What should I do? CGPA: 2.8 L2: 3.2 162

[Lalalalalalla]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been rejected from almost all the schools on the west coast so far. I didn’t apply to any in Ontario because I honestly thought I would get accepted at TRU. I’m still waiting on Dalhousie but I’m not holding on to much hope. A little bit of background.. I applied access due to a physical disability with lots of medical documentation. I’ll have 4 years of gov experience by the time I apply again in the fall. I also have about 5 years of volunteer experience and I had two great references from professors.  

Basically, I’m wondering if I should try to boost my L2 by taking a few open courses or whether I should try and improve my LSAT score. 

I’m also going to apply to the schools on the east coast that I have the best chance at come September, specifically Ottawa, Windsor, and TMU. 

[law11111111111111111111111]

Depending on when your open studies applications end(for example University of Calgary's summer one closed May 31st), It wouldn't be a bad idea to take some extra courses to bump up your L2. Keep in mind that if you do classes this fall, marks won't be released till Dec/Jan, but I would recommend improving your LSAT. How does your section distribution look like? Are you super good at LG, RC, or LR? LG tends to be the section where people see the most improvement, so if you're not getting 0/-2 on the section that's a decent way of bumping up your score. I have heard that Ottawa values a candidates cgpa a lot, and if anyone else knows Windsor/TMU's medians feel free to correct me, or chime in.(you could also skim through the last 2 years of acceptances and see a ball park for the schools you're interested in as well). With this in mind, depending on how much you work a couple more points on the lsat might be a better return than taking more courses. You should also consider schools that have access categories (UBC,UVIC, and Queens, more exist I just don't remember), and I'd be more than happy to answer questions about UBC's process as I applied discretionary/access for their application.

[Lalalalalalla]

Thanks so much for all that feedback! 🙂 I would have to do classes this fall as it’s too late for this summer. If I can get 3 A’s, I can raise my L2 from a 3.2 to a 3.4. I believe a 3.4 is considered an A- on tru’s scale and that might give me a better shot. I didn’t see anyone get accepted with anything lower than an A- for tru in the thread (maybe there were some people and they just aren’t on this forum). In LG, I was scoring a -0. It was RC and LR that was killing me. I was rejected from UVIC and UBC as well. I was kind of surprised I wasn’t even put on a waitlist for UVIC. 

I think I’m sort of leaning more towards boosting my L2 than the lsat because I saw many people get rejected with high lsat scores and low gpas this cycle. Although, I guess it’s dangerous for me to infer that these were perfect applicants outside the numbers, especially if the sample is incomplete.
 

 

[law11111111111111111111111]

19 minutes ago, Lalalalalalla said:

Thanks so much for all that feedback! 🙂 I would have to do classes this fall as it’s too late for this summer. If I can get 3 A’s, I can raise my L2 from a 3.2 to a 3.4. I believe a 3.4 is considered an A- on tru’s scale and that might give me a better shot. I didn’t see anyone get accepted with anything lower than an A- for tru in the thread (maybe there were some people and they just aren’t on this forum). In LG, I was scoring a -0. It was RC and LR that was killing me. I was rejected from UVIC and UBC as well. I was kind of surprised I wasn’t even put on a waitlist for UVIC. 

I think I’m sort of leaning more towards boosting my L2 than the lsat because I saw many people get rejected with high lsat scores and low gpas this cycle. Although, I guess it’s dangerous for me to infer that these were perfect applicants outside the numbers, especially if the sample is incomplete.
 

 

Although the forum is an amazing resource for stats I do think you are correct in saying that it is dangerous to infer something as absolute. I'd recommend reaching out to the schools that said no, and asking for feedback. Even if it's very general/basic feedback it might help you make a more informed decision that'll lead to better success next cycle ( they might say that a higher L2 gives you a better chance next cycle, or maybe even 2-3 points on the lsat would make you a shoe-in). As for the LSAT averaging a 0 on LG is amazing, I personally used 7sage to identify my weaknesses in all 3 sections and it was quite helpful. So, if you do decide to do the LSAT again I'd recommend 7sage purely for its analytics.  Lastly, the last 2 cycles have been very competitive due to covid + score inflation from the LSAT flex(among other things).IIRC someone shared statistics that scores have been trending down, so hopefully next cycle is way better for you, and other reapplicants!

[TheGoodWife]

My stats are slightly better, cgpa 3.0, L2 3.4, LSAT 166, with a few more years of working experience. I was accepted to Ottawa, haven't yet heard from Dal, and withdrew from Queen's with my firm acceptance to Ottawa. 

If you have the opportunity to improve your GPA, that would be amazing because it would help them see your current potential for academics. That wasn't really an option for me being ten years post-undergrad. I would say the same about the LSAT though. That even getting to mid 160s shows you as a much more promising applicant. I also saw some of those posts with split applicants getting rejected and that's hard to understand. I think what I've noticed is that US schools look much more favourably on splitters than Canada, with Canada placing an emphasis on gpa. 

