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I'm interested in applying to Law School and have been looking through some of the information on this forum. How much of a difference does attending a less prestigious school for undergrad make when evaluating my chances of admission to a good law school? It is unclear to me how much higher of a GPA I need to have for admission than students attending more competitive schools. I am currently enrolled in the Honors College at the College of Charleston. I am not yet far enough into undergrad to determine what my GPA will be at the end of my 4 years.

The general consensus is that it doesn't matter. It can matter, if you are almost identical applicants, but any amount higher gpa or lsat will overcome this. If I were you though, I would leave that honors program unless you are sure you can still do very well. Honors programs tend to be much more difficult and sacrificing GPA to have that Honors program on your transcript appears to be a very bad tradeoff for law school admissions.

Add: This is the combined wisdom of TLS, but before you make a move like that you should evaluate what your realistic chance of going to law school is vs. whatever else you would be doing and the relative benefits of the honors program.

TTT -> T14 happens quite frequently, it really is a numbers game primarily. focus on rocking your gpa and study for the lsat.

Unfortunately, this is one of the sad truths about law school admissions - the schools care so much about keeping their average entering GPAs and LSATs as high as possible, that they don't give much weighted value to quality of undergrad institution. But that's the game, and it ain't changing. It's just absurd that a 3.8 from Mississippi State could be looked on more favorably than a 3.6 from Dartmouth, but that's the effect of USNWR on law school admissions. oh well.

Thanks for the answers. I'm glad to hear the system works to my advantage.

While it doesn't make a huge difference, my cycle was extremely positive and I got into all of CCN despite less than sure-thing numbers (170 and 3.8 ). I applied early and I'm sure that helped, but my school has had a lot of acceptances in CCN with numbers that aren't the typical auto-admits and I think it's because the school is known for producing solid students (it's a non-HYP Ivy). So does it make a huge difference? Probably not, but it can help a bit.

Also remember, where there is a large difference is in hiring prospects. If you decide you want to work for a few years coming out of undergrad, your options will be much greater and your pay likely much higher coming from a top school.

I would also say I don't think there is a heavy weight on where you got your undergrad. Personally my UG was a cheap state college whose name doesn't carry far outside of NJ and Philly.