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A good friend of mine is applying to LS this coming cycle (non-urm, 172, 3.7). He was a physics major in UG and coauthored about 6 math/physics papers that were published in respectable academic journals. He is also listed as an author of a small textbook on applied topology with three of his professors. Other than that his softs are pretty standard. How big of a deal is this? I wonder if he has a substantially better shot at HYS than his LSAT/GPA alone would predict.

I doubt it. I had publications and I performed exactly as my numbers predicted.

Of course, his publications may impress employers, maybe even be helpful in the IP field.