Chances? 3.04 GPA, 173 LSAT, Mature Applicant

[Totally_Bucked]

I'm back gang. Last year was not the year for splitters with weird CVs and mental health asterisks, so here we are again. Given the general "return to normal" trend that we're seeing in terms of LSAT score distribution and applicant numbers, how we feeling about these stats?

cGPA 3.04, graduated 2014

LSAT 173, only took it the one time

Mature student with ten years in the Canadian Armed Forces, part time while I was a student, full time after graduation. Couple of overseas deployments, couple of domestic deployments, leadership positions for the past six years. Diagnosed with a MH issue in 2020, lack of diagnosis/treatment definitely played a part in the mediocrity of my GPA.

Decent amount of volunteering, including some French to English translation work and assisting with Afghan refugee applicants.

One article published in a university journal.

PS talks a lot about leadership, application of rules to reality, changing rules so that they work better for people.

LORs are strong, I think, always a bit tough to say.

Applied or applying pretty much everywhere nationwide, except for UBC since they don't seem to care all that much about anything beyond GPA/LSAT and TRU since I'd rather get rejected than get accepted and then rejected after the fact.

As the military experience might suggest, I don't have all that many friends who are lawyers so these forums is where I come for collective knowledge. Thoughts on my chances?

[CleanHands]

7 minutes ago, Totally_Bucked said:

UBC since they don't seem to care all that much about anything beyond GPA/LSAT

Your info is outdated. Starting a few years ago, the personal statement is now given equal weight along with GPA and LSAT.

My profile was more similar to yours than to any other applicant I've seen on this forum. My LSAT was identical to yours and my cGPA was very close (although my B2/L2 was much higher), I was a mature student with somewhat similar experience and I had medical documentation explaining my low cGPA. I received early admissions to UBC even before they started giving weight to the personal statement.

Were your grades low across the board or brought down by some terrible grades? If the latter, the drops system will work hugely in your favour. This system is actually very favorable to low GPA/high LSAT splitters like us.

I just had to chime in given my experience. IMO it's a bad call for UBC to be the only school you are ruling out applying to based on perceptions of admissions criteria.

[Totally_Bucked]

16 minutes ago, CleanHands said:

Your info is outdated. Starting a few years ago, the personal statement is now given equal weight along with GPA and LSAT.

My profile was more similar to yours than to any other applicant I've seen on this forum. My LSAT was identical to yours and my cGPA was very close (although my B2/L2 was much higher), I was a mature student with somewhat similar experience and I had medical documentation explaining my low cGPA. I received early admissions to UBC even before they started giving weight to the personal statement.

Were your grades low across the board or brought down by some terrible grades? If the latter, the drops system will work hugely in your favour. This system is actually very favorable to low GPA/high LSAT splitters like us.

I just had to chime in given my experience. IMO it's a bad call for UBC to be the only school you are ruling out applying to based on perceptions of admissions criteria.

This is very useful information. I've got two weeks or so, I can still submit an application to UBC. I'll take a look at it, thanks!

[maybemaybe]

apart from the gpa, you've got an incredibly strong application from an insanely high lsat, to varied EC's. I think your LSAT will compensate for your gpa at schools that look at stats. There are quite a few schools that also give consideration to EC's and personal statements which will give you a great shot. I think apply broadly but honestly I feel you have a really good chance at many schools.

[Totally_Bucked]

46 minutes ago, maybemaybe said:

apart from the gpa, you've got an incredibly strong application from an insanely high lsat, to varied EC's. I think your LSAT will compensate for your gpa at schools that look at stats. There are quite a few schools that also give consideration to EC's and personal statements which will give you a great shot. I think apply broadly but honestly I feel you have a really good chance at many schools.

“Broadly” is an understatement for my approach this year 

[easttowest]

I’m shocked you weren’t in as a mature somewhere last year. I was in at Ottawa and UWO with worse stats and zero experiences.