how do schools view law school gpa?

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orangeblossom

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I'm a non-trad post-bac student, applying this summer.
My uGPA is about a 3.8 and my sGPA is currently a 3.94 (post bacc program). Hopefully my post-bacc grades will bump up by uGPA by a tiny bit.

I attended law school a few years ago. I didn't finish; I'm currently on leave. For reasons I would not like to go into, I was not happy with law school and did very poorly. There's a forced curve of a 3.1 or something (not exactly sure what the curve is, but it's somewhere between a 3.0 and 3.2, I think). So a 3.1 would be average. Still, my law school gpa is very low (below a 3.0).

I don't have an MCAT score yet. I intend to address my terrible law school gpa somewhere in my application (although I'm not entirely sure how to do that yet... taking suggestions if anyone has good advice). But I'm worried how med schools will view my law school gpa. I've read a few threads on SDN suggesting that it of course depends on the school, but the general consensus is that little to no weight is placed on it, given it is not "relevant" to (say) how I performed in the hard sciences?

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Medical schools will obviously see your law GPA but your post-bacc GPA is a lot more important. The bigger concern than your law GPA is the career change. First of all I want to congratulate you in choosing medicine as a career but unfortunately a lot of medical schools will be skeptical so you have to show your commitment to medicine through your ECs. What are your ECs?
You could address the terrible law GPA in your personal statement of the primary application or secondary since it's the first thing medical schools look at but you shouldn't seem too defensive. I think talking more about your interests in medicine and how you transitioned from law to medicine would be more important. I would highly suggest that you read my MDapp profile, I don't want to repeat a lot of the things since I discuss the personal statement, ECs in more detail there and other important aspects such as letter of recommendations.
 
Hi flodhi,
How do I read your MDapp profile? (Sorry, noob.)
My ECs are mostly community service work (I also have some academic honors like thesis, departmental honors, graduation honors, scholarships; two leadership positions).

My clinical volunteer work by the time I apply should total ~200 hours and ~60-70 hours of shadowing (all of which were completed in the past year, once I made my decision to apply to med school). I know it's not an impressive number of hours or anything, but I was also taking a full load of pre-med classes. I think I really immersed myself in the hospital setting/shadowing and I've like what I found. It's really made me excited about being a doctor.

My non-clinical volunteer work is very substantial. I haven't calculated the hours but it's about four years' worth of stuff (during college), including spending a summer in a rural area abroad for volunteer work.

I agree that schools won't like I'm a career changer. Do you think my ECs are enough, or should I try to do something else to prove I'm serious?
 
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Hi flodhi,
My ECs are mostly community service work (I also have some academic honors like thesis, departmental honors, graduation honors, scholarships; two leadership positions).

My clinical volunteer work by the time I apply should total ~200 hours and ~60-70 hours of shadowing (all of which were completed in the past year, once I made my decision to apply to med school). I know it's not an impressive number of hours or anything, but I was also taking a full load of pre-med classes. I think I really immersed myself in the hospital setting/shadowing and I've like what I found. It's really made me excited about being a doctor.

My non-clinical volunteer work is very substantial. I haven't calculated the hours but it's about four years' worth of stuff (during college), including spending a summer in a rural area abroad for volunteer work.

I agree that schools won't like I'm a career changer. Do you think my ECs are enough, or should I try to do something else to prove I'm serious?

I like the direction of your ECs they seem to be wonderful if you read my MDapp profile you have pretty much touched on the majority of the things I addressed. However, I think you need to continue with your clinical volunteering DO NOT stop. Average applicants to medical schools have a 1.5 year clinical experience and I think because of the career change you need to exceed that. You need to show ADCOM that you have thoroughly experienced the clinical aspect of medicine and this is actually what you want to do with your life. Numerically your shadowing hours and clinical volunteering is average but as I stated it's important for you to go above average. Leadership positions are very nice they tend to balance the ECs. Your non-clinical volunteer work of 4 years is amazing! you will have a lot to talk about during an interview. Also hopefully you're still engaging yourself in some form of non-clinical experience such as working in rehab facilities, homeless shelters even if it's for very few hours to show that you're genuine and not just doing it for the numbers. I think ECs wise you are almost there just need a little bit more work. Also obtain a strong LOR from the Physician(s) you work with and the professors that teach you. Letter of recommendations will be crucial for a non-traditional applicant like yourself. On a final note remember not to bash law but focus more on the positives of why medicine. Talking about law being boring or any tone in that manner can come back to you negatively so I'm sure you will try to avoid that at all cost.
For MCAT preparation I would highly recommend following SN2ed's MCAT study guide which is highly respected on this forum. I am listing the link down below and good luck!

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=623898
 
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