How to Get into Law School with Low GPA

What is an Ideal GPA for Getting Accepted into Law Schools?

Your GPA is extremely important when it comes to getting accepted into the top law schools in the US and the best law schools in Canada. For your application to get selected by a law school, you must meet the GPA and LSAT cut-offs set by the previous year’s matriculants, even at the easiest law schools to get into. Though the exact cutoff scores for qualification and eligibility are subject to change every year, it is ideal to have a GPA score that is a minimum of 3.7 on a 4.0 scale in order to have a good chance for acceptance to many law schools in the United States. The ideal GPA for each institution varies and, depending on the law school tier, it may increase or decrease every application cycle. If you want to apply to a prestigious law school like Stanford Law or Yale Law, the GPA you would have to achieve should be higher than 3.7 – more precisely, it should be around 3.9.

What is the Significance of GPA in Law School Admissions?

Law schools have a unique selection process to identify the best candidates. Your undergraduate GPA and LSAT scores have a vital role in this process as they demonstrate your academic background and abilities.  

Apart from your academic scores, law schools further examine your extracurriculars to have a greater understanding of your potential. Some law school extracurriculars may act as strengthening points for your law school application are internships, volunteer work, and community service because they demonstrate your skills outside the academia such as communication, teamwork, and professionalism. 

Although it is essential to focus on building a holistic profile, GPA has prime significance in your law school application. A good combination of the GPA and LSAT score is ultimately the one that gets you into your dream school. While a high LSAT score is crucial, your GPA describes your academic prowess and ability to handle the demanding law school workload. Hence, the GPA is an extremely important score that greatly affects your admissions chances.

Interested in a quick summary of how you can compensate for a low GPA? Check out this infographic and keep scrolling for additional details on these points!

How to Find the Reasons for Your Low GPA?

There are a variety of reasons why you may be getting a very low GPA. Read our list below to examine whether you can pinpoint the root of your low grades. By doing this analysis, you can eliminate the problem and increase your GPA:

#1 Are you stretched for time?

Extracurriculars are an indispensable part of education. But just like everything else, too many extracurriculars may end up having harmful effects on your academic life in certain cases. If you focus on a lot of extracurriculars, you may end up with too much work. A good profile is a balance of academic and non-academic activities. So, if you find that you are involved in too many activities, consider narrowing down your list of extracurriculars to 2 or 3. This way, you will be able to focus on academics and dedicate your time and effort to the activities you like best.

#2 Is exam prep impossible?

Overconfidence is never the way to go when appearing for any exam. You may sometimes compromise on study time thinking that your studies don’t require much preparation. Study time is a dreaded part of the day and many students do not put in enough effort. However, if you wish to have a high GPA score, it is best to start preparing way ahead of your exams. You will not be able to cover the entire syllabus just a day before your exam. If you struggle with setting enough time for test and exam prep, consider joining a study group with your peers or hiring a tutor to help you be accountable. You can also discuss other prep help options with a college advisor.

#3 No good place to study?

Your personal life may also be the cause of getting a lower GPA. It is necessary to have the right mind and environment to study in peace. But if you are facing any trouble at home, you often end up losing your concentration while studying. Tragedies and celebrations may also equally affect you and disrupt your focus on studies in class or during self-study. If studying at home distracts you too much, consider going to a local library or your school library. You can also look into booking a study room in preparation for a test. These tend to be private and quiet rooms perfect for studying alone.

#4 Studying what you do not like

When you do not enjoy studying a subject, you end up losing motivation which consequently affects your grades. While an ideal solution would be to change your subjects to the ones you like, it might not be immediately possible. So, try to find other possibilities. You should break the issue down into simple steps and find solutions quickly. The first step is to identify the reasons why you do not find the subject interesting and the second step is to find the ways to eliminate those reasons to the maximum possible extent. For instance, if you are bored in class, try participating in discussions and asking questions. You might still not like the subject but it will make your time in class enjoyable and you might learn something. 

#5 Not understanding the material

If you are not able to understand the learning material, it might be a reason that you are not able to get good grades in your subject. So, you can try to find resources that match your learning style. Maybe you do not like cramming lengthy textbooks. Great! Then find an alternative way to study the concepts. Can you find some videos on YouTube that explain the concepts visually and help you in studying? Get creative and put some thought into how you can make learning simpler for yourself and understand the material better.

#6 Poor time management

Poor time management does not necessarily mean that you have too much on your plate. You might be having 4 courses and just a couple of extracurriculars, but you are not able to complete more than 2 tasks in a day. An appropriate reason, in this case, would be improper allocation of your time for each task and overspending time on one particular task. A to-do list might be the solution to this issue. First, make a list of activities you have to do in a day in the order of their priority. Next, calculate the total time available to you in hours. Then, allocate a fixed number of hours for every activity and set a start and end time for it. Take a look at the following example:

However, make a note to adhere strictly to the stipulated time for every activity. With such a practice, you will get into a habit of better time management and consequently dedicate more time to studies for improving your grades.

Unsure how the law school application works? In this video, we'll walkyou through the whole process:

How to Get a Better GPA for Law School if You are a College Student?

If you are still in your undergraduate courses, you have a good chance to improve your GPA in the remaining semesters. If you study diligently and prepare well before sitting for your exams, you may be able to obtain a good score in spite of the initial setbacks. You must be willing to put in the required effort for making things change. Here are some steps that you can take to get a better GPA for law school:

1. Attend all classes at school

While you might think that skipping a class or two does not do much harm, you will be surprised to learn that attending classes is necessary for a clear foundation of concepts. Sure, you can study on your own but you miss out on detailed explanations and your chance to clear your doubts. Attend all classes and try to participate in class as much as you can for gaining confidence in your subject topics. 

