Top Law Schools

I went to a small private UG -- not a TTT or anything (it's listed as Tier 1 in US News) but also far from prestigious. Also, my major wasn't a difficult major and, correspondingly, the classes might appear soft, if adcomms dig into transcripts and analyze courseloads.

I'm wondering if going to an uninspiring UG will hurt my chances in the T-6, particularly Harvard (slim chances anyway, I realize), Columbia, NYU and Chicago. I've heard Chicago puts an emphasis on quality of UG; don't know if this is true.

Stats are 3.73 and 173 (with a prior score). I also have 5+ years high-quality WE.

Thanks!

assuming your major wasnt something like fashion design (still doable apparently ), you're fine

your UG pretty much never matters (in a negative way), even at the top, esp. if its a Tier 1

Chicago and Columbia do seem to care about undergrad quality. NYU doesn't really seem to care.

kurama20 wrote:Chicago and Columbia do seem to care about undergrad quality. NYU doesn't really seem to care.

What's the evidence for this? I've heard this claim about Chicago and Columbia before, but does anyone know what it is based on?

Dignan wrote:

kurama20 wrote:Chicago and Columbia do seem to care about undergrad quality. NYU doesn't really seem to care.

What's the evidence for this? I've heard this claim about Chicago and Columbia before, but does anyone know what it is based on?

Kinda wondered this, too.

It's sort of like the claim that NYU averages LSATs -- there doesn't seem to be one answer on whether it's actually true or not.

If your LSAT and GPA are high enough, most of the time it doesn't seem to matter.

With your stats and work experience, I wouldn't worry about it at all.

Dignan wrote:

kurama20 wrote:Chicago and Columbia do seem to care about undergrad quality. NYU doesn't really seem to care.

What's the evidence for this? I've heard this claim about Chicago and Columbia before, but does anyone know what it is based on?

I'm not saying that he is wrong but one thing to keep in mind is that the poster you are responding to is Kurama20. He is hell bent on proving that Columbia and Chicago are in a different class than NYU (not sure why). He pretty much invades any thread about NYU and puts NYU down while raising the other two schools up (even when a comparison between the three schools is completely unrelated to the topic of the thread). So take whatever he says about differences between the three schools with a grain of salt.

It will probably not hurt, but probably not help. HYS are probably going to be out anyway. I can't really speak for Chicago, but it seems the evidence points towards CLS really liking prestigious UG's (although I've heard stories about their own UG students having it rough when trying to gain admissions to the LS), and NYU doesn't seem to care as much.

But all in all, a non-elite UG is never going to kill your app as long as you have other things going for you. Just look at the UG students going to Yale Law: Florida A&M (Tier 4), Lehman College - CUNY (Tier 4), Arizona State (Ranked #121), Arkansas State (Tier 3), Birmingham Southern College (#92 LAC), etc.

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the replies...

I'd be thrilled to get one of the three at CCN and perhaps a few acceptances and a little $ at MPVN.

OP if you don't mind me asking what state is this school in?

I ask because I went to school that fits your description

^^ I PM'd you

Helmholtz wrote:It will probably not hurt, but probably not help. HYS are probably going to be out anyway. I can't really speak for Chicago, but it seems the evidence points towards CLS really liking prestigious UG's (although I've heard stories about their own UG students having it rough when trying to gain admissions to the LS), and NYU doesn't seem to care as much.

But all in all, a non-elite UG is never going to kill your app as long as you have other things going for you. Just look at the UG students going to Yale Law: Florida A&M (Tier 4), Lehman College - CUNY (Tier 4), Arizona State (Ranked #121), Arkansas State (Tier 3), Birmingham Southern College (#92 LAC), etc.

This.

It doesn't really matter. NYU is slightly easier to get into than the other two. OUT at HYS; In at NYU; WL- Columbia; WL/In Chicago. Those are my guesses.

acisking wrote:

Dignan wrote:

kurama20 wrote:Chicago and Columbia do seem to care about undergrad quality. NYU doesn't really seem to care.

