Do women get a "bump"? Forum

[HOPEFORCHANGE]

Just wondering if women get a bump? I know that women to men in law school is on average even anymore, but female to male lawyers is still about 1:4 and some schools still have a much higher representation of men.

[BeenDidThat]

In short: no.

[730]

The poster above gave the short answer....
but I am going to give you the long version. No.

[BeenDidThat]

The poster above gave the short answer....
but I am going to give you the long version. No.

Sexual harassment. Not the kind of change I was hoping for.

[HOPEFORCHANGE]

I'm officially confused.

[GATORTIM]

[HOPEFORCHANGE]

Now that's funny.

Although I sort of suspect that there is in general a sort of bitterness surrounding this question...just a question. Don't worry.

[bhan87]

Perhaps at Berkeley

[DeeCee]

No, we never get a bump in admissions, we are half the population. General population is what URM is based off of, I believe. We're finally getting treated equal, heh. And lol about the woman with the baby bump, hahaha.

[mala2]

yeah this probably gives us a negative bump at hiring, but that will have to change long term

[HOPEFORCHANGE]

Please don't bite my head off, but that's sort of an interesting point about being half the population in law school - we're also approximately half the population in the country, so how do you think URM status will change for current URMs when Caucasian becomes less of a majority? Meaning, if someone is a minority, it makes sense just by percentage in the general population that there would be fewer of them in law school...

[northwood]

i think URM is percentage of students of that group that are in law school or are lawyers out in the field.

[DeeCee]

Please don't bite my head off, but that's sort of an interesting point about being half the population in law school - we're also approximately half the population in the country, so how do you think URM status will change for current URMs when Caucasian becomes less of a majority? Meaning, if someone is a minority, it makes sense just by percentage in the general population that there would be fewer of them in law school...

After I wrote that I was thinking about it as well. Sorry to come off rude.

[mala2]

Please don't bite my head off, but that's sort of an interesting point about being half the population in law school - we're also approximately half the population in the country, so how do you think URM status will change for current URMs when Caucasian becomes less of a majority? Meaning, if someone is a minority, it makes sense just by percentage in the general population that there would be fewer of them in law school...

that's a long way off. For white people to get a bump in law school they would have to make up less of the student body than they do of the whole population.

[HOPEFORCHANGE]

You mean, for example, ten percent of Mexicans - not ten percent are Mexican? If that's true, I didn't know that.

[HOPEFORCHANGE]

Please don't bite my head off, but that's sort of an interesting point about being half the population in law school - we're also approximately half the population in the country, so how do you think URM status will change for current URMs when Caucasian becomes less of a majority? Meaning, if someone is a minority, it makes sense just by percentage in the general population that there would be fewer of them in law school...

that's a long way off. For white people to get a bump in law school they would have to make up less of the student body than they do of the whole population.

But do you think others who will outnumber them will stop getting a bump? e.g. Hispanics are supposed to outnumber Caucasians by a certain year this century

[DeeCee]

i think URM is percentage of students of that group that are in law school or are lawyers out in the field.

Oh, I always thought URM was a candidate that came from a minority background (minority comprising <50% of our population). But then, asians are minorities in our country and they are not considered URM.

[northwood]

i can and probably am wrong.... thats just what i think URM means ( obviously i am not one,or id know more)

[GATORTIM]

Less than 50% of 3yr olds in the US are white. This has nothing to do with bumps and/or women, but I thought it was interesting.

[TommyK]

There's really not a huge difference in LSAT scores between men and women. If I remember correctly, it's a point or two. Small compared to the score disparity between AA and White test takers.

And if I also remember correctly, female uGPA's are on average higher than male uGPa.

Now I'm not sure if this is the reason that admission committees decide not give any boost to females, but it could be used as rationale.

Also, much of the reason for having URM boost - to increase representation into the profession to make sure that people of that group are more equitably and fairly represented - just isn't there for the gender issue.

[DeeCee]

i can and probably am wrong.... thats just what i think URM means ( obviously i am not one,or id know more)

URM is still an iffy distinction. I'm part Cuban, but caucasian and typically Cubans aren't supposed to get a boost, though I'd argue that I have seen one this cycle. Somehow not all hispanics are URMs, which doesn't make sense. Perhaps a combination of affluence of your ethnicity/race AND minority status apply to be counted as URM.

[TommyK]

i can and probably am wrong.... thats just what i think URM means ( obviously i am not one,or id know more)

URM is still an iffy distinction. I'm part Cuban, but caucasian and typically Cubans aren't supposed to get a boost, though I'd argue that I have seen one this cycle. Somehow not all hispanics are URMs, which doesn't make sense. Perhaps a combination of affluence of your ethnicity/race AND minority status apply to be counted as URM.

Because Hispanic is an incredibly broad definition. It includes people of a European nationality from Spain, second-generation people from Ecuador, Mexcian-Americans, and many, many other groups of people.

[rinkrat19]

Some of you guys are misunderstanding what URM is. It means UNDER-REPRESENTED minority. Ideally, the demographics of law school would match the demographics of the population of the country at large. Being a minority doesn't automatically give a population a bump (Asians, for example, are a minority and are OVER-represented).

Let's say that the population of the US is: (I'm totally making these up in the interest of simplicity--and ignoring the various flavors of Hispanic, not all of which get an URM bump)
60% white
20% Hispanic
15% black
5% Asian

and the demographics of law students are:
75% white
15% Asian
5% Hispanic
5% black

White people and Asians are overrepresented, and Hispanic and black students are underrepresented, and would thus get a URM bump.

If in 75 years the population is:
49% white
25% Hispanic
20% black
6% Asian

and the demographics of law students are:
70% white
10% Asian
10% black
10% Hispanic

white people and Asians are STILL overrepresented, and Hispanic and black students are still underrepresented. The only thing that has changed is that white people are now an overrepresented minority, like Asians, instead of an overrepresented majority.

[DeeCee]

So to bring this back full circle, if women are 50% or more of law students in the country, they by definition should not get a boost since they are approx. 50% of the general population.

[BeenDidThat]

So to bring this back full circle, if women are 50% or more of law students in the country, they by definition should not get a boost since they are approx. 50% of the general population.

How did we get to should? I think OP was asking a descriptive question about whether or not women get a URM bump. I have it upon information and belief that they do not.