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Northwestern Law School
Northwestern Law Admissions and Tuition Northwestern accepts approximately 850 of nearly 5,000 applicants a year, filling a class of approximately 240 seats. The range of LSAT scores from the 25th to 75th percentile for successful applicants runs from 166 to 172, with a corresponding average GPA of 3.7. There has been a dramatic rise in these scores, particularly in comparison to many other top law schools. The Law School offers an Early Action program, with students who apply before December 1 receiving early notice of their admission.
Northwestern Law School Legal Specialties
Northwestern Law School Quality of Life
Northwestern Law School Employment Prospects As one of the major law centers of the Midwest, Northwestern has little problem placing its graduates in most major legal markets, particularly Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C. Although many graduates go on to private practice, the school is now promoting loan-repayment programs to encourage those graduates seeking careers in public interest. Northwestern's career service office earns high marks, as does its on-campus system of using a lottery (with GPAs concealed) to match students with employers. Contact Information Northwestern Law School |
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Located adjacent to Chicago's "Magnificent Mile", Northwestern Law has occupied a preeminent place in the legal field for much of its history. Its current and steady tenth place in the US News Rankings belies increasingly rigorous admissions standards and a significant historical success in placing graduates into high-level positions in the judicial system and legal/commercial fields. Northwestern Law is particularly distinguished by its emphasis on work experience (no surprise given the presence of its sibling, the renowned Kellogg School of Business) and interviews with applicants. 
Northwestern places high value on work experience, with 25 being the average age of an entering 1L; Northwestern provides more space devoted to work experience on the application than any other top-tier law school. The school is also unique in "strongly suggesting" interviews, which are actually highly important to the application process. Applicants register to interview with a member of the Northwestern Law community (often but not always an alumnus) in their geographical area or at the Law School campus, and the interviewer's evaluation is an integral part of the applicant's file. Officially, the interviews are used to gauge applicants' communications skills and to gain a sense of their abilities beyond that conveyed on paper; unsurprisingly, however, many students report that their specific interests in Northwestern Law are also given ample time. 
Northwestern is known for its emphasis on practical experience, and has strong offerings in business and litigation law. The Northwestern faculty includes a number of prominent names, including Steve Calabresi, one of the original founders of the Federalist Society who returned in 2004 for a new appointment; the law school also brings in numerous adjunct lecturers from the Chicago legal community every year. There are a number of viable options for students interested in social issues, however, many of them under the Bluhm Clinic. Students who join the Clinic have an impressive array of specialties to pursue, from human rights cases to family law. Joint degrees are also possible with the other Northwestern graduate schools, with the JD-MBA with the Kellogg School being the most coveted option.Grading at the Law School is on a letter-grade scale, with the curve reported around a B-. Although there is a trend towards grade inflation, students regard the workload as typically rigorous for a law school.
Northwestern Law is considered to have one of the more collegial atmospheres of the top-tier law schools, partly due to its small class size; it is often contrasted with the University of Chicago across town, which has been stereotyped (rightly or wrongly) as the more competitive of the two. The school's excellent location in one of the more affluent neighborhoods of Chicago provides excellent options, if somewhat upscale, for law students to pursue outside of class. Northwestern offers its students all of the usual law school social opportunities, although some (particularly the weekly Bar Review) benefit greatly from the many bars and restaurants to be found in the area.