I am a bit concerned. I am a student from the UK and I am applying to Harvard, Columbia and NYU in the US and Oxford & Cambridge in England. I graduated with First Class Honours in my LLB but my first year results were average at best. This has meant that my GPA under the American system is 3.7 out of 4. I read on another message that, for example, all students admitted at Yale had a GPA in the high 3.8s or 3.9s.

If this is the case, I think I would be struggling to get into any of the places in the US that I am applying to. As I am new to the American system, how would a GPA of 3.7 rate in terms of quality? Maybe I am worrying over nothing, but the message has really put doubts in my mind over whether I have any chance of getting into these places. So to people who know the system, do you think that with a GPA of 3.7 I have a chance at places like Harvard or Columbia?

well, I don't know. I just applied to Cambridge with a cumulative LLB GPA of about 3.5 from a Canadian School. But here in canada Law is a second degree, so I'm not sure how that fugures into the equation, since I already have a first class honours degree in Arts (BA). My Profs. have indicated that they believe I have a strong chance of getting in, based not so much on my GPA but on my very strong ranking. I'd like to think that ranking is most important, since raw grades change dramatically between different universities. So long as you are well inside the top 10 % of your faculty, I think you have a good shot.

Man, GPA is not your strong point for top US law schools! This is true. But you are not limited in finding other positive facts in your CV, are you? Again & again, average GPA can be remedied by your professional experience, unusual extracurricular activities, unique skills and even nationality, etc., etc., etc.