40 yr old, no relevant experience, 3.61 cGPA, 3.67 B3, 179 LSAT, Chance me for UofT

[Dghoul]

Civil Engineering (BASc) with honours from UofT, cGPA:3.61. They used to measure academic performance by grade point average in the faculty, by that measure I was doing excellent. Thus the honour with low GPA.

Master of Engineering from UofT

179 LSAT

Worked in construction briefly after graduation. Self-employed/small business owner for the majority of the last decade. No relevant experience in law. Thinking about a career change.

No other softs. Self-studied and passed the Chartered Financial Analyst level III exam if that is something they will consider.

I am probably as atypical as it gets and hard to chance. Just throw some opinions this way. Much appreciated.

[scooter]

Your exact GPA is less relevant as a mature student for the reasons you describe - schools are aware that grading schemes have changed over time. A 179 LSAT is impressive enough to catch the attention of any application committee, including U of T. From there, I think you just have to convince them that you'd be a good addition to their law school. 

I would encourage you to think more broadly about what you consider "relevant" experience. I don't know what your small business was, but I'm sure there are aspects of it that are relevant to practicing law. Remember that most of the applicants you're competing against are in their early 20s, writing about how their lifeguard job taught them customer service skills which will serve them well in their legal career ... 

 

 

[Yogurt Baron]

As something of a 40-year-old with no relevant experience myself, I broadly agree with scooter here. Can't guarantee anything, but a 179 is hard to kick out of bed.

2 hours ago, scooter said:

I would encourage you to think more broadly about what you consider "relevant" experience. I don't know what your small business was, but I'm sure there are aspects of it that are relevant to practicing law. Remember that most of the applicants you're competing against are in their early 20s, writing about how their lifeguard job taught them customer service skills which will serve them well in their legal career ... 

Yeah, I agree more with the third sentence here than the second. It's not so much, "Oh, your experience is secretly relevant after all!" as that "relevance of experience" is not as big of a factor as you might be imagining, and also a bit of the you-don't-have-to-outrun-the-bear piece Scooter mentions.

[Dghoul]

Thank you both for the insights. It seems PS would be really critical in my case. It's giving me anxiety as we speak. :)

[Diplock]

Assuming that's a real LSAT and not some kind of projection or hypothetical, I'm going to go on a limb and say you're a virtual lock at U of T. Forget the numbers relating to GPA, etc. They do have an admissions committee there for whom context matters. Combined with your experience (which is more relevant than you believe) and your grades from a context that's most of a generation removed from how things are done now, I would be very surprised if you weren't admitted early in the cycle, should you apply.

[Dghoul]

Thank you, Diplock. It makes me feel a bit more at ease.

[Ariadne]

I haven't been here in 10 years and just registered to comment on your thread. You're a very desirable candidate and I can just see firms throwing themselves at you, esp the IP ones. Ability to apply your depth of knowledge to law...I am a little jealous because I did the whole philosophy thing before law and now I'm in personal intellectual hell. This could work out very well for you and wishing you the best of luck! 

[Wraith]

19 hours ago, Ariadne said:

I am a little jealous because I did the whole philosophy thing before law and now I'm in personal intellectual hell.

Can you expand on this?