Top Law Schools

sprezzatura wrote:j.wellington, thanks for the helpful reply.
I definitely didn't mean that I thought UM was literally the Harvard of the West - it was the exorbitant bragging that got me curious.
But just to be clear - let's say I get a GPA and LSAT that qualify me for the upper T14 (don't jump on me, these are just hypothetical givens), will having UM on my transcript make Stanford or Columbia turn up their nose at me, or put me at the back of a long line of 3.9/173s with Ivy League undergrads?

I'm by no means an authority, but I think it might even help you slightly. There is such a thing as geographic affirmative action. I doubt the top schools get many applicants from U of Montana, so if you're overall package is solid it might help your application stand out some.

Well fwiw, a friend of mine told me he got waitlisted today at a Columbia with a 4.0/164 from an unranked undergrad. Of course thats just a waitlist so who knows.

tkgrrett wrote:Well fwiw, a friend of mine told me he got waitlisted today at a Columbia with a 4.0/164 from an unranked undergrad. Of course thats just a waitlist so who knows.

I would think that the 164 has more to do with the WL than the UG.

Mr. Pablo wrote:

tkgrrett wrote:Well fwiw, a friend of mine told me he got waitlisted today at a Columbia with a 4.0/164 from an unranked undergrad. Of course thats just a waitlist so who knows.

I would think that the 164 has more to do with the WL than the UG.

Well my point was that if they looked down on the gpa being from an unranked school he mightve been an outright reject. The fact that they at least waitlisted him might show that they arent differentiating a great deal between undergrad universities.

tkgrrett wrote:

Mr. Pablo wrote:

tkgrrett wrote:Well fwiw, a friend of mine told me he got waitlisted today at a Columbia with a 4.0/164 from an unranked undergrad. Of course thats just a waitlist so who knows.

I would think that the 164 has more to do with the WL than the UG.

Well my point was that if they looked down on the gpa being from an unranked school he mightve been an outright reject. The fact that they at least waitlisted him might show that they arent differentiating a great deal between undergrad universities.

I misunderstood. I agree with what you are saying. Many people are highly invested in the prestige of their UG institutions, and so will defend the assumption that it can lead to a relatively significant boost to their admission chances. All other things being equal, a degree from a highly regarded UG school might be a tie breaker, but I doubt that a 4.0 from a relatively unknown UG would be viewed in anything but a positive light.
That being said, I would also be willing to wager that your friend has something other than a 4.0/164 which would prompt a Columbia to even WL him/her. A 4.0 is impressive, but to a school like Columbia a 164 seems like it might be a death-knell.
This is, of course, gross and unwarranted speculation based on nothing but hearsay.

For application process UG prestige is not that important. GPA is. For admission process I would take 4.0 from UoM then 3.7 from Harvard. However going too low (notorious diploma mills like UoPhoenix or DeVry) might need additional explanations.


UG prestige is more important if you want to get a "prestigious" job right after undergrad. Harvard grad will jave a good chance wit lets say McKinsey. UoM grad even with 4.0 has absolutely no chances even to get to written exam there.

It makes sense to go to lower ranked UC (such as UC Davis) over UC Berkeley, if you are goiing to apply to Med school.

If you have to ask that Q, it is not

JustDude wrote:For application process UG prestige is not that important. GPA is. For admission process I would take 4.0 from UoM then 3.7 from Harvard. However going too low (notorious diploma mills like UoPhoenix or DeVry) might need additional explanations.


UG prestige is more important if you want to get a "prestigious" job right after undergrad. Harvard grad will jave a good chance wit lets say McKinsey. UoM grad even with 4.0 has absolutely no chances even to get to written exam there.

It makes sense to go to lower ranked UC (such as UC Davis) over UC Berkeley, if you are goiing to apply to Med school.

but HLS might want that 3.7 from HYP instead of the 3.8 from somewhere else

Tofu wrote:

JustDude wrote:For application process UG prestige is not that important. GPA is. For admission process I would take 4.0 from UoM then 3.7 from Harvard. However going too low (notorious diploma mills like UoPhoenix or DeVry) might need additional explanations.


UG prestige is more important if you want to get a "prestigious" job right after undergrad. Harvard grad will jave a good chance wit lets say McKinsey. UoM grad even with 4.0 has absolutely no chances even to get to written exam there.

It makes sense to go to lower ranked UC (such as UC Davis) over UC Berkeley, if you are goiing to apply to Med school.

but HLS might want that 3.7 from HYP instead of the 3.8 from somewhere else

It could be a tiebreaker, but even that unlikely. With high LSAT, someone from UoM would be a bigger rarity.

