Top Law Schools

Does anyone know how old the typical entering student is at one of the top fourteen law schools? Is age an experience a decided advantage in the admissions process?

Experience is definitely an advantage, but a good chunk of the class will still be right out of undergrad. The proportion right out of undergrad is probably higher at the top schools than at lower-ranked schools, actually, because many professionals will go back to school at a local school to get a JD if they think it will help their career (and, because they already have a career, school prestige matters less to them than cost). It also depends on the school; Northwestern is particularly known for preferring applicants with substantial work experience.

At NU, the average age at matriculation is now 26! Without experience, unless you have HYSC type numbers, it is very unlikely that you'll be admitted.

23-24

Geat27 wrote:Does anyone know how old the typical entering student is at one of the top fourteen law schools? Is age an experience a decided advantage in the admissions process?

At most of the top schools, the median age is 24. And, according to ABA data, the oldest person in the typical 1L class at a T14 is between 34 and 39. A few schools (e.g., Berkeley, Georgetown) usually have a couple 1Ls over the age of 40, but it's not common.

Among the top 14, I would say that experience is a substantial advantage at only one school: Northwestern. Everywhere else, age and experience can be a plus, but it will be just one soft factor (among dozens of others) that an applicant could bring to the table. For the very top schools, the quality of your experience is going to be much more important than the quantity.

Dignan wrote:

Geat27 wrote:Does anyone know how old the typical entering student is at one of the top fourteen law schools? Is age an experience a decided advantage in the admissions process?

At most of the top schools, the median age is 24. And, according to ABA data, the oldest person in the typical 1L class at a T14 is between 34 and 39. A few schools (e.g., Berkeley, Georgetown) usually have a couple 1Ls over the age of 40, but it's not common.

Among the top 14, I would say that experience is a substantial advantage at only one school: Northwestern. Everywhere else, age and experience can be a plus, but it will be just one soft factor (among dozens of others) that an applicant could bring to the table. For the very top schools, the quality of your experience is going to be much more important than the quantity.

Even at NULaw the "quality" of the experience is most important. I do see a trend coming where law students are getting older. remember, "medians" are just dividing lines. Half of all 1L's are 21-24. The other half are 25-49, but they do tend to go to lower ranked schools.

The schools are just really getting turned off by the straight-out-of-UG applicants who are only doing it to delay getting out in the real world, and they are finding out that many of these students don't really want to be lawyers or do not possess the right skills/aptitude/disposition for the field. If you ask any, and I do mean ANY adcom about it, they would tell you that they wish students would wait a few years to apply, like about 26-34. All else held equal, those are better law students.

The only reason there are so few 40+ students at elite schools is that 40+ ers have careers and are more likely to just go to their local schools if they seek a law degree. It's self selection. It's not that they are not competitive for elite schools, they just don't want to leave their hometowns. And the elite schools are, for all intents, concentrated mostly in six geographic areas: NY, NE, Chicago, L.A., Bay Area, D.C/VA.

PDaddy wrote:The only reason there are so few 40+ students at elite schools is that 40+ ers have careers and are more likely to just go to their local schools if they seek a law degree.

This, and they probably don't obsess over the LSAT like caffeinated gerbils in the way that kids fresh out of undergrad do.

at Penn 20% are straight out (22-23)....most are a few yrs out....id say the T14 average is 25-26

vanwinkle wrote:

PDaddy wrote:The only reason there are so few 40+ students at elite schools is that 40+ ers have careers and are more likely to just go to their local schools if they seek a law degree.

This, and they probably don't obsess over the LSAT like caffeinated gerbils in the way that kids fresh out of undergrad do.

What else is there to do in Tuesday/Thursday classes? I can sacrifice crossword puzzles for 1 semester in the interest of picking up some spare points

vanwinkle wrote:

PDaddy wrote:The only reason there are so few 40+ students at elite schools is that 40+ ers have careers and are more likely to just go to their local schools if they seek a law degree.

This, and they probably don't obsess over the LSAT like caffeinated gerbils in the way that kids fresh out of undergrad do.

This, and they likely have families so they're restricted to applying to local schools.