Top Law Schools

Which T14 schools have been sympathetic to splitters? I have loads of research experience and an undergraduate publication, if that helps.

GULC

NU

UVA

Nova wrote:GULC

NU

UVA

Berkley too!

PDaddy wrote:

Nova wrote:GULC

NU

UVA

Berkley too!

Actually B hates low GPAs

.

Everywhere except HYS Chicago and Columbia and the latter two make exceptions, just generally for ED or off the WL. Berkeley is too inconsistent to make any real judgment about and Duke is marginally worse to splitters but still amenable.

The spread doesn't necessarily tell you whether they're splitter friendly. The people in the low ranges may not be splitters at all, they may be diverse/non-traditional. The disparity (i.e. candidates with high numbers) may be because it is in the California and lots of people want to go to a T14 in California. Berkeley's reputation is that they hate low gpas and love diverse/non-traditional students. Take that with a grain of salt and apply anyways but it was the only school that straight rejected (not waitlisted) a couple of my splitter friends. So I'm a believer.

I'd say Michigan is kind of splitter friendly along with GULC, UVA, and NU.

2014 wrote:Everywhere except HYS Chicago and Columbia and the latter two make exceptions, just generally for ED or off the WL. Berkeley is too inconsistent to make any real judgment about and Duke is marginally worse to splitters but still amenable.

I'd put Cornell and Michigan in the Duke category as well. Although I haven't followed Michigan's admit numbers this cycle.

You could also say Harvard is "relatively" splitter friendly compared to YS.

oblig.lawl.ref wrote:The spread doesn't necessarily tell you whether they're splitter friendly. The people in the low ranges may not be splitters at all, they may be diverse/non-traditional. The disparity (i.e. candidates with high numbers) may be because it is in the California and lots of people want to go to a T14 in California. Berkeley's reputation is that they hate low gpas and love diverse/non-traditional students. Take that with a grain of salt and apply anyways but it was the only school that straight rejected (not waitlisted) a couple of my splitter friends. So I'm a believer.

I'd say Michigan is kind of splitter friendly along with GULC, UVA, and NU.

Berkeley neither "disfavors" NOR "favors" splitters (testimonial: I'm a white/male/splitter and was admitted). Berkeley is legitimately a "black box" (least predictable based on #'s) and when they say they use a "holistic" process, they actually mean it (cheesy, I know). Look at Dean Tom's interview on the main TLS site, he's completely candid about this.

I think the biggest difference between B is that, unlike many T14's, they don't weight the LSAT more heavily, even though it's worth more in the US News rankings. Instead, they employ a rough 1/3 LSAT, 1/3 GPA, 1/3 "everything else" approach. Basically, I think your personal statement (your "story") matters FAR more to Berkeley than to most schools. They are looking for what you "bring" to the class, in terms of views/interests, life experiences/background, traditional "diversity," etc.. They want a diverse student body in every respect (not just ethnicity).

Honestly, I bet your splitter friends were probably denied based more on their "soft" factors like their personal statement, rather than because of their GPA. I don't mean that their softs/PS were "bad," but more like a "you're impressive but we've already got one of those" sort of thing.

I would say Harvard is relatively friendly to 3.5/175 splitters, but it's absolutely not a guarantee. NYU is also friendly to mid-range splitters (again, 3.5+).

Chicago, Penn, UVA, and Berkeley are all nice to reverse splitters. Berkeley has even taken someone with a 149 before, and I think medians dropping allows Penn/UVA to take that 3.9/168 over a 3.8/173. But of course the answer there is to retake first .

Thanks everyone for the input. How about outside the T14 but T2 favorable to something like 3.1/170 excellent softs.

UVA
NU

francesfarmer wrote:

PDaddy wrote:

Nova wrote:GULC

NU

UVA

Berkley too!

Actually B hates low GPAs

Perhaps but they are ok with lower LSAT's with high GPA's

Take this for what it's worth:

http://admissionsbythenumbers.blogspot. ... y-non.html

elterrible78 wrote:Take this for what it's worth:

http://admissionsbythenumbers.blogspot. ... y-non.html

Thanks!