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I had just graduated as a finance major with a 3.0 GPA. I’m currently on my way to becoming a financial advisor. However, I’d decided to go to law school because I want something more than just working at a retail bank. I’d wrote the LSAT and I scored a 171. The school (UofT) I’m interested in has a median LSAT of 167 so I’m confident that my LSAT is enough to for admission. However, their median GPA is 3.8 so clearly my GPA is insufficient. I think I can gain admission for a few low-tier law schools but I’m still in my early 20s so I’d rather wait and graduate from the best law school in Canada.
Law schools don't care about graduate GPA or second degree GPA. You're stuck with your 3.0. With that being said, you have a good chance of getting into a Top 20 - 15 law school or even a lower top 14 law school like Duke, Cornell, or Northwestern.
Are you sure you want to spend 3 years reading case laws and then 4 months studying for the bar exam, then IF you're lucking working crazy hours at a big law firm?
There is also the possibility that you'll graduate with tons of debt and jobless. Even top 14 law graduates are not guaranteed a job, even a $40K job at a small law firm.
I had just graduated as a finance major with a 3.0 GPA. I’m currently on my way to becoming a financial advisor. However, I’d decided to go to law school because I want something more than just working at a retail bank. I’d wrote the LSAT and I scored a 171. The school (UofT) I’m interested in has a median LSAT of 167 so I’m confident that my LSAT is enough to for admission. However, their median GPA is 3.8 so clearly my GPA is insufficient. I think I can gain admission for a few low-tier law schools but I’m still in my early 20s so I’d rather wait and graduate from the best law school in Canada.
I can complete another BA part-time at an accredited institution different from my alma mater taking the same courses and receiving the same degree as full-time students. It’ll be a heavy workload but I think it’s doable. However, I’m not sure how law schools will reconcile my GPAs from two undergraduate programs.
An alternative is that I can apply for a graduate program and hope to do really well in that. But, I don’t think graduate GPAs matter for law school admissions.
Finally, I can just apply to a second or even third-tier law school right now. I may get in, but I’m worried about the job prospects of those graduating from such schools.
What should I do? I really want to erase the scar of my poor GPA. Is it even feasible?
A lot of legal work is really boring. Just an FYI.
I had just graduated as a finance major with a 3.0 GPA. I’m currently on my way to becoming a financial advisor. However, I’d decided to go to law school because I want something more than just working at a retail bank. I’d wrote the LSAT and I scored a 171. The school (UofT) I’m interested in has a median LSAT of 167 so I’m confident that my LSAT is enough to for admission. However, their median GPA is 3.8 so clearly my GPA is insufficient. I think I can gain admission for a few low-tier law schools but I’m still in my early 20s so I’d rather wait and graduate from the best law school in Canada.
I can complete another BA part-time at an accredited institution different from my alma mater taking the same courses and receiving the same degree as full-time students. It’ll be a heavy workload but I think it’s doable. However, I’m not sure how law schools will reconcile my GPAs from two undergraduate programs.
An alternative is that I can apply for a graduate program and hope to do really well in that. But, I don’t think graduate GPAs matter for law school admissions.
Finally, I can just apply to a second or even third-tier law school right now. I may get in, but I’m worried about the job prospects of those graduating from such schools.
What should I do? I really want to erase the scar of my poor GPA. Is it even feasible?
Most companies are looking for experience...so do two things:
1) Retake courses you got a C or lower in and maybe take some new courses as well at a local CC.
2) Find an internship and or volunteer...location really doesn't matter.
These are better ways to spend your money than another degree. You can raise your GPA by retaking courses you did average or worse in and you can gain experience plus you can have accredited professional write on your behalf.
I'm wondering how "reactionary" the OP is being. I've known grads of top law schools "walk away" from it.
I think the OP needs to a) "shadow the job" and b) take some career aptitude tests (a cheap investment)
A big yes to shadow the job, Law School is a very serious commitment of time and money. Less than half of people with a J.D even work as lawyers, which brings into question whether it was necessary for them to go to law school in the first place to get where they are.
Do a Masters in Public Health or something else you're interested in. The GPA from that program will matter a lot, and you'll have another degree! You'll be a strong candidate in a year from now, not four years.
I had just graduated as a finance major with a 3.0 GPA. I’m currently on my way to becoming a financial advisor. However, I’d decided to go to law school because I want something more than just working at a retail bank.
By going to law school you would be making the mistake of a lifetime. It would be much better to stay in the finance/business field. Also, if you are a bright person, you will get much more bang for your work-effort buck in finance/business in terms of income, job and career security, and quality of life than you will in the severely overglutted legal field (where even partners work their butts off and still have relatively little job or career security these days).
Definitely research the employment and career situation in the legal profession and don't become another victim of "The Law School Scam".
Did you know that the vast majority of new law school graduates will be unable to find legitimate entry-level jobs in the legal profession and will never work as lawyers (but will have over $100,000 (and often $150,000) of student loan debt that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy while being overqualified and unemployable for non-law jobs)?
Did you know that some law schools are being sued in class actions for publishing fraudulently misleading employment statistics? Did you know that most law school employment statistics are intentionally fraudulently misleading?
Are you aware that this a severely over-glutted and contracting field and that a huge amount if not most people who work as lawyers are miserable (overworked and/or overpaid)? It's a very stressful field with little job or career stability.
To learn more visit some of the Law School "Scambusting" blogs. (A great many law school graduates refer to it as "The Law School Scam" because it's so expensive for such awful employment prospects contrary to the stats the law schools publish with the sanction of the American Bar Association which loves to accredit unneeded new law schools and the implied sanction of state and federal governments .)
