<p>My brother just finished up his senior yr at UMCP (yup, we’re a family of Terps). He messed around his freshmen and sophomore yrs, taking no upper level courses and rounding his first two yrs out with about a 2.0.</p>
<p>However he really got his butt in shape the summer after sophomore yr, took two upper level classes, and aced them both. Junior yr he got straight As in almost all upper level classes, both semesters. Senior yr he got straight As again. He’s attending CP for an extra semester to finish up his double major (English and spanish), because he didn’t really settle on a major until junior yr. He’s in English honors, got involved with the student paper his junior yr, and has done volunteer tutoring since junior yr. He also managed to land an internship junior summer at a small publishing firm. He’s held the same student job since freshmen yr to earn money for books and rent.</p>
<p>So, the thing is, he wants to go to law school. I think because his GPA is only around a 3.2 very selective schools will probably count him out. What is a very well respected law school that will see his talent for what it is, and look more at his “upward trend”? He scored very well on the LSAT, low 170s but he won’t tell me exactly. More than 170 less than 175 :P. Only took it once.</p>
<p>He’s already talking to people at the career center and his advisors, but I figured I’d post his story here since I am pretty active in the UMCP boards and have fond feelinsg towards this site :).</p>
<p>The bottom line is what matters most. His high LSAT score will serve to his advantage, so a bunch out of the top 20 will probably be good. I’m not much to chance though, to be honest.</p>
<p>Yeah, I figured for the majority of schools the bottom line would matter most.</p>
<p>However, I was wondering if there were any exceptions…schools that are well respected but look beyond the numbers.</p>
<p>So it’s not so much of a “chance” thread as a, what schools should he look towards/apply to, is there any that would look beyond the cumulative GPA, especially, but employers are still very excited about?</p>
<p>It’s cool that the top 20 is not out of reach. He is not a big “prestige” guy, all he cares about is a good education and, of course, good job offers (though prestige would play a role in the offers). A top 20 school would give him a lot of options I think.</p>
<p>Tell your brotehr to go to [LSAC.org</a> Homepage](<a href=“http://www.lsac.org%5DLSAC.org”>http://www.lsac.org) and use the gizmo which allows him to search by UGPA and LSAT. See if this link works: <a href=“Search for Law Schools – LSAC Official Guide | The Law School Admission Council”>Search for Law Schools – LSAC Official Guide | The Law School Admission Council; The data on the site now is based on the class which entered LS in 2007. He’s got some strong softs with an upward trend, so his odds should be a smidge better than what pure #s tell him. I put in a 3.25 and 171. Schools that are “reasonable reaches,” IMO, based on nothing but the odds listed on the calculator and where that 171 would put him, are U Southern California (seems to have best odds of those on this list), UCLA, Duke, Michigan, UVa and NYU. Again, these are reaches–have him enter the data himself and he’ll get a better idea of what I mean. </p>
<p>He should also ask UMd for the “grids,” which will show him how applicants from UMd with profiles similar to his did in admissions at different LSs.</p>