Hello,
I desperately want to get into grad school/law school but I have a cGPA of 3.42 and two LWD on my transcript. The LWDs were probably a bit stupid, they were in my 2nd and 3rd years and due to getting 60s in two mandatory classes. I retook one and didn’t do much better – got a B. I’m redoing the other LWD class again as I go into my 4th year. I also had medical reasons for the LWDs (because I got them after the deadline had passed) but obviously it does not say that on my transcript. I’ll be graduating this year and I don’t plan on getting anymore LWDs. My question to you is: how badly do these LWDs affect my chances of getting into grad school/law school? Is it too late for me? With these grades and the two LWDs, how likely/unlikely will I get accepted into grad school? (The programs I’ve been looking at has a B- cut off and A- admission average).
Thanks,Desperate Student
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hey there,
asking me whether you’ll get into graduate school without specifying which program or university you’re interested in is like asking whether you can afford a meal without specifying the meal or how much money you have.
but aska is a trooper, and i’m gonna do the best i can.
if the programs you’re looking at have a B- cut-off, and you’ve got a B+, then yeah, your chances are good. the LWDs aren’t great, but if the courses aren’t related to your program of interest and they were in second and third year, then they’re not the end of the world.
not much more i can say about that. but you can always call the admissions committee at the school in question and bug them about it if their website is especially cryptic.
generally speaking, graduate schools tend only to look at your grades in third/fourth years – though you’ll have to check the specific requirements of your program/school to make sure. so if you’re calculating admissions averages, make sure only to include the years they’ll actually look at.
easy peasy, right? you didn’t even need me for that. look, i’ll even give you a tool that will calculate your GPA for you.
that’s graduate school. law school is a whole ‘nother thing.
i don’t really feel like looking up admissions averages for every single law school in the English-speaking world, so i’m just going to focus on Canadian schools in this answer. schools elsewhere might operate differently, so make sure to check that before applying willy-nilly.
i’m gonna be straight with you – a 3.42 falls beneath the minimum CGPA for every law school in the country. putting the LWDs aside, the CGPA in itself is concerning.
the ghost of Law School Future is dark and damning, but there is still hope at the end of this dream.
law schools in Canada typically look at your three best years, and sometimes only your best two. that should bump your admissions GPA up a little. and hey, if your worst year has an LWD in it, all the better.
the LWDs on their own won’t be a death sentence on your application, as long as your GPA is within the realm of interesting to the admissions committee. you can also always write a letter as part of your application explaining why those LWDs are there.
finally: you’re going into fourth year! you still have one full year to absolutely KILL IT before you start applying. you can do a lot in your final year if you put your mind to it. competitive LSATs can also make up for small weaknesses in your GPA, so do your very best to give that your all.
good luck with your applications, dude,
aska