Either way, it will be a tough journey with a sub-3 cgpa. I haven't been monitoring the west coast boards and don't look at all the Ontario/east coast school boards, but I've seen just a handful of applicants with similar stats get accepted. 

As time went on this cycle and I hadn't yet heard anything, the only thing I felt like I could do was pick apart my personal statement and start to rewrite. I may never know what they saw in my application that made them say yes, but telling a compelling story about where you're headed and what you're bringing to the table is very important for applicants like us. 

And hold your head high for next year's cycle if you're not successful this year. The five years will put you in the mature category for many of the schools that offer it, and your application will be considered more holistically than it would be now. I've heard repeatedly that students going into law school with real work experience often do very well, make sure you highlight how the life experiences you've gained in these 4-5 years make you a better student and future lawyer. 

Pm me if you want to chat more. 🙂

[HarryCrane]

21 hours ago, Lalalalalalla said:

Thanks so much for all that feedback! 🙂 I would have to do classes this fall as it’s too late for this summer. If I can get 3 A’s, I can raise my L2 from a 3.2 to a 3.4. I believe a 3.4 is considered an A- on tru’s scale and that might give me a better shot. I didn’t see anyone get accepted with anything lower than an A- for tru in the thread (maybe there were some people and they just aren’t on this forum). In LG, I was scoring a -0. It was RC and LR that was killing me. I was rejected from UVIC and UBC as well. I was kind of surprised I wasn’t even put on a waitlist for UVIC. 

I think I’m sort of leaning more towards boosting my L2 than the lsat because I saw many people get rejected with high lsat scores and low gpas this cycle. Although, I guess it’s dangerous for me to infer that these were perfect applicants outside the numbers, especially if the sample is incomplete.
 

 

I was accepted last cycle with a B+ GPA and a 166 LSAT, I also had similar cGPA and L2 stats to you. I think a factor for me was the improvement my GPA saw. When I took courses to boost my GPA I got straight As and was on the Deans List, so when the committee looks at my transcript they see some C+/B- grades and then a massive jump to A/A+. It allows them to put more weight on my more recent grades as representative of my academic ability. TRU being a holistic admissions process, having some more As on your transcript will obviously boost your GPA, but also give them reason to discount the lower grades from earlier in your degree.

If you do decide to take courses to boost your GPA, make sure you know which schools will look at them or not. Some schools require a certain number of credits per semester (USask I think requires 4 per semester or something) or they need to be taken as part of a degree, not open learning or similar.

Edited June 3, 2022 by HarryCrane

[Lalalalalalla]

11 hours ago, TheGoodWife said:

My stats are slightly better, cgpa 3.0, L2 3.4, LSAT 166, with a few more years of working experience. I was accepted to Ottawa, haven't yet heard from Dal, and withdrew from Queen's with my firm acceptance to Ottawa. 

If you have the opportunity to improve your GPA, that would be amazing because it would help them see your current potential for academics. That wasn't really an option for me being ten years post-undergrad. I would say the same about the LSAT though. That even getting to mid 160s shows you as a much more promising applicant. I also saw some of those posts with split applicants getting rejected and that's hard to understand. I think what I've noticed is that US schools look much more favourably on splitters than Canada, with Canada placing an emphasis on gpa. 

Either way, it will be a tough journey with a sub-3 cgpa. I haven't been monitoring the west coast boards and don't look at all the Ontario/east coast school boards, but I've seen just a handful of applicants with similar stats get accepted. 

As time went on this cycle and I hadn't yet heard anything, the only thing I felt like I could do was pick apart my personal statement and start to rewrite. I may never know what they saw in my application that made them say yes, but telling a compelling story about where you're headed and what you're bringing to the table is very important for applicants like us. 

And hold your head high for next year's cycle if you're not successful this year. The five years will put you in the mature category for many of the schools that offer it, and your application will be considered more holistically than it would be now. I've heard repeatedly that students going into law school with real work experience often do very well, make sure you highlight how the life experiences you've gained in these 4-5 years make you a better student and future lawyer. 

Pm me if you want to chat more. 🙂

Thanks so much for all that detail. I really appreciate it 🙂. I’ve thought about it some more and I’m going to try to improve both my lsat and gpa. 

1 hour ago, HarryCrane said:

I was accepted last cycle with a B+ GPA and a 166 LSAT, I also had similar cGPA and L2 stats to you. I think a factor for me was the improvement my GPA saw. When I took courses to boost my GPA I got straight As and was on the Deans List, so when the committee looks at my transcript they see some C+/B- grades and then a massive jump to A/A+. It allows them to put more weight on my more recent grades as representative of my academic ability. TRU being a holistic admissions process, having some more As on your transcript will obviously boost your GPA, but also give them reason to discount the lower grades from earlier in your degree.

If you do decide to take courses to boost your GPA, make sure you know which schools will look at them or not. Some schools require a certain number of credits per semester (USask I think requires 4 per semester or something) or they need to be taken as part of a degree, not open learning or similar.

Okay, that gives me some hope that you were accepted with a B+. Regardless, I’ll still try to improve my grades this fall. Thanks so much!! ❤️