Jump to content

Should I take the LSAT with a 3.92 cGPA?


bunny9087

Recommended Posts

GreyDude
  • Law Student

 

Clearly, if you’re even remotely considering applying to a school outside Quebec, you’ll need the LSAT. But on the assumption that McGill is the only school you’re applying to…

McGill’s holistic approach means that they are very unpredictable. Very high grades do not guarantee entry, and neither does a good LSAT score, though having both does seem to give candidates an edge (but even that’s not guaranteed). We have seen applicants to McGill, on this forum and its predecessor, who ‘should have’ been accepted based just on the numbers, but who were rejected. And we have seen ’weak’ applications (based only on stats—and I mean weak in relation to the McGill pool) result in acceptance.  Most of us infer from this that at McGill, so-called “softs” matter a lot, and maybe more than anywhere else (not sure about Osgoode).  This is also what McGill admissions advisors say, so there’s that as well.  Anecdotally, in the 2022 cycle, I personally knew two applicants who didn’t get in, but whose grades were significantly better than others who did get in.

So you need to look at your whole file—including your PS, CV and references. Based on that,

(1) do you think that McGill is likely to think you’re a strong candidate from a holistic point of view? Obviously I can’t comment on that (and I don’t predict ‘chances’ anyway).  

(2) are you willing to take the chance of receiving a low LSAT score that might hurt your application? And

(3) If you do decide to take the test, are you willing to do the work beforehand to make sure that (2) doesn’t happen?

Edited by GreyDude
Link to comment
Share on other sites

ChequePlz
  • Law School Admit
On 9/15/2022 at 5:49 PM, bunny9087 said:

I'm entering in 4th year at UofT and I'm bilingual. 

It depends. If you write it, and you bomb it, you need to declare it. As GreyDude said, unless you only plan on applying to McGill, it's not a good look. And I want to mention something to you that GD expounded on; I'm a 1L at McGill Law, and if you want to be remotely competitive, you need to POP. What does that mean? If means you need to SHINE. After having met the majority of my cohort, you really need to lean into being "interesting"; what does your story look like? What's are your EC's, and how do they tie to your larger application theme? Is your personal statrment truly compelling, and not just a regurgitation about how their transsystemic approach is beneficial to learning the law? So listen to me, and listen to me carefully: be interesting. If you only want to apply it McGill, don't wrote the LSAT. If you want to hedge your bets and have all bases covered, write the LSAT. As GD said, there are students will outstanding GPA'S, LSAT'S, etc, and my perspective were much better then mine even, so it's not all in the marks, trust me. As someone much smarter than I told me when applying, "you have 90 seconds to impress to adcoms; strike hard once". This isn't what you asked, but it's what people need to hear when considering applying to McGill Law, LSAT or not. 

Edited by ChequePlz
Link to comment
Share on other sites

scooter
  • Law Student

Personally I would prepare as if you are writing the LSAT, and then make the decision after you have a realistic idea of your LSAT ability. Practice tests are pretty reliable, in the sense that if you do enough of them under real test conditions you have a good idea where you will score +/- a few points.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.


×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By accessing this website, you agree to abide by our Terms of Use. YOU EXPRESSLY ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT YOU WILL NOT CONSTRUE ANY POST ON THIS WEBSITE AS PROVIDING LEGAL ADVICE EVEN IF SUCH POST IS MADE BY A PERSON CLAIMING TO BE A LAWYER. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.