A Handle on Diversity Forum

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humanrights

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A Handle on Diversity

Post by humanrights » Fri Apr 24, 2020 3:06 am

hi everyone.

so, first of all, i'm new to this site. i've been doing as much exploring as i can. i'm a current second-year second-semester in college, so i still have some time until i apply to law school. i want to study human rights. that's the gist of my plans, lmao.

one thing i'm particularly interested in is how much, exactly, do diversity factors matter when looking at a law school application? for reference, i'm a low-income, first-generation (both undergrad and future grad), bisexual student. obviously, i don't expect really anyone on here to know just how much they can affect one's application, but are they factors law schools will forgive an applicant with a lower gpa or a lower lsat score for?

i know some law schools actively advertise their commitments to diversity (like usc's first-generation law school student program), but, i mean—and pardon me if this is an asinine question—do they really care? basically, what i'm getting as is will these three things help my chances at some law schools when applying?

furthermore, i'm not looking to get into harvard, stanford, or yale. nor am i really looking to get into chicago, northwestern, or duke. if i'm going to be honest, a lot of the T14 schools don't really speak(?) to me (besides michigan, berkeley, columbia, and georgetown). is that weird? like, i don't feel an active sense of "we want people like YOU at our law school!" from them as i do from schools like vandy, washu, ucla, texas, and usc.

is picking law schools (aside from making sure bar passage rates & employment rates are superb, and the field i want to study are available) based on where i feel like i'm actively wanted and supported a bad thing to do?

i don't know, perhaps i'm making unfair assumptions and conclusions, but i really am doing all i can to research law schools and i still have quite a bit of time left until i finally apply. perhaps these concerns stem from insecurity. anyway, does anyone like me have any advice/answers? it'd be rather helpful.

(** also, let the record show [pun intended] that i am trying my absolute best, so i would be appreciative if passive-aggressive comments were left unsaid. many thanks, lmao.)

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cavalier1138

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Re: A Handle on Diversity

Post by cavalier1138 » Fri Apr 24, 2020 6:24 am

humanrights wrote:is picking law schools (aside from making sure bar passage rates & employment rates are superb, and the field i want to study are available) based on where i feel like i'm actively wanted and supported a bad thing to do?
In general, yes. Not because you shouldn't care about that, but because you're basing your impressions on insufficient information. If you're looking at top schools, you should be applying broadly across the T13, and your decision should primarily be based on finances and job placement. But in terms of culture, you will find your niche at every one of those schools, and there will be a support system for people of your background.

Put differently, it would be a really bad idea to apply to Columbia but not to NYU because you aren't feeling warm and fuzzy about NYU based on emails/brochures/a single visit.
humanrights wrote:one thing i'm particularly interested in is how much, exactly, do diversity factors matter when looking at a law school application? for reference, i'm a low-income, first-generation (both undergrad and future grad), bisexual student. obviously, i don't expect really anyone on here to know just how much they can affect one's application, but are they factors law schools will forgive an applicant with a lower gpa or a lower lsat score for?
Diversity factors matter, but some factors matter more than others. Based on your description, you'd be considered a "diverse" applicant, but you aren't a URM. So you can maybe expect to get a mild boost in admissions and scholarship consideration. But if you see people talking about the expected results for a URM, those won't apply to you.

nixy

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Re: A Handle on Diversity

Post by nixy » Fri Apr 24, 2020 8:21 am

I agree with cav on both points. Especially with regard to being actively welcomed - keep in mind that lower-ranked schools have to work harder to attract top candidates than higher-ranked schools. So it’s not coincidental that the schools you perceive as more interested in having people like you are all ranked lower than the ones that you don’t - while Vandy, Wash U, USC etc are all excellent schools, they still have to work harder than schools in the T14 to get top students to apply/attend.

Also, I want to emphasize that you can’t really tell anything significant about the school culture from marketing materials. This may sound cynical, but a lot of places can talk a good game in promotional materials that isn’t supported in reality (for instance I remember UCLA having some significant issues in supporting African American students).

And really the most important thing is going to the school that will provide the best employment opportunities in your chosen field, at the best price. For human rights issues, that’s almost certainly the T14. Law school is a means to an end. I do get the desire to be supported and welcomed and have a community, but that’s something to consider once you have admissions and can weigh your options, and it shouldn’t outweigh overall employment prospects and cost. Once you’re at that point, you can visit, talk to other admitted students (to get a sense of your likely classmates), and talk to as many current students as you can to get a sense of the school’s culture, and you can use that to choose among the finalists.

So yes, go where you feel most supported and welcomed *of the schools that will give you the best options for reaching your goals.*

At the very least, that means you (should probably) apply to all the T14 so you can use acceptances/scholarships to negotiate the best deal where you do want to go.

Anon-non-anon

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Re: A Handle on Diversity

Post by Anon-non-anon » Fri Apr 24, 2020 11:45 am

Agree with all of above.

Some schools are almost certainly better than others with helping first gen students, etc., but you won't learn too much about that from marketing. Having well funded/staffed programs may be something you can research now that would actually make a difference, but the blurbs in letters are nonsense.

First get in, get scholarships, and then compare support between schools of a relatively equal tier (factoring in scholarship money) however you can. Probably by reaching out to current students.

The difference in support won't justify going to a lower tier school bc even if you don't do so well at a great school, you'll have much better options. Plus, if you want to do anything close to what you are probably imagining "human rights" law to be, you basically need to go to a top school and do well.

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