What are my chances of getting accepted into a law school?

[insomniacQ]

Hey. I'm currently a freshman in college with a GPA of 2.4. I did really bad last semester due to the fact that I was home sick and not used to the college way of teaching. Anyway, I'm doing much better this semester, however, because of my horrible grades last semester, my GPA can't be higher than a 2.4 for my freshman year no matter how hard I try. I know I will do better in my sophomore year because now I'm actually getting accustom to being here, so my question is, if I work really hard from my sophomore year to my senior year, will I still have a chance at law school? Or am I screwed? Have anyone here ever had a bad start in college like me?

[jack24]

I had a poor start to undergrad but I retook some classes and I ended with a GPA of 3.4.   Unfortunately, almost all law schools take all of your grades into account, including those before a retake, so my effective GPA was 2.99.    I did fine on the LSAT (160) and I was accepted to many 50-100 school and received scholarship offers to many T3 schools.

Work hard, get your GPA up above 3.0 and do well on the LSAT.  Get a 170+ and you can go to most places outside the top 14.
Get a 160 and you'll be able to go to most places outside the top 50.
Get a 155 and you'll be able to go to many T3 schools.

I'm just estimating, of course, but I think you have a shot.  That said, Law School isn't much fun, and you will be surrounded by intelligent people who live for school.  You will also be graded on a curve.  Make sure you are ready to compete academically.

[cerealkiller]

My only addition to the above comment is that you should choose a college major you truly enjoy. Law schools don't prefer certain majors over others. But they do assume that you committed yourself completely to your undergraduate studies and want to see that you performed well academically given that assumption. If you enjoy a particular subject, you're more likely to study harder and receive higher grades as a result.

Also, when you finally get around to applying to law school you'll be permitted to write an addendum to your application explaining your first semester grades. Assuming you end up with a significantly higher gpa, this should be persuasive. But I would avoid saying you were "home sick." I'm not telling you to lie, but you should spin it in a more favorable light. For example, if you're the first person in your family to have attended college, you could use this as the basis for explaining your first semester troubles.