Easiest to do well at Cornell vs Umich vs NU Forum

[nuggygiva]

So I've been accepted to the above schools. All three locations have their own advantages. CU undergraduate, I love Chicago and I'm originally from Ann Arbor area. I'm an AA urm with a below median LSAT score. I plan to work vey hard and already expect to be putting in more hours than other students.

I know many will respond to this question with negativity but which school has the lightest workload? I imagine they're all similar but I'm sure some schools are more competitive than others.

Just a factor will not be what be only one I make my decision on.

[jp1447]

I doubt anyone would have a strong answer to your actual question considering it would take serious and likely personal insight into the student body of each school as well as an awareness of each school's particular grading policies to know for sure. Those factors of course would then stack up against what -- some sort of average person admitted to all three schools? Perhaps more obviously, what does "well" even mean? Is that better than average at each school? The point I'm making, and I hope you really think about this, is that anyway you look at it, you simply can't predict how "well" you'll do. There are kids with 177s that are median performing law students; there are kids with 160s that can be top of the class. (I imagine every law student knows both). What does this mean for you? Regardless of your lsat score, undergraduate grades, or any other special skills you may have -- including what schools accepted you-- predicting your performance across peer schools is impossible. I'll take this even further.

The brutal truth is that you're likely going to be in the middle wherever you go. Law schools have a broad median to ensure most of the class has a strong shot at big law jobs and 10-15% at clerking. Said another way, most of the students in every class you are in will get a B+ or an A-. In many schools, you can see these curves at the registrars office. Also, and this cannot be stressed enough, every other classmate of yours is going to be AT LEAST as impressive as you on paper coming into law school. Sure there may be a few idiots that you may think snagged acceptances for god knows what reasons, but for every lazy and unmotivated student, there are 10 kids working around the clock. And you must know that many of them have impressive backgrounds. You'll get Harvard undergrads and Princeton undergrads. You will likely have Rhodes, Marshall, and Fulbright Scholars. Even crazier, there will be kids from schools you have never heard of that are utterly brilliant.

All of this and still grades are for many a crap shoot, especially when you start law school. Sure you can work incessantly and subscribe to the many threads on "how I was top 10%." Even with all that, you don't know what teacher you will have, you don't know how they test, you don't necessarily know what curve they will decide to apply to that class, AND you don't know how you will actually perform on test-day.

Again, all the acceptances in the world can't combat bad luck, a bad day, an unlucky curve, or perhaps even a teacher that decides to test topics you did not anticipate from class. In addition, some professors give easy multiple choice questions where 1 question can be a 1/2 letter grade difference between you and the person to your left. Maybe that's you're thing, who knows. On the other hand, another professor may give insanely hard essay based exams and expect creativity. Getting into a better school will not make you more apt to preform in such disparate settings.

Finally, the way top schools throw money around these days, there are plenty of kids at lower T-14s that gave up much higher ranked schools for money. Even these kids, the full-scholarship, big-name award winners at each school, don't necessarily do better than the next kid in the class. Sure, they may, but its by no means such that one could choose based on school where they would do better.

Going ahead, you should think about what your goals are and what schools best provide those goals. Otherwise, you're setting yourself up for a rude awakening....

[nuggygiva]

Very wise words and I thank you for them.

[xael]

I wouldn't be worried about your lsat score.

1L is 1L wherever you go and you are graded against your peers. By accepting you the school is basically saying they are confident you can keep up just fine. But "the lightest workload" isn't a good way to look at it because everyone will have the "same" workload and the wonderful thing about 1L is that it doesn't matter how little work you have technically speaking, you'll just keep working anyways.

Plus no one will be able to offer you an answer on that because none of us (or, very very few) people have attended 1L at the same place.

Fwiw, I know a lot of people who had below median lsat scores and ended up top third. and an equal number of people with well above median scores who are now below.

The concern is understandable but it shouldn't be a factor in making your decision.

[Chrstgtr]

I agree that this isn't a question that can really be answered.

Just go to the school that best fits with your career interests (i.e. NU if you think you want Chicago BL, Cornell if you are deadset on NY BL, etc.) at the best price.

All else equal go to the school that fits the best (i.e. NU if you want to live in a city, UM if you want to live in a college town, etc.).

[Tls2016]

Do they all have similar curves?

[jbagelboy]

Usually TCR is that among T14 schools, there are no "easier" or "harder" schools to do well at, since the demographic is very comparable. When it comes to the curve, though, Northwestern is certainly the most generous; people seem to get As far more frequently there (although my understanding is that doesn't necessarily make you top of the class). I think you could go take a look at the Northwestern questions thread and they might be able to explain the curve.

[deepseapartners]

Like others have said, I would worry less about relative difficulty of each school's curve, and would look at other stuff like scholarship money, career goals, employment numbers, etc. In my anecdotal experience, the LSAT is not a strong indicator for law school success. The most successful people in my class, besides a few aspie-types who really seemed to just "get" it, were the people who hustled the most and had the most efficient study schedules.

[Trippel]

Agree with posters above. Don't worry about your LSAT score. All of these schools have comparable students. I love Cornell, but one downside is our graded 1L LWR--- my god it sucks.

[whysoseriousbiglaw]

Usually TCR is that among T14 schools, there are no "easier" or "harder" schools to do well at, since the demographic is very comparable. When it comes to the curve, though, Northwestern is certainly the most generous; people seem to get As far more frequently there (although my understanding is that doesn't necessarily make you top of the class). I think you could go take a look at the Northwestern questions thread and they might be able to explain the curve.

Yep, this is correct. The caliber of students is basically the same at these schools.

Northwestern has a super high curve. (I have heard that some federal judges won't hire Northwestern grads because they are catching onto the high curve.)

That said, Cornell has graded LRW, which is a HUGE downside imo. Michigan has honors/pass/fail LRW, with the vast majority getting pass.

[A. Nony Mouse]

You can't expect to put in more hours than other students.

[mvp99]

its not so much about the number of hours you put in but rather about how and what you study. Dont be that person whos 24/7 in the library studying

[timmyd]

Law school, and especially 1l, is a crapshoot. I really don't think LSAT or gpa means much as a predictive tool. There are so many variables at play. You could take the number one student at a t14, and there's no guarantee they'd be number one at a ttt, or even top 10%.
The schools you mentioned are peers. Even if one believed entrance scores dictated law school success, in your case, the odds of finishing at a certain point in the class would be the same across all of those schools.
Btw, you won't outwork other students. Nor will it necessarily matter if you do. Go to the best school you can, assume median or worse, and work your ass off.

[ticklemesilly]

How far below median did you score? Like the other posters, I don't feel that a strong LSAT guarantees a good performance in law school or that a weak LSAT is the kiss of death, but there is a correlation between the two (however tenuous it is).