Realistically, you'll be able to have a much better life and a higher quality of life in another field and you'll get more bang for your buck and your work ethics in another field. The reality of the economic conditions in the field is very different than how it is portrayed in movies and on television. Also, the actual work is very different than it is on TV and in the movies. If you think that being a banker or working in finance can be boring work, wait until you see what day-to-day work in the legal field is like. How do you feel about having to write a 100 page document while under great stress and heavy-duty time constraints? It's not the glamorous, fun arguing in court and hobnobbing with business and government power brokers that it's made out to be in the movies and on TV. Instead, think library research and report writing. You might also have to sift through boxes and boxes of boring documents.
I had just graduated as a finance major with a 3.0 GPA. I’m currently on my way to becoming a financial advisor. However, I’d decided to go to law school because I want something more than just working at a retail bank. I’d wrote the LSAT and I scored a 171. The school (UofT) I’m interested in has a median LSAT of 167 so I’m confident that my LSAT is enough to for admission. However, their median GPA is 3.8 so clearly my GPA is insufficient. I think I can gain admission for a few low-tier law schools but I’m still in my early 20s so I’d rather wait and graduate from the best law school in Canada.
I can complete another BA part-time at an accredited institution different from my alma mater taking the same courses and receiving the same degree as full-time students. It’ll be a heavy workload but I think it’s doable. However, I’m not sure how law schools will reconcile my GPAs from two undergraduate programs.
An alternative is that I can apply for a graduate program and hope to do really well in that. But, I don’t think graduate GPAs matter for law school admissions.
Finally, I can just apply to a second or even third-tier law school right now. I may get in, but I’m worried about the job prospects of those graduating from such schools.
What should I do? I really want to erase the scar of my poor GPA. Is it even feasible?
As long as you can minimize your debt, you will be fine.
Yes, it's tough to get a job as a lawyer these days, but that is true of most profession these days.
Going to a top American Law school (Top 10 or so) will help you get a high paying job, however, you are going to work your nose to the grind for that money. Not only hours wise, but I don't see it being exactly a friendly environment either ... corporate law that is.
All in all though, all of my friends who got law degrees work in law. For others, it's different. They all do decent.
By going to law school you would be making the mistake of a lifetime. It would be much better to stay in the finance/business field. Also, if you are a bright person, you will get much more bang for your work-effort buck in finance/business in terms of income, job and career security, and quality of life than you will in the severely overglutted legal field (where even partners work their butts off and still have relatively little job or career security these days).
Definitely research the employment and career situation in the legal profession and don't become another victim of "The Law School Scam".
Did you know that the vast majority of new law school graduates will be unable to find legitimate entry-level jobs in the legal profession and will never work as lawyers (but will have over $100,000 (and often $150,000) of student loan debt that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy while being overqualified and unemployable for non-law jobs)?
Did you know that some law schools are being sued in class actions for publishing fraudulently misleading employment statistics? Did you know that most law school employment statistics are intentionally fraudulently misleading?
Are you aware that this a severely over-glutted and contracting field and that a huge amount if not most people who work as lawyers are miserable (overworked and/or overpaid)? It's a very stressful field with little job or career stability.
To learn more visit some of the Law School "Scambusting" blogs. (A great many law school graduates refer to it as "The Law School Scam" because it's so expensive for such awful employment prospects contrary to the stats the law schools publish with the sanction of the American Bar Association which loves to accredit unneeded new law schools and the implied sanction of state and federal governments .)
Realistically, you'll be able to have a much better life and a higher quality of life in another field and you'll get more bang for your buck and your work ethics in another field. The reality of the economic conditions in the field is very different than how it is portrayed in movies and on television. Also, the actual work is very different than it is on TV and in the movies. If you think that being a banker or working in finance can be boring work, wait until you see what day-to-day work in the legal field is like. How do you feel about having to write a 100 page document while under great stress and heavy-duty time constraints? It's not the glamorous, fun arguing in court and hobnobbing with business and government power brokers that it's made out to be in the movies and on TV. Instead, think library research and report writing. You might also have to sift through boxes and boxes of boring documents.
Who are you, the marketing director of the local MBA program?
Although I think law is not the money printing machine most believe it is, there is the possibility for a lot of $ to be made. I do agree the OP's reasons are shaky though.
If he said, "I want to be a lawyer" I'd tell him to do law school without much hestation.
Who are you, the marketing director of the local MBA program?
Although I think law is not the money printing machine most believe it is, there is the possibility for a lot of $ to be made. I do agree the OP's reasons are shaky though.
If he said, "I want to be a lawyer" I'd tell him to do law school without much hestation.
MBAs are a dime-a-dozen, too. It's difficult to find a college-education-requiring white collar job today, but it's better to do it in a field where you won't be saddled with $150,000 worth of debt and won't be rendered overqualified and unemployable for jobs outside the field.
I'm one of those odd people who thinks that the job market cannot possibly employ 45,000+ new JDs every year at rates of compensation that make the investment worthwhile, not at today's tuition and cost of living rates and not at those from a decade ago, either. It's also been reported that even some Harvard graduates have been having difficulty securing employment. ("The Crimson H: Jobless Harvard 3L Wonders, Why Me?") One law professor conducted a study and determined that perhaps only 10% of all JDs obtain a sufficient return on their investment. ("Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Lawyers")
Here's a list of article links for further reading. One guy even did a back-of-the-envelop study and concluded based on ABA and Bureau of Labor Statistics stats that fewer than 54% of the JDs produced over the past 40 years are employed in the legal profession. Then using some seemingly reasonable assumptions went on to mathematically conclude that probably fewer than 30% of all new JDs were able to obtain jobs in the field (regardless of whether many of those jobs are low-paying and/or of low quality).
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Advice from Jeff Rosenspan
