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Author Topic: Educational Background  (Read 874 times)

anhtruong415

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Educational Background
« on: February 12, 2009, 12:27:36 AM »
I've been out of college for 6 years. I have about a 3.0. Undergrad GPA (I know..it's low) and I have an MA in Counselor Education with a 3.9 GPA. I've worked with at-risk inner city youths for the past 5 years (San Francisco and NYC). My interest in law is a combination of a recent divorce (husband left me and our baby when baby was only 1 month old) and working with low income families and knowing how hard it is to advocate if you are not aware of the resources available.

If I can get into law school I'd like to puruse child/woman's advocacy maybe for a non profit or legal aid society but not 1oo% certain.

I am starting to study for the LSAT so I don't have an idea of where I'm scoring. I'm aiming to get into the Southern California Schools (only because my baby is 4 months old-still very young) because that's where my family is and they can help me with childcare. So..the schools i'm aiming at are: UCLA, USC, and UCI.

How much are these schools going to factor in my undergrad gpa vs. grad gpa..soft factors such as my story and my work experience..and lastly..what lsat score should i aim at?

Lastly..thoughts on becoming a paralegal. I read on BLS that job growth for lawyers is only 11% vs. paralegal at 22%.
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EarlCat

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Re: Educational Background
« Reply #1 on: March 11, 2009, 06:55:13 PM »
LSAT/Undergrad GPA are almost everything.
Grad GPA doesn't mean crap--almost everyone makes good grades in grad school.

Your story depends on how you present it, but still doesn't mean much if your LSAT stinks.

You should aim at an LSAT score that gives you a reasonable chance of admission to schools you are targeting--you can look up their LSAT percentiles on the interwebs, and look at profiles on lawschoolnumbers.com to see who is getting accepted and who isn't.

Being a paralegal doesn't do jack for admission to law school.  Could actually be a negative because soooo many paralegals apply to law school that you can get lost in the crowd of applications.  Being a paralegal instead of a lawyer is fine if you hate making money.
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