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Hello,
I am writing today in the hopes of gaining information to help my significant other. I have recently matched into my residency training in the bay area and my girlfriend is in the process of studying for the LSAT. With that said, our plan is for her to join me in sunny california, with the goal of attending stanford or berkley for law school.

My girlfriend is a first generation mexican-american who is also socioeconomically disadvantaged. She attended a university in Texas and did well (I think around 3.7 or so), and is now working towards completing her PhD in Immunology from Yale (there is no GPA in grad school, but she will be able to get strong letters from her mentor as well as in the office of technology transfer).

My question to the group, how much does it matter to be both a URM (mexican) as well as have "soft" factors (PhD from Yale)? I have all the confidence in the world in her to do well on the LSAT, but there is also a chance (statistically speaking) that she will not reach the 25th% number for Stanford or Berkley.

Any help, insight, or words of encouragement or wisdom I could pass on to her would be greatly appreciated.

Good luck to everyone applying and thanks for the help.

Best,
"trying to help"

And why does she want to go to law school?

Wow, she'll be fine dude.

She is very interested in pursuing IP work in the pharmaceutical sector. She has been interning in the technology transfer office and is really intrigued by the work.

I am by no means trying to troll the posts, just trying to gauge how much help/boost/whatever you want to call it the combination of a Phd + URM will help if her LSATs fall somewhat short.


Thanks again

One good thing to look at is the graphs on LSN.

http://stanford.lawschoolnumbers.com/st ... Cycle=0910

For example, this year Stanford admitted someone (URM) with a 164/3.63.

The PhD is an excellent soft, and the career path that she is planning is a very desirable one . So I think she should be fine.

Her URM status will far outweigh the PhD for admissions, but her PhD and tech transfer experience should become more valuable for landing a job during and after LS.

I'm less optimistic. The URM status will certainly help and the PhD is a great soft, but I think geographic limitation will be an obstacle. Stanford and Berkeley are some of the most selective schools in the country (the last figure I recall put Berkeley almost on par with Harvard in terms of selectivity), and they have small classes. Being limited to those two schools gives you a smaller shot, I think, than trying to crack a certain sub-tier (HYS, CCN, etc). Stanford may have admitted a 3.6/163 or whatever, but how many did they reject with similar stats, including URMs? In my opinion, she really does need to knock the LSAT out of the park. Keep in mind that 3.7 is at Boalt's 25th and below Stanford's.

That probably sounds gloomier than her actual outlook, which really is pretty good. Just bear in mind that it's no sure thing. Best of luck to her on the LSAT.

clintonius wrote:I'm less optimistic. The URM status will certainly help and the PhD is a great soft, but I think geographic limitation will be an obstacle. Stanford and Berkeley are some of the most selective schools in the country (the last figure I recall put Berkeley almost on par with Harvard in terms of selectivity), and they have small classes. In my opinion, she really does need to knock the LSAT out of the park. Keep in mind that 3.7 is at Boalt's 25th and below Stanford's.

That probably sounds gloomier than her actual outlook, which really is pretty good. Just bear in mind that it's no sure thing. Best of luck to her on the LSAT.

Good points, especially for Stanford. But looking at this year's LSN graph for Berkeley, as an URM with such a solid soft, I'd think she'd have a decent shot to get in even with a low 160 LSAT & that GPA. Based on recent graphs, a high 150 might just do it, considering URM + Yale PhD + life experience + quirky ("holistic") Berkeley selection process.

thanks for all the responses. I appreciate both the words of encouragement, as well as the 'reality' check, that have been provided in the posts. She and I both know that it is a tall order shooting for Berkley and Stanford, and have no sense of entitlement to those schools, with that said it is always good to dream big and go for it. She is busting her butt for the LSAT, and I am crossing my fingers she gets a score that correlates with level of dedication to this dream. Thanks again for all your help, it is genuinely appreciated.


Best,
"trying to help"