Undergraduate Degree of Difficulty a Factor? Forum

[greenlight]

I am quite certain that the question I am about to ask has both been posted and answered a number of times, but I am new to the forum and would like to start a new thread.

Will the degree of undergraduate program difficulty affect my changes of getting into a top tier law school if I become a split applicant with a 3.1 CGPA and 170+ LSAT?

I have not taken the LSAT. Practice exams to date have given me a goal of the previously mentioned "170+". My undergraduate studies are going to be completed at a Tier 3 University in Mechanical Engineering. Everything I have read to date indicates that the law school of choice will assemble "piles" of applicants, those which meet the standard minimum GPA and LSAT score requirement and those that don't. I don't see how an undergraduate program would be viewed, let alone taken as a factor, in the accepting institution's decision making, but I thought I would put it out there.

Currently the Law School Predictor says I'll get a "strong consideration" at a Michigan or Cornell with a 3.1 and 175 CGPA and LSAT respectively, but only a "weak consideration" for U of C. - the latter being the school of my choice. This is where I am hoping my undergraduate studies come into play.

Thanks in advance for your responses.

[acadec]

degree of UG difficulty is at best a weak soft. conventional wisdom holds that LSAT is more important than GPA, that those two criteria are much more important than pretty much anything else, and that the difficulty of your ug program is pretty far down on the list of anything else. so, if you majored in engineering at MIT and got the same stats as a guy that did communications at the university of utah, they'd pick you over him. but if that same guy served in the military or something, he'd get the spot instead of you.

[xyzzzzzzzz]

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[kalvano]

In the end it doesn't matter much, but I do think that the people looking at files are familiar with what constitutes a good GPA in a particular major.

[09042014]

You aren't getting UChi, sorry. Mich, Penn, UVA, Cornell, and Gulc are your targets.

[februaryftw]

Your chances at U of C are slim to none; if you ED, you're probably at "slim." As noted above, you'll have more luck at splitter friendly schools like Virgina or Northwestern (if you have work experience).

As for your title question, it matters a little. You'll be viewed more favorably than a 3.1 in Sociology. But to matter your GPA needs to be in a range where the school pulls from; 3.1 is not a GPA U of C usually takes, though you might find some rare instances.

So, as in all things, the answer to your question is ED at Virginia.

[greenlight]

Thank you everyone for your responses. It certainly helps to have so many opinions weigh in with approximately the same advice. I'll keep UofC in my list of applications for now. Certainly stranger things have happened, but I am much more apt to expand my school options.

Thanks again.