What's the evidence for this? I've heard this claim about Chicago and Columbia before, but does anyone know what it is based on?

I'm not saying that he is wrong but one thing to keep in mind is that the poster you are responding to is Kurama20. He is hell bent on proving that Columbia and Chicago are in a different class than NYU (not sure why). He pretty much invades any thread about NYU and puts NYU down while raising the other two schools up (even when a comparison between the three schools is completely unrelated to the topic of the thread). So take whatever he says about differences between the three schools with a grain of salt.

This guy doesn't know WTF he's talking about, so I would not take anything he says at all. Another thing to keep in mind is that NYU boosters are often very obsessed with saying how they are "top 5" and how they are "just as good as CLS". They often have an inflated view of the school and think that it is stronger than it really is (ie better than say Michigan or Boalt, which it isn't). Also keep in mind this poster is probably a NYU student or an NYU ED applicant. Notice how he took something like this thread to insinuate that NYU was not a good school or something like that---it's the NYU inferiority complex popping up.

The reason I said that is because multiple posters on here who attend Columbia have mentioned how CLS gives bumps to people from elite u grads. Look at what it takes to get accepted at CLS from one of the ivies or a top schools as opposed to an "average" undergrad. There is definitely some top undergrad bias going on. Chicago is even worse in the sense that some posters actually heard professors at admitted student weekends saying how "they don't usually accept people from "insert whatever average ugrad it is". NYU doesn't seem to do this to the extent that the other two schools do. Not saying that going to a top school will make you auto admit for CC or going to a "bad" one will make you autoreject, but CC do seem to care more about ugrad quality. It's actually something that turns me off about them.

kurama20 wrote:

acisking wrote:

Dignan wrote:

kurama20 wrote:Chicago and Columbia do seem to care about undergrad quality. NYU doesn't really seem to care.

What's the evidence for this? I've heard this claim about Chicago and Columbia before, but does anyone know what it is based on?

This guy doesn't know WTF he's talking about, so I would not take anything he says at all. Another thing to keep in mind is that NYU boosters are often very obsessed with saying how they are "top 5" and how they are "just as good as CLS". They often have an inflated view of the school and think that it is stronger than it really is (ie better than say Michigan or Boalt, which it isn't). Also keep in mind this poster is probably a NYU student or an NYU ED applicant. Notice how he took something like this thread to insinuate that NYU was not a good school or something like that---it's the NYU inferiority complex popping up.

The reason I said that is because multiple posters on here who attend Columbia have mentioned how CLS gives bumps to people from elite u grads. Look at what it takes to get accepted at CLS from one of the ivies or a top schools as opposed to an "average" undergrad. There is definitely some top undergrad bias going on. Chicago is even worse in the sense that some posters actually heard professors at admitted student weekends saying how "they don't usually accept people from "insert whatever average ugrad it is". NYU doesn't seem to do this to the extent that the other two schools do. Not saying that going to a top school will make you auto admit for CC or going to a "bad" one will make you autoreject, but CC do seem to care more about ugrad quality. It's actually something that turns me off about them.

Me too, a little bit. I don't want to spend three years apologizing for not going to an Ivy, or defending Flyover Country.

kurama20 wrote:

acisking wrote:

Dignan wrote:

kurama20 wrote:Chicago and Columbia do seem to care about undergrad quality. NYU doesn't really seem to care.

What's the evidence for this? I've heard this claim about Chicago and Columbia before, but does anyone know what it is based on?

I'm not saying that he is wrong but one thing to keep in mind is that the poster you are responding to is Kurama20. He is hell bent on proving that Columbia and Chicago are in a different class than NYU (not sure why). He pretty much invades any thread about NYU and puts NYU down while raising the other two schools up (even when a comparison between the three schools is completely unrelated to the topic of the thread). So take whatever he says about differences between the three schools with a grain of salt.

