Top Law Schools

http://www.law.berkeley.edu/37.htm
https://www.law.ucla.edu/admissions/class-profile/

Berkeley: Median LSAT 167, Median GPA 3.79
UCLA: Median LSAT 167, Median GPA 3.79

Both 34% People of Color
Berkeley 5699 applicants, UCLA 5408 applicants

25%-75% LSAT
Berkeley 164-169
UCLA 163-169

25%-75% GPA
Berkeley: 3.67-3.88
UCLA: 3.56-3.9

That's unbelievably close! The disparity in rankings must come from different job prospects.

Oh, and from 2013: http://abovethelaw.com/2013/01/californ ... en-thread/

UCLA CA Bar Pass Rate: 89% (2nd highest of CA schools, after Stanford)
Berkeley CA Bar Pass Rate: 86.3% (4th highest of CA schools, after USC)

Life2good893 wrote:Oh, and from 2013: http://abovethelaw.com/2013/01/californ ... en-thread/

UCLA CA Bar Pass Rate: 89% (2nd highest of CA schools, after Stanford)
Berkeley CA Bar Pass Rate: 86.3% (4th highest of CA schools, after USC)

Much more recent: http://abovethelaw.com/2014/12/californ ... july-2014/

And yes to employment stats.

Actually, the ranking disparity is likely from the quality assessment score, the self-fulfilling "vote for the good schools to stay good schools because they're good schools" rank.

middlebear wrote:

Life2good893 wrote:Oh, and from 2013: http://abovethelaw.com/2013/01/californ ... en-thread/

UCLA CA Bar Pass Rate: 89% (2nd highest of CA schools, after Stanford)
Berkeley CA Bar Pass Rate: 86.3% (4th highest of CA schools, after USC)

Much more recent: http://abovethelaw.com/2014/12/californ ... july-2014/

And yes to employment stats.

Wow, big change. Good for Cal.

Life2good893 wrote: Wow, big change. Good for Cal.

Not really a big change. Just statistical noise.

Don't overthink this stuff. Berk is a better law school than UCLA because employers—law firms, gov't agencies, and judges—generally think it's a better law school. I work at a law firm and I have no idea what the GPA/LSAT medians are for the entering classes of various law schools. Nor do the other lawyers at my firm.

As I recall back when I applied to law school many years ago, Boalt was more selective than UCLA even though their respective GPA and LSAT numbers were similar. Almost everyone who got into UCLA got into Boalt, but the reverse was definitely not true. There's more to selectivity than GPA/LSAT. Employers care about work experience and other forms of non-academic achievement. To the extent Boalt admits students with generally more impressive backgrounds, it's going to help its placement relative to UCLA.

Berkeley cares about softs.

At one time Stanford had a median of 169 and GULC had a median of 171. It doesn't matter