<p>Due to financial reasons, I have attended a community college and then transferred to UCLA. I spent 1 year at the cc and I will be done with a political science degree in UCLA in less than 2 years. </p>
<p>Because my college experience is less than 3 years in whole, is it possible that this will have a negative impact on my law school admissions if I want to attend the top 3?</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>Is your LSAT 175+ Is your gpa 3.8+? If yes to both, then it won’t matter.</p>
<p>Thank you for your reply. But I was asking whether it is negative or not, apart from everything else. For ex., if another student went to school longer and had similar LSAT and GPA?</p>
<p>From what I have seen, if you are very young, i.e. you dual enrolled in HS and college and were applying to law school when you are 18-19, that it hurts a good bit. But if you are just applying at 21-22 and it’s just one year less then normal, it shouldn’t be a problem. But i’d advise everyone to take time off anyways.</p>
<p>Okay, thanks for your reply!</p>
<p>It sounds like the best thing to do is to take some time off (I am guessing 2 or so years) to make up for it. I am fine with all of that.</p>
<p>You haven’t said whether you are male or female. I graduated from college at 20 and law school at 23, although that was many years ago. I knew I wanted to make partner before having children, so “taking off a couple of years” before law school just so I would be some arbitrary age before applying to law school wasn’t really an option. Maturity and meaningful life experience aren’t based strictly on chronological age.</p>
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<p>No, but intelligence isn’t based strictly on numerical LSAT score, and law schools are quite happy to use THAT as a proxy. I’ve seen several really good students get demolished in law school admissions, with the only common factor being that they were all young. And not VERY young, either – often 20 or even 21 instead of 22.</p>
<p>Agree as to the LSAT reflecting intelligence! Just curious. Are you suggesting that law school admissions is becoming more like MBA programs where they are actually expecting one to work a few years in between undergrad and law school? I thought it was still more likely than not that one would go straight through from undergrad to law school.</p>
<p>I am 20 years old. </p>
<p>From what I’ve read on cc, it seems like having work experience and taking some time off after graduation is not a *bad *thing for the top 3 law school admissions. </p>
<p>And going back to my original question, age is not something I am asking about. I am asking, regardless of age, if going to college for fewer years than others will impact my admissions.</p>
<p>Anne: (1) I do think that work experience can help a little bit, especially for Yale, Stanford, and Northwestern, but (2) that’s not what I meant to suggest here.</p>
<p>Specifically, what I meant was that students who applied for matriculation at younger than twenty-two (e.g. younger than normal for a college senior), and especially those applying for matriculation at age twenty, tended to do much worse than their numbers would otherwise have suggested.</p>
<p>BDM,I know two people going through their cycle now, both 21 and graduating undergrad a year early and both doing pretty much as expected (one is already in at harvard the other is already in at Cornell and Gtown and a few others) so I don’t necessarily thinks that it hurts at that age. But I have personally seen a 19 year old do terrible with a 3.6 174 and he had a bachelors and a masters at the time. I think too young is a problem, i’m not sure one year younger is.</p>