That’s awesome! I had previously assumed that institutions wouldn’t cross the streams when it came to merit vs. need-based aid decisions. But then it occurred to me that it would probably make sense for an institution to rank order merit evaluations, prioritizing the applicants who indicated that they intended to seek financial aid over the applicants who indicate that they would not be pursuing financial aid. If merit is truly used as a tool to increase the likelihood of converting an acceptance into an enrollment (whether the target is all applicants accepted, or just the “highest value targets”), that would seem to make sense.
Anyway, congrats on your daughter’s scholarship recognition by UF!
Is the preview day the same as Florida days. My daughter and I are flying out from NV to go to the one in April 5th, because it fell during her spring break.
Admitted student isn’t the same as Preview. Preview is the required orientation. Admitted student is just a campus tour geared towards admitted students
Yeah, 2 of them. 1 was fine, the other, biology, I got a b-. I just was not ready for that with no previous experience in the subject, but it was the only option schedule wise so they put me in it. I did not know it would be having possible implications on my law schools admissions 10 years later. But I think it will all work out. My counselor is going to reach out to the de college to see if they will remove that from my transcript.
Enjoy reading your posts. Insightful and educational. You and your families definitely did lots of research. Appreciated that you are sharing with all of us. Thank you.
Thanks. This makes me feel a lot better. It’s just been my dream for years to attend a top 5 law school, and I would have been very upset if a class from freshman year of high school got in the way of that.
I don’t think there is a way to avoid having community college grades included in your law school application GPA. Even if taken in high school, the Law School Admission Council asks for transcripts from all 4 year and community college programs and they will use all the grades to compute your law school application grade point average. If there is any way to get the community college to change your grades to a pass instead of a letter grade, that may be your best hope. Other than that, one B- won’t kill you. It is very important to focus on your college GPA going forward. GPA is the number one factor for getting into law school now and the LSAT is secondary (but still very important). If you really want to go to law school, make sure you take as many easy A courses as you can in college. Get an account on www.lsd.law and you will see real world data on law school admissions. You do not have to go to a top 10 law school, but if that is your target, you will see from the lsd.law website admissions charts that the top 10 schools have a pretty broad range of LSAT scores, but very few people get in with below a 3.9 college GPA. They don’t seem to give much credit for hard college majors. If you kick butt on your undergraduate GPA, you will have good options with a decent LSAT score. People with 3.5 GPA’s in really hard majors get screwed over for top 10 law school admissions even with extremely high LSAT scores. It is really early to be thinking about top 10 law schools, but you are smart to focus on every grade in every class so you can possibly have those options later.
So to be clear, they don’t look at course rigor like they do for undergrad admissions right? I’m still kind of confused of the differences and similarities between law school and undergrad admissions since I have just started researching it.
They will look at the rigor of the school you attended for undergraduate, your GPA overall and prelaw courses specifically. LSAT scores and letters of recommendation.
I just sent you a private message. Have a daughter who just went through this and the lsd.law website is very informative. Top 10 law schools don’t go very deep in the GPA chart even for rigorous class schedules. You can also search ABA 509 _______[insert law school you are interested in] to see the admissions information for any ABA accredited law school. On the first page, you will see 25%, 50% and 75% for LSAT and GPA. You will notice the ABA 509 forms do not differentiate for rigor.
For law school…you can major in ANYTHING. But keep your grades up as high as possible.
Major in something that interests you that will give you a career (or at least great skills) if you don’t end up going to law school. And being versed in outside fields are obvious advantages to a career in law especially in niche fields. Background in medicine, business etc. always provides an edge in your career.
Law school is a LOT of writing. So while some majors like English, History, Political Science or Philosophy may seem to not have the gravitas (or direct career path) of some stem majors like medicine they also teach writing and research. Both requisites for law.
Now…the LSAT and getting into law school (and you’re not there yet).
The LSAT is very much top dog for top law schools.
One of its main components is logic problem solving. Do you like that type of problem? (it’s more testing your way of thinking rather than actual book knowledge).
And it’s very deceptive in scoring. Just a point or two can be huge in actual percentage points.
A regular test is like scaled 1-100 so a 96 isn’t much off a 98. But LSAT is like a HUGE difference between 168 and 170. Especially for tippy top schools.
You don’t have to go to the top 15 schools to be successful but you do need to go to a good school.