I got a masters degree after college, will that help my admissions chances? Will law schools look at my undergrad GPA or my masters GPA? My undergrad GPA was lower than I would like, should I get a masters to offset it?
Law schools will focus primarily on your undergraduate GPA. A masters degree won’t hurt you, but its benefit is fairly small – it all gets added into that last 10% of your application after GPA and LSAT are accounted for. In general, law schools do not pay much attention to graduate degrees and will focus on your undergraduate record. Getting a masters in order to go to law school is not necessary and probably not advisable.
Should I take a gap year? OR I’m returning to school after graduating several years ago, will that help/hurt my chances?
Gap years are unlikely to help or hurt your application to law school. This is one of the benefits of the fact that law schools focus heavily on GPA and LSAT, other factors like returning to school later in life are unlikely to harm you. Whether or not you should take a gap year depends on you, your needs, your finances, your ability to do well in law school. When thinking about this you should consider the impact on your life, but you do not need to worry about admissions chances.
How can I get letters of recommendation if I have, or am planning to be, out of school for several years?
Two pieces of advice
- Ask your professors if they are willing to write letters for you close to the time that you have taken their classes. Even if you are applying several years later, you want them to write the letter when their memory of you is fresh. Some professors will be willing to write a letter, and simply file it until it is needed. Other professors may politely decline. In either case, you should ask early so that they have the option to write it as soon as possible. It becomes much harder to write a letter of recommendation for a student you haven’t seen in several years – even if that student was great.
- You can get letters of recommendation from employers, or volunteer supervisors. For law school, this doesn’t necessarily need to come from a lawyer or someone in the legal profession, but it should come from someone who can speak about skills that are relevant to law school. Skills such as complex reading and writing and clear communication.
I have multiple bachelors degrees, which GPA will they use? Can getting a second bachelor’s degree help my admissions chances?
LSAC will use the GPA from your first degree.
Multiple bachelors degrees are not likely to be helpful. LSAC uses your transcript and calculates their own GPA to give to law schools, and it excludes from that calculation any classes taken after the conferral of your first bachelors degree. You can still send transcripts from other degrees, but it is up to the law school to decide what if anything to do with them.
Full details on this page.