is getting a degree from a prestigious university important?
Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 9:38 pm
When applying to T-14 law schools, is getting a B.A from a prestigious university a factor that determines the chance of being accepted?
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https://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=151430
True, but going to a lower tiered UG can definitely hold you back in the admissions process. I got a >3.9 from a TTTT and I'm pretty sure it's kept me out of some schools that I would have otherwise gotten into. (U Chi in particular)bhan87 wrote:4.0 from a TTT state university > 3.0 from HYP. Minimize your debt and rack up those A's. Don't worry too much about your school's reputation.
Why do you say that?ladybug89 wrote:HYP definitely helps
There has been some anecdotal evidence that people from harvard have gotten into harvard law school with lower than median numbers, but I haven't seen anything beyond that.ahduth wrote:Why do you say that?ladybug89 wrote:HYP definitely helps
I go to one (unfortunately) and I've seen people outperform their lower numbers (like people on the lower ends of a school's ranges are much more likely to get in than the average person on the lower end). In a lot of threads like these TLSers say it's because people at HYP have access to more internships/prestigious programs/other softs, which is probably partly true, but I think the affiliation itself helps too.ahduth wrote:Why do you say that?ladybug89 wrote:HYP definitely helps
I could agree that, on average, it's mostly a numbers game.ahduth wrote:I'll grant this stuff can matter at the margins. But if you're really looking to beef up your application try... serving in the military, for example. As a soft HYP is meh at best I'd think. Are the HYPers who outperformed on LSN? There's no easy way to search for them that I can think of.
In the end it's almost entirely a numbers game. I know I'm going to get neonx in here telling me it's not, but for the vast majority of people, these softs only matter if you're exactly at the median.
Sweet, I got him within 8 minutes. IIRC, you're an example of someone drastically outperforming their numbers, which is why I brought you up. But you're obviously a smart guy who communicates well and has an interesting story. People with your cycle are pretty few and far between though. And I'm rather skeptical that many of them are outperforming because of HYP.neonx wrote:I could agree that, on average, it's mostly a numbers game.ahduth wrote:I'll grant this stuff can matter at the margins. But if you're really looking to beef up your application try... serving in the military, for example. As a soft HYP is meh at best I'd think. Are the HYPers who outperformed on LSN? There's no easy way to search for them that I can think of.
In the end it's almost entirely a numbers game. I know I'm going to get neonx in here telling me it's not, but for the vast majority of people, these softs only matter if you're exactly at the median.
As for HYPers outperforming, I am unsure. However, I think that, in general, students are these schools are the type of applicants that would have excellent softs/stories/backgrounds already.
I think this point is dead on. The type of people who gets into Ivies are, in general, already top quality material. But this doesn't mean that going to a lower-tier school disadvantages you significantly.neonx wrote:I could agree that, on average, it's mostly a numbers game.ahduth wrote:I'll grant this stuff can matter at the margins. But if you're really looking to beef up your application try... serving in the military, for example. As a soft HYP is meh at best I'd think. Are the HYPers who outperformed on LSN? There's no easy way to search for them that I can think of.
In the end it's almost entirely a numbers game. I know I'm going to get neonx in here telling me it's not, but for the vast majority of people, these softs only matter if you're exactly at the median.
As for HYPers outperforming, I am unsure. However, I think that, in general, students are these schools are the type of applicants that would have excellent softs/stories/backgrounds already.
This seems to be right. At the top schools, there are a lot more people from prestigious schools (Ivies/equivalent, selective liberal arts colleges, top public universities) than schools nobody has ever heard of. Causation or correlation? Impossible to tell.bhan87 wrote:I think this point is dead on. The type of people who gets into Ivies are, in general, already top quality material. But this doesn't mean that going to a lower-tier school disadvantages you significantly.neonx wrote:I could agree that, on average, it's mostly a numbers game.ahduth wrote:I'll grant this stuff can matter at the margins. But if you're really looking to beef up your application try... serving in the military, for example. As a soft HYP is meh at best I'd think. Are the HYPers who outperformed on LSN? There's no easy way to search for them that I can think of.
In the end it's almost entirely a numbers game. I know I'm going to get neonx in here telling me it's not, but for the vast majority of people, these softs only matter if you're exactly at the median.
As for HYPers outperforming, I am unsure. However, I think that, in general, students are these schools are the type of applicants that would have excellent softs/stories/backgrounds already.
I imagined the guy from unsolved mysteries saying this.tallboone wrote:This seems to be right. At the top schools, there are a lot more people from prestigious schools (Ivies/equivalent, selective liberal arts colleges, top public universities) than schools nobody has ever heard of. Causation or correlation? Impossible to tell.bhan87 wrote:I think this point is dead on. The type of people who gets into Ivies are, in general, already top quality material. But this doesn't mean that going to a lower-tier school disadvantages you significantly.neonx wrote:I could agree that, on average, it's mostly a numbers game.ahduth wrote:I'll grant this stuff can matter at the margins. But if you're really looking to beef up your application try... serving in the military, for example. As a soft HYP is meh at best I'd think. Are the HYPers who outperformed on LSN? There's no easy way to search for them that I can think of.
In the end it's almost entirely a numbers game. I know I'm going to get neonx in here telling me it's not, but for the vast majority of people, these softs only matter if you're exactly at the median.
As for HYPers outperforming, I am unsure. However, I think that, in general, students are these schools are the type of applicants that would have excellent softs/stories/backgrounds already.
If you had good data it would be trivial to calculate.tallboone wrote:
This seems to be right. At the top schools, there are a lot more people from prestigious schools (Ivies/equivalent, selective liberal arts colleges, top public universities) than schools nobody has ever heard of. Causation or correlation? Impossible to tell.
There was a study published a few months ago (which I can't find to link, though Ezra Klein discussed it on his blog if you feel like digging) that analyzed the careers of people who went to different universities, analyzing the value of an Ivy League education. As I recall, the conclusion was that the ability to get accepted into an Ivy League University was worth more than the education itself; if you got into Yale but went to OU, for instance, you still made as much as a Yale grad. The authors drew from this that the qualities that got you accepted into Yale were the ones that eventually led you to succeed in your career.tallboone wrote:bhan87 wrote:This seems to be right. At the top schools, there are a lot more people from prestigious schools (Ivies/equivalent, selective liberal arts colleges, top public universities) than schools nobody has ever heard of. Causation or correlation? Impossible to tell.neonx wrote:I think this point is dead on. The type of people who gets into Ivies are, in general, already top quality material. But this doesn't mean that going to a lower-tier school disadvantages you significantly.ahduth wrote:
As for HYPers outperforming, I am unsure. However, I think that, in general, students are these schools are the type of applicants that would have excellent softs/stories/backgrounds already.