I graduated from a pretty good little liberal arts school in PA in '07 and am now thinking about law school, but I'm concerned about my GPA. My overall undergrad GPA was just under 3.1, although that's mostly due to my freshman year sucking very badly. I never got anything less than a B for the rest of my college career. Am i gonna get hammered (aka "not accepted") because of my first year of college five years ago, or can i apply to schools where my gpa would be below average but assume they'll actually look at my transcript and be a little forgiving?

The LSAT is the cure-all. It's better to have a good LSAT(165+)and mediocre GPA than the other way around.

That's sorta what I figured, although I also figure a good number for both can't hurt. I'm just planning to emphasize my soph-senior year grades in my personal statement. I just took the LSAT on the 4th, so those test-grading rascals are keeping me in suspense for another week and a half before I find out how I did.

Do well on the LSAT, that's you're most important goal. What is your major GPA? If you can, emphasize that.