2. Plan your studies in advance

Undergrad subjects can have a huge syllabus but efficient planning goes a long way in preparing for your exams. Review your syllabus to learn about assignment deadlines, exam dates, and more. Plan your study schedule in advance to make sure you do not miss due dates.

3. Review your progress weekly and monthly

Remember, constant effort is the key to success. You should always have a system of measuring your progress to understand where you stand and what is working out for you. This will also boost your faith in yourself when you see how far you have come in your journey. Here’s an example strategy that you can use:

Decide how many topics you would be studying in a particular week and month to set your goals. Then, dedicate time to studies daily. Revise your topics weekly and monthly. Finally, take a practice test at the end of the month. This way you can identify your strengths and weaknesses in the curriculum. At the time of your final exams, you do not need to start studying from the beginning.

4. Learn time management

With multiple activities to do, it might become difficult to manage studies along with your extracurriculars. But, allocating your time wisely to each activity will help you in becoming efficient. Even as a lawyer in the future, you will have to manage time among your clients, so why not start learning that from an early age by planning a timetable for your studies. Divide the time you have among the subjects in your curriculum, allocating a specific number of hours to both your strong and weak areas.

5. Reach out for help

If you have questions or gaps in your knowledge, you may want to connect with your professors during their office hours or after class. Your professors are the most qualified people for answering your subject-related questions, so don’t be reluctant in reaching out to them for help. Make sure to make prior appointments via email so they know to remain behind after class or to wait for you to appear during office hours.

7. Opt for summer classes

If you wish to increase your GPA for law school, you can take classes during the summer. Take no more than 2 courses to make sure that the workload is minimal, so you can dedicate as much time as you need to getting those A+s.

8. Take additional classes at community college

Community colleges have several class options which are relatively easier and can help you in improving your GPA. You may check out the grade distribution for community college before enrolling in a course to make sure what value will those grades add to your transcripts, subsequently adding to your previous GPA and improving it. Both online and in-person options are available for community college classes.

9. Take classes in subjects that you like and excel in

Choose your courses according to your interests. Opting for courses in the disciplines you enjoy studying will likely increase your grade because your interest is the primary motivating factor that drives you to study hard.

10. Get help from a private tutor

If you require special attention, you can always hire a private tutor to help you out. This would cost you money, but you will be able to understand your coursework and consequently perform better in exams.

Need tips for LSAT prep? Take a look at this video:

How Can You Compensate for a Low GPA?

Improving your GPA while still being in college might not be a herculean task but what to do if you have already finished your undergraduate degree? In this case, the best course of action would be to create the best possible law school application to highlight your strengths. But you should also address your low GPA in the components of your application such as your resume and personal statement. You can do this by taking the responsibility for what happened, explaining what you did to improve your grades, and describing your learning from the setback.

Additionally, there are some steps you can take to compensate for a low GPA such as:

Common Mistakes in Addressing Low GPA for Law School Applications

To address a low GPA, you may start by writing a good personal statement or addendum, which would help you appeal to the law school authorities to consider your application. However, if you are trying to remedy or excuse your low GPA score you need to keep a few things in mind when listing your reasons:

#1 Avoid the blame game

Try not to blame your professors for your bad scores. This is a very common mistake that countless students make when applying for law school. If you put the full blame on your instructor, it will reflect badly on you, as it will show that you cannot take responsibility for your own setbacks. Even if you think there was some injustice on the part of the professor, it’s best to articulate the reasons behind your poor grades without blaming others. For example, you may bring up that you and the professor had a challenging relationship – but how did you try to work this out? How did you try to overcome this challenge? This should be the crux of your explanation. 

#2 Keep away from lengthy essays

Don't construct lengthy essays to pen down your troubles and how they affected your score. Take accountability for your mistakes and convey your problems in a believable way. Overdoing your essay might convey that you are lying or trying to cover your mistakes in a non-reasonable way and not taking responsibility for your actions.

#3 Do not avoid this setback

When you are preparing your law school applications, it is good to emphasize your strengths. However, you cannot just avoid bad grades. While talking about your impressive extracurriculars is good, you must also talk about your weakness. Addressing your weaknesses provides clarity to the admissions committee on your profile. It doesn’t leave any unanswered questions about you. An excellent way to go about this is by explaining what went wrong for you and the challenges you faced. Next, speak about your efforts in overcoming those challenges and the lessons you learned.

Steer clear of focusing the spotlight on your shortcomings

It is advisable to not focus a lot on your weakness. It is always good to take responsibility and explain, then move on. Whether it be your personal statement or your addendum, you should always end it with a “lesson learned” approach.

Looking for tips to help your law school personal statement stand out? This video is for you:

Tips to Stand Out in Your Law School Application with a Low GPA

Now that you know how you can improve your chances of admission despite of having a low GPA, take a look at these important tips which will help you with your application even further:

Conclusion

Having a low undergraduate GPA might be daunting but you have to focus on your strengths if you desire to become a lawyer. With the right set of actionable guidelines and a realistic choice of law school, you can get into a law school if you put in the hard work. Lastly, make sure to complete all components of your application to maximize the chances of selection at the school of your choice.

FAQs

To your success,

Your friends at BeMo

BeMo Academic Consulting

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