint with the New Orleans Saints, after football I started my own bar business, ran it for 2 years and recently sold it. I scored a 168 on the June 09 LSAT, my undergrad GPA was 2.45. I realize my undergrad GPA leaves a lot to be desired but I'm wondering if anyone has thoughts on my chances to the following schools:

Georgetown
Northwestern
Notre Dame
Indiana, Indianapolis
Loyola, Chicago
Depaul
Chicago Kent
John Marshall Chicago

Thank You in advance!!

I would guess:

In at JM with a full ride
In at Depaul, kent, and loyola with scholarship
In at notre and indy, maybe waitlisted?
waitlisted at GULC.

Not sure about NU because they love work experience.  My gut says if you wrote your personal statement about what you learned starting your own business and wrote an addendum to explain that football kept you busy, that you would get in.  Apply and see what happens.  good luck.

[Toledo2011]

Michigan and Notre Dame have an institutional love of anything having to do with athletics. I would apply to both and add a personal statement attributing your low GPA to the pressures of juggling athletics and classes.

I imagine you'd be a lock at Illinois with a phone call or two from the FB office, perhaps with a nice aid package.

Given that you don't appear to have any reason not to start now, I'd also call all of the admissions departments of the schools you listed NOW and ask them if they'd have a spot for you this fall. You might be surprised ...

[big - fat - box]

A gpa like that is going to be a major hindrance. You will need an addendum for that and your personal statement should focus on your successes in business and sports and how that will help prepare you for hard work in law school and a successful legal career. You'll have to apply to a lot of schools and see who bites. I'd probably apply to at least 20 or more schools, 15 of which should be schools where your LSAT is above the 75th percentile according to the most recent entering class.

I think people here are overestimating your chances. Gtown, NU, and ND are probably serious longshots unless you are a URM. I'm not saying don't apply, just don't get overexcited about what people are saying. Check lawschoolnumbers.com and see what happened to other in past cycles with similar GPAs. It might give you a better idea of where to apply.

While it's true that you will probably get into the other schools mentioned and get substantial merit $$$, keep in mind that money is probably going to be tied to maintaining a certain GPA and the system (grading curve and amount of scholarships given out) is set up so that a good portion (often half or more) of students lose that money after 1L. So, if debt is an issue, keep in mind that you might lose the money after 1L.

Personally, if you are open to location, I would call admissions offices and do some research on the merit scholarship policies of different schools. Look for a school that will gives full rides with no 1L GPA requirements and only requires that you pass in order to keep the scholly for 2L and 3L. You'd be surprised how many students lose scholarships at schools that have GPA requirements.

Trying to get a seat at this point for the Fall is a terrible idea b/c most schools will have given out all their merit aid by now.

[rmatha]

Question. My number one school would be Northwestern do the chances significantly go up if you apply ED??

[big - fat - box]

For someone in your situation, no. I doubt it will hurt though. The worst they will do is reject you, or hold your app to RD and then reject you later.

Question. My number one school would be Northwestern do the chances significantly go up if you apply ED??

[rmatha]

Not an excuse but as for as my undergrad GPA, I was Academic All Big Ten as a freshman in college. At the begining of my sophmore year I suffered a serious knee injury which doctors gave me a 1 in 4 chance to ever walk correctly again let alone play football. Due to this I made up my mind to put 100% of my focus into getting back on the field through hours of treatment and rehad every day. My grades fell dramatically and after that I really lost intrest in my major. I wanted to study advertising but due to conflicts with football could not and settled on speech communications.

I know NU really likes work experience. Do you think starting my own business at the age of 24 from the ground up will help in that regard. What really got me interested in law was going through starting the business, having a fall out with my partner, and then selling the business. Obviously I spent a lot of time dealing with lawyers over that period of time and found it very interesting.

[big - fat - box]

How will you explain your GPA to admissions in an addendum? You will absolutely need to, but most schools are not going to give a "pass" based on what you just typed here if that's the honest answer. Since being honest is paramount, you're kinda stuck.

What you said in the second paragraph will help you get into some school (maybe even with generous $$$), but probably won't get you into NW. What you're not understanding here is that even schools ranked below NW are nervous about applicants with sub 3.0 gpas, and a sub 2.5 gpa makes them look especially nervous. Fortunately you have a high LSAT but there are many applicants with your LSAT and better GPA. Check lawschoolnumbers.com like I said. You'll notice that even applicants with 170+ LSATS and sub 2.5 GPAs do not get into NW or Gtown.

Check out this guy:

http://lawschoolnumbers.com/hopefulundergrad

African American, similar numbers, did not get in to NW.

Check out these applicants

http://search.lawschoolnumbers.com/users/jd/?a=su&lsat2=180&lsatR=true&lsat1=164&lgpa1=2.00&lgpa2=2.60&workingCycle=0809

Also, if you really want to go to NW, maybe you should set up an appointment with admissions and see what they think about your situation in person. I doubt it will get you in, but you've got nothing to lose really.

Not an excuse but as for as my undergrad GPA, I was Academic All Big Ten as a freshman in college. At the begining of my sophmore year I suffered a serious knee injury which doctors gave me a 1 in 4 chance to ever walk correctly again let alone play football. Due to this I made up my mind to put 100% of my focus into getting back on the field through hours of treatment and rehad every day. My grades fell dramatically and after that I really lost intrest in my major. I wanted to study advertising but due to conflicts with football could not and settled on speech communications.

I know NU really likes work experience. Do you think starting my own business at the age of 24 from the ground up will help in that regard. What really got me interested in law was going through starting the business, having a fall out with my partner, and then selling the business. Obviously I spent a lot of time dealing with lawyers over that period of time and found it very interesting.

[rmatha]

Would you suggest I retake the LSAT in sept to better my chances?

[Jamie Stringer]

Would you suggest I retake the LSAT in sept to better my chances?

No. Your LSAT isn't the problem. Your LSAT score is fine.

ETA: More likely, you need to adjust your expectations of the cycle. Northwestern will be an extremely long shot. However, there are people that the Univ. of Illinois has taken with roughly your numbers. Since that's also your alma mater, you should have much better chances there. That is more in line with a target school.