Law School

[jab30]

I am deciding whether or not to attend law school.  My undergraduate degree was in dietetics and I completed my MBA about 2 years ago.  My ugpa was about a 2.9 and my MBA was about a 3.3.  Does anyone know if I have a shot getting into law school?  I am not really looking at a Top 25 school, more or less along the lines of Tier 2 or 3, (which, this may sound dumb, but how do I know if a school is Tier 1, 2 or 3).  Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.  Thanks.

[David Bakody]

The main thing that determines your entry into law school is your LSAT score.  A low GPA won't hurt you nearly as much as a low LSAT.  In fact, a low LSAT will keep you out of law school, but a low GPA is just an obstacle that can (sometimes) be explained away.  

Prepare and practice for the LSAT.  Get a good score and you'll get into law school.

[lawschoolafterdark]

There are lots of options on where to attend law school. It depends on what you want to do when you graduate. I am in an evening program in Birmingham, Alabama.  My undergrad GPA was not great and I did not want to put  too much time into the LSAT.  I plan to practice in a small practice and I plan to practice in the state where I am going to school.The only test that matters in my case is Alabama's bar exam when I finish.

Check out my site lawschoolafterdark.com.

[jgruber]

Download the sample LSAT from www.lsac.com and give yourself the test.  That should give you an idea of what score you might get.  If your LSAT is high enough, I suspect they will overlook your undergraduate GPA.   

[OldSchool]

Great advice, as far as this one-hour lurker can tell, but you'll want to try www.lsac.org.

Unless you want to go swimming.

[jgruber]

That's why I'm leaving IT to practice law some day.  Too many picky details. 

 

Great advice, as far as this one-hour lurker can tell, but you'll want to try www.lsac.org.

Unless you want to go swimming.

[ajlynnette]

hi jab,

have you decided whether or not to go yet? if you haven't decided and still want to do some more research and all? i'd say that along w/all the good advice the others have given, go to a law school forum if you can at all do that. i found that to be VERY eye opening for me. when i went, there were 2 'top tiered' schools i definitely wanted to visit. one had been emailing me and the other i just thought was pretty nice. i went to one and was pleasantly surprised at the rep they sent. i thought that this particular school was gonna uppity and snobby and all that stuff, but they totally proved me wrong. i was happy to have visitied their table when i initially didn't want to.

the other table though? holy...freakin...cows. jab, all i can say is that i don't CARE what kind of ranking this school has, it was beyond obvious that it was UNDENIABLY not right for me. Especially when the reps this school sent were what i thought the school bigger than them was supposed to be like. along w/that, i was not appreciating the looks i was getting from their student rep who was there. he was quite scary looking to say the least. lol his hair and clothes were just so messy looking and...ugh. i'll just stop there. :p

so if you even have to DRIVE to one or FLY to one, like i did? it's totally in your best interest to go to one of the LSAC's forums. not a law day at a school. the forums. i can't stress that enough.

best of luck to you!!

aj

[Revenant]

along w/that, i was not appreciating the looks i was getting from their student rep who was there. he was quite scary looking to say the least. lol his hair and clothes were just so messy looking and...ugh. i'll just stop there. :p

What kind of looks?  Was he fawning over you?

[blizzard of ozz]

I am deciding whether or not to attend law school.  My undergraduate degree was in dietetics and I completed my MBA about 2 years ago.  My ugpa was about a 2.9 and my MBA was about a 3.3.  Does anyone know if I have a shot getting into law school?  I am not really looking at a Top 25 school, more or less along the lines of Tier 2 or 3, (which, this may sound dumb, but how do I know if a school is Tier 1, 2 or 3).  Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.  Thanks.

Your GPA, 2.9 is quite frankly, bad. Dietetics is the same as nutrition right? It's not like it was engineering or something either (i'm not knocking your major, but it isn't engineering or something adcoms throw you bonus points for). You will need a very good LSAT score to compensate for it and get into a T2. Once you get an idea of where you score on the LSAT you should have a better idea where to aim for. Your LSAT score would probably put you anywhere from T2-T4 (depending on whether you want to go P/T or not is another factor).

Seriously though if you did poorly in UG and mediocre in B-School, why go to LS, which is harder?

[Revenant]

If the OP always wanted to be a lawyer, it'd be a good reason.   However, I doubt that's the case (given the MBA).