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Of all the BLSA (Black Law Student Association/Alliance/Affinity) chapters throughout the country, which are ranked the strongest with respect to mentorship, campus and community involvement, alumni/professor networking opportunities, etc.? Is there a ranking system of some sort?

This is an important factor for me. Based on my own visits to several schools and my AA law school friends, Harvard, Columbia, NYU, UVA, Michigan, and Georgetown have some of the more robust chapters in the t-14. I imagine a lot of this has to do with the larger class sizes which allow for more AAs to be admitted.

One of my friends went to visit UCLA when she got admitted and was shocked that there were only like 30 active members total in the BLSA. She didn't end up going there.

astrodoggy wrote:This is an important factor for me. Based on my own visits to several schools and my AA law school friends, Harvard, Columbia, NYU, UVA, Michigan, and Georgetown have some of the more robust chapters in the t-14. I imagine a lot of this has to do with the larger class sizes which allow for more AAs to be admitted.

One of my friends went to visit UCLA when she got admitted and was shocked that their were only like 30 active members total in the BLSA. She didn't end up going there.

Thanks for chiming in. It's also an important factor for me. I know Harvard BLSA tops the list of them all, but wanted to know what other chapters were immediately subsequent to HBLSA.

I've also heard similar of CLS' BLSA. As an unrelated sidenote, I am pleasantly surprised at how well the majority of CLS' BLSA members place with top law firms. Majority are at the likes of Sullivan & Cromwell, Latham, Cravath, Skadden, etc. Despite my desire to move out West and leave the East Coast entirely, I may have to take a closer look at CLS.

Speaking of the west coast, have you heard anything about Boalt or Stanford's BLSA? What about UChicago and Northwestern?

I think you can't go wrong going to any of those schools, but yeah, due in part to their size they have smaller BLSAs. Each of those schools enrolled less than 20 black students this year. I know that the larger black community at Stanford is prominent so you'd be a part of a good network there, but personally, if I attended those schools it would be for reasons other than the BLSAs.