I want to add some considerations on specific schools based on my understanding of those data.
POSITIVE IMPRESSIONS
HARVARD. By far the more international friendly school in absolute terms: 73 n/r aliens and 26 unreported GPAs a year. The impact on the class is not that big due to the huge class size, but still at the top for n/r aliens (12% of the class) and 4th for unreported GPAs (4,6%). Their supposed admission rate (48%) is far above the average for the T14, and they are the only T3 on which an international can a real chance to get in. If you consider their policy for need-based scholarships you have probably the best school for internationals on the list.
Note that the admission rate for 170+ (54%) is just slightly higher that the overall admission rate, which means that the applicants pool has basically just strong numbers.
They have a remarkable difference in favor of early admission rate (58%) against mid admission rate (33%). However, in early period the numbers are very high (174.7 average LSAT for the admitted, 171.2 for the excluded) and the lowest mid rate is compensated by a more normal average LSAT (172.5). This represents a common trend for every school, which means that in general early applicants have highest numbers than mid/late applicants (totally understandable).
CHICAGO. They are not actually international friendly: 8 n/r aliens and 2 unreported GPAs a year… However we have a lot of data from MYlsn which means that those are pretty reliable, and watch at their timing behavior: early admission rate at 63% (!!!) with 174 avg, against a mid a.r. at 14% with 168.2 avg! An early application here is definitely worth it.
COLUMBIA. Second highest number of n/r aliens (47 a year) and 11 unreported GPAs, 2,8% of total class size (6th overall, 2nd T6 just after Harvard). General a.r. at 42% but being 170+ here makes a lot of difference (a.r. 67%), which means that their applicants pool is variegated. Indeed, the avg dinged LSAT is less than every other T6 at 168. Early-mid a.r. at 61%-45%.
NYU. Totally unexpected here. 65% a.r. (39/60) and even higher among 170+: 83,3% (35/42!!), 3rd overall after WUSTL and VANDY. There seems to be no difference among early and mid apps. Best early admission rate (74%!), best mid admission rate (77%), 2nd best overall a.r. after Vandy, 3rd best for 170+, 4th amount of n/r aliens a year (37). Go with that!
MICHIGAN. Nothing stellar but it seems to work. Surely the best public school for us! A.r. 45,5% (24/53), not much different among 170+ (50%, 16/32). Big boost for early applicants (71% against 48% for mid) compensated by higher (but reasonable) numbers (172.3 in / 171.2 out against 170 in / 169.3 out).
DUKE. They overperformed my expectations. Less than great ABA numbers actually (14 aliens and 4 unreported GPAs), but they probably have a smaller applicants pool than many others because the admission numbers are very good! 56,36% acceptance rate (5th, 2nd among T10), 65,8% among 170+ (25/38), nice early boost (74% vs 57%) but admitted numbers comparable to T6 (early: in 173,8 / out 168,8 vs mid: 172 / 168,3).
NU. I decided to put them here despite some red flags because their ABA numbers are actually pretty high: 22,3 n/r aliens a year, 10% of total class size (5th overall, 3rd T14) and 16 unreported GPAs (4th), 7.44% of total class size (2nd). However, general a.r. is pretty low (37.5%), with a huge difference in timing: for early applicants is 30% (2nd lowest after Stanford, probably due to their ED program which is surely a great deal for internationals), for mid applicants is 53%. The numbers though are not bad at all: early 170,6 in / 167,6 out vs mid 171.1 in / 168.5 out. Not sure on how to read this last data: getting in early is harder but the numbers lower? This could mean that there are worse applicants early, which is very unlikely. Anyway, if ED
could even be a boost for someone, it isn’t that for internationals. Still an option to take into account though!
CORNELL. Together with NYU, the real outsider of this research! They killed the ABA report: 23,7 n/r aliens a year (6th), 11%of total class size (3rd); 22 unreported GPAs a year (2nd), 11,34% of total class size (1st)!! They seem to really like internationally educated guys, and this last number (11.3%) is 4% higher than the second highest (NU at 7.4%), more than double the third and the fourth (WUSTL at 4,8% and Harvard at 4.6%) and 4 to 15 times anybody else! Their a.r. is around average (55%) without huge differences between early and mid apps (58% vs 60%). This also means that they are among the best for mid period applicants. For 170+ they admitted 14/21 applicants (66,7%) – not that bad!
GULC. GT is one of the most international universities in the US and even the Law Center is pretty much international friendly. The total a.r. is 52,83% (28/53) – but up to 65% for 170+ (17/26). Both results are in line with the other international friendly T14, but GULC has actually very good ABA numbers: 42 n/r aliens a year (3rd) and 19 unreported GPAs (3rd). The impact on the class is not huge though (it’s hard to impact a class that is basically an army). Their LSAT medians dropped during the last 4-5 cycles and they just got out the T14 – I think they’ll try to bring up those LSAT numbers and that could be beneficial to 170+ applicant even without GPA.
WUSTL. Ok, St. Louis is not the first choice of many internationals. However, WUSTL really tries to be loved! ABA numbers are high: 25 n/r aliens a year (5th), 10,6% of class size (4th); 11 unreported GPAs (6th), 4.82% (3rd). General a.r. is 63.89% (3rd), without many differences between early and mid applications (2nd highest for mid applicants). Outstanding a.r. for 170+: a perfect 100% (11/11), 1st with Vandy!
USC. I decided to put Gould here because I think that they are actually an international friendly school with a small international applicant pool. According to ABA they have 7 aliens per year (not very good), with 6 unreported GPAs, 2,6% of total class size (above average). Data on MYlsn aren’t a lot, but they look good. Admission rate of 58.33% (14/24), 4th in ranking. Numbers are not enough to say that there’s a boost for early applicants (5/7 early admitted vs 5/9 mid admitted). Average LSAT for admitted is not too high (167.8 early / 165.8 mid), and LSAT for dinged is around 163. 4th best a.r. for 170+ (83%), based on 6 applicants (5 of them were admitted).
Bad impressions in the following post.