HI! I am looking to take the LSAT next year in October. I was wondering, what GPA did you have going into law school?
I actually had a 4.0 GPA from Arizona State University. My LSAC GPA ended up being a 3.96 I believe. (Not really sure how LSAC calculates GPA exactly, but my experience was consistent with what people usually report—a slightly lower LSAC GPA compared to the GPA your undergraduate institution reports).
A high GPA certainly helped me during my law school admissions process, so if you are still in undergrad, I’d certainly recommend working as hard as possible over the course of your remaining semesters.
Also, keep in mind that law schools definitely take into consideration so-called soft factors such as your school and the difficulty of your course load when they look at your undergrad GPA.
LSAC will report your %ile rank for your school along with the raw GPA data, in order to give some perspective to the raw numbers.If you happen to have some extenuating circumstance in your life (e.g, work / family / other extracurricular responsibilities) which may have negatively impacted your GPA, you might want to consider writing an addendum to your law school application (only if your GPA is below the school’s target range) in order to provide some context to the number.
Finally, the LSAT is probably the single most important factor in your law school admissions.
Since undergraduate GPAs are difficult to compare from school to school, and even from major to major, the LSAT is sort of the great equalizer. So never underestimate the power of an exceptionally high LSAT score. Study hard, crush any remaining undergrad courses, and CRUSH the LSAT. Do those things, and you’ll be well on your way to a top law school.
Good luck! and feel free to ask more questions in the comments below! I always enjoy answering them!