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UF Gators wrote:

j.wellington wrote:Fuck y'all – Missoula is an awesome town. As long as we're throwing around these metaphors, let's call it the "Boulder of the North." If you're into outdoors stuff it's a great place to go to school or live. I have a pipe dream about retiring there, if retiring is something Americans still do decades from now. I don't know about the revered "T14," but the school is well-respected regionally and would definitely not be looked down on by the better western law schools (UW, Colorado, Utah, etc.).

I have been to Missoula, seems like a depressing place to be. Actually all of Montana seems like a depressing place to be.

--ImageRemoved--

Which of these is most depressing to you?
I did extensive research before choosing to attend UMSL and found no reference in any place other than TLS forums to U of M being "the Harvard of the west." I would not choose to attend a school that made such a claim, nor would I choose to attend the Harvard of the east. While I can understand one's desire to attend such a prestigious school, I would rather attend a small, well-respected regional school than graduate with the stench of snobbishness that ivy grads receive. That, and those schools are HUGE! Big ten undergrad was enough for me.

Kohinoor wrote:If you have to ask, no. If they call themselves 'the Harvard of ______' or 'the _______ Ivy', run, don't walk.

Boston College is traditionally called the "Jesuit Ivy" ... Morehouse is the "black Harvard" or "Harvard of the South." Those are both very well regarded schools...

I think the University of Montana feeds the crazy legal market of Bozeman, Montana.

Commonwealthman wrote:

Kohinoor wrote:If you have to ask, no. If they call themselves 'the Harvard of ______' or 'the _______ Ivy', run, don't walk.

Boston College is traditionally called the "Jesuit Ivy" ... Morehouse is the "black Harvard" or "Harvard of the South." Those are both very well regarded schools...

And Michigan is the public Harvard or the Harvard of the Big Ten

JamMasterJ wrote:

Commonwealthman wrote:

Kohinoor wrote:If you have to ask, no. If they call themselves 'the Harvard of ______' or 'the _______ Ivy', run, don't walk.

Boston College is traditionally called the "Jesuit Ivy" ... Morehouse is the "black Harvard" or "Harvard of the South." Those are both very well regarded schools...

And Michigan is the public Harvard or the Harvard of the Big Ten

LOL at Harvard of the big ten and lol at Michigan being it.

Desert Fox wrote:

JamMasterJ wrote:

Commonwealthman wrote:

Kohinoor wrote:If you have to ask, no. If they call themselves 'the Harvard of ______' or 'the _______ Ivy', run, don't walk.

Boston College is traditionally called the "Jesuit Ivy" ... Morehouse is the "black Harvard" or "Harvard of the South." Those are both very well regarded schools...

And Michigan is the public Harvard or the Harvard of the Big Ten

LOL at Harvard of the big ten and lol at Michigan being it.

^^^^^ a Northwestern student

JamMasterJ wrote:

Desert Fox wrote:

JamMasterJ wrote:

Commonwealthman wrote:
Boston College is traditionally called the "Jesuit Ivy" ... Morehouse is the "black Harvard" or "Harvard of the South." Those are both very well regarded schools...

And Michigan is the public Harvard or the Harvard of the Big Ten

LOL at Harvard of the big ten and lol at Michigan being it.

^^^^^ a Northwestern student

<----Illinois Alum

I think it is more properly referred to as the Harvard of Missoula, Montana. Sure, its the only school in town, so its by default the best school in town (though of course by default its also the worst school in town, yet they curiously don't call it the Cooley of Missoula).

Kohinoor wrote:If you have to ask, no. If they call themselves 'the Harvard of ______' or 'the _______ Ivy', run, don't walk.

Meh? Little Ivies are TTT? well, according to Wall Street Journal the top LACs placed higher as feeder schools to top graduate schools than some of the actual Ivies so...but "harvard of the west"......well, as long as it gets you the good gpa

Desert Fox wrote:
<----Illinois Alum

fair enough. I'd love to end up at NU (or Illinois for that matter), so I'm not judging

Never heard of it.

Hoosier wrote:

At first I thought that was a bear next to the man golfing, wouldn't surprise me since it is Montana and all...

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandrevi ... ntana-2536

some of my favorite internet posts are "I'd rather attend x (unknown school) than Harvard because all those pretentious assholes at Harvard"

Don't be so transparent, people.

Patriot1208 wrote:some of my favorite internet posts are "I'd rather attend x (unknown school) than Harvard because all those pretentious assholes at Harvard"

Don't be so transparent, people.

I wouldn't not attend harvard for that reason, but saying "I go to a school near Boston" is retarded and pretentious. Also the only people who drop that line are idiots who don't seem to have anything going for them.

yngblkgifted wrote: http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandrevi ... ntana-2536

http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandr ... tana-03093