This guy doesn't know WTF he's talking about, so I would not take anything he says at all. Another thing to keep in mind is that NYU boosters are often very obsessed with saying how they are "top 5" and how they are "just as good as CLS". They often have an inflated view of the school and think that it is stronger than it really is (ie better than say Michigan or Boalt, which it isn't). Also keep in mind this poster is probably a NYU student or an NYU ED applicant. Notice how he took something like this thread to insinuate that NYU was not a good school or something like that---it's the NYU inferiority complex popping up.

The reason I said that is because multiple posters on here who attend Columbia have mentioned how CLS gives bumps to people from elite u grads. Look at what it takes to get accepted at CLS from one of the ivies or a top schools as opposed to an "average" undergrad. There is definitely some top undergrad bias going on. Chicago is even worse in the sense that some posters actually heard professors at admitted student weekends saying how "they don't usually accept people from "insert whatever average ugrad it is". NYU doesn't seem to do this to the extent that the other two schools do. Not saying that going to a top school will make you auto admit for CC or going to a "bad" one will make you autoreject, but CC do seem to care more about ugrad quality. It's actually something that turns me off about them.

Kurama is the biggest anti-NYU troll on this board, and acts like NYU killed his grandma then raped her corpse. But in this case he's right. I went to a TTT undergrad and was actually, literally sneered at for it at UChi (this was after being admitted).

Renzo wrote:Kurama is the biggest anti-NYU troll on this board, and acts like NYU killed his grandma then raped her corpse. But in this case he's right. I went to a TTT undergrad and was actually, literally sneered at for it at UChi (this was after being admitted).

Note that saying that NYU is no stronger a school than Boalt, Michigan, and UVA qualifies as " big anti NYU trolling".

kurama20 wrote:

Renzo wrote:Kurama is the biggest anti-NYU troll on this board, and acts like NYU killed his grandma then raped her corpse. But in this case he's right. I went to a TTT undergrad and was actually, literally sneered at for it at UChi (this was after being admitted).

Note that saying that NYU is no stronger a school than Boalt, Michigan, and UVA qualifies as " big anti NYU trolling".

If that were an isolated comment, you wouldn't deserve the label. But it isn't, and you do.

Renzo wrote: I went to a TTT undergrad and was actually, literally sneered at for it at UChi (this was after being admitted).

seriously?

superserial wrote:

Renzo wrote: I went to a TTT undergrad and was actually, literally sneered at for it at UChi (this was after being admitted).

seriously?

Yeah, this sort of surprises me. Any current UChi students (DD? doyle?) want to weigh in?

superserial wrote:

Renzo wrote: I went to a TTT undergrad and was actually, literally sneered at for it at UChi (this was after being admitted).

seriously?

Want to see something even lamer and worse than that?

--LinkRemoved--

This is the one thing about CC that I don't like. Both schools seem to attract particularly arrogant and elitist students.

Renzo wrote:If that were an isolated comment, you wouldn't deserve the label. But it isn't, and you do.

That would fly if it wasn't for the fact that the statement I made is true.

kurama20 wrote:
Want to see something even lamer and worse than that?

--LinkRemoved-- ... requir.php

This is the one thing about CC that I don't like. Both schools seem to attract particularly arrogant and elitist students.

the rumor wasn't true. I don't even like the girl, so I have no reason to lie on her behalf. All her group did was have the members unanimously approve people before joining, but I think this was based on whether they clicked, rather than their credentials. I think it's more catty/bitchy than elitist.

Helmholtz wrote:

superserial wrote:

Renzo wrote: I went to a TTT undergrad and was actually, literally sneered at for it at UChi (this was after being admitted).

seriously?

Yeah, this sort of surprises me. Any current UChi students (DD? doyle?) want to weigh in?

I've talked about it (briefly) with Dres, and she has not had any similar experiences. My impression was that no school cares more about capital-A "Academics" as UChi. Being a generally cool person with some well-rounded achievements counts far less there than at other schools, and by contrast high grades from a respected undergrad program counts more.

kurama20 wrote:

Renzo wrote:If that were an isolated comment, you wouldn't deserve the label. But it isn't, and you do.

That would fly if it wasn't for the fact that the statement I made is true.

Ok, fine. You tell me, who's a bigger anti-NYU troll than you?