A WNMU success story

One of my colleagues is attending WNMU for the MA - Interdisplinary Studies. His concentrations are English and Political Science.

He was an OK student for his undergraduate studies (2.5ish GPA). A couple of years ago he approached me about an affordable MA. Thanks to the suggestions on the board, I pointed him toward WNMU.

Once he enrolled in Grad School, he decided to put forth the effort (comes with maturity - sometimes we don't have that when we're 18 - 22 years old). He also decided that once he was done with his MA from WMNU, that he would apply to Law School.

My colleague studied his butt off for the LSAT, scored in the 90+ percentile, and has a 4.0 at WMNU, with 2 courses remaining. He has applied to several law schools, and was accepted to many of them.

He found out last week that he has been awarded a fellowship (full-ride + stipend) to attend the University of Wisconsin Law School in Madison. In my conversations with him, he gave a lot of credit to WNMU. First, the desire to return to school; second; showing an admissions committee for Law School that he could do the work; and finally, confidence in himself.

Big shout out to all on the board - my colleague will do well at UW-Madison Law in the Fall.

 

Wow! that really is impressive!!

 

That sounds really like a great success story. Always inspiring to hear these. Thanks for sharing!

 

Amazing story! I hope he finds more excitement in law school than I did.

 

I'm not sure which grad school I would pick yet but you've sold me on WNMU.

 

Awesome!

Could your colleague share information about the exit requirements? I'm trying to find out about the comps for political science, but it's like pulling teeth. Other than that and my transfer credit issues, I've loved the courses.

-Matt

 

He's trying to find out himself, and he is asking to transfer in his last 6 credits of poly sci (his law school courses). Otherwise he is going to take a break and finish the MA Summer 2011.

Shawn

 

What an awesome story and great transformation. Please tell your colleague that I wish them the best of luck although I suspect that they will not need much to continue on their path of success.

 

That is fantastic, and UW-Madison is a great school. When I lived in Wisconsin, I noted that many of the state legislators and attorneys in my area had degrees from UW-Madison.

 

Dr. Shawn:

Wow! I thought Law School Admission is more important on undergraduate GPA. Which I have been searching around the net, and graduate GPA doesn't help much or even not at all.

Can you list all the schools he applied? I am curious 'cause now it seems like a myth about lower undergraduate GPA for law school admission.

Thanks.

 

I find it hard to believe that law schools won't make exceptions for those with poor undergrad GPAs from many years back that have now matured as a student with a solid LSAT and graduate GPA.

 

I know that he applied to the University of Illinois and the University of Minnesota and was accepted to both. He has an application to Harvard Law that is pending. I know there were some others as well.

 

Great success story, thanks for sharing.

 

Great story and congratulations to your friend!

 

Pretty sure a top percentile LSAT trumps a bad under-grad GPA any day of the week. Especially for an adult learner with a recent Masters and good recommendations.

 

Here is the list:

U Wisconsin - accepted
U Illiinois - accepted
U Minnesota - accepted
Washington U (St. Louis) - accepted
Boston U - accepted
Marquette - accepted
U Kansas - accepted
U of Iowa - accepted
Ohio State - accepted
De Paul - accepted

U Virginia - denied

Harvard - pending
Yale - pending
Columbia - pending
Cornell - pending

My colleague also told me that he spent a great deal of time on his essays and made over 20 revisions to them.

Shawn

 

That’s kind of what I’m hoping to accomplish. I had an ok GPA in my undergrad (took classes at TESC bc I had to, and I was pregnant pretty much during the entire time with two different kids, so ended up with a 3.1). I’m enrolled in an MS program and am also working on taking programming classes so that in two years I will have a completely different background. I hope to then turn that into the ability to get into a prestigious law school. I think i'd like to focus on cybercrime/forensics or patent law. So far I have a 4.0 and I’m hoping to keep it up.

It's exciting to hear someone else do it too!