UG reputation / class rank when EDing
Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2012 1:46 pm
by afnaidel
Hi, I have 3.77/170 and I'm wondering about which schools I should apply to, and then which school I should ED to.
I've been using LSN to find answers to these questions, but I always end up wondering about one thing: how to interpret my GPA.
When I see applicant profiles from LSN, I notice that a lot of them list their undergrad as Ivy or Top 40.
Well, my undergraduate school is fairly good, but it is not in the top of the list.
In addition, I didn't get any Latin honor because my GPA was about 0.01 lower than what was needed to get cum laude. So that puts me around the 89th percentile.
So, when I see GPA on LSN, how should I compare it with mine and calculate my chance?
In other words, do undergraduate reputation and class rank matter?
To admission officers, is my 3.77 GPA the same as someone else's who got 3.77 but was magna cum laude from Ivy?
*Before you accuse me of not searching or knowing the obvious answer, please see my replies below. Thanks.
**edited for additional information
Re: Do undergrad reputation and class rank matter?
Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2012 1:50 pm
by JohnV
Traditional TLS wisdom (as I have found out through the same kind of post) is that GPA is really all they will look at. If you went to an Ivy League for UG or somewhere widely known and respected, it *may* give you a few points of consideration with admissions if they had to choose between you and someone with similar numbers, but really it shouldn't matter. There are too many schools, majors, classes, and professors with different ways of grading and varying degrees of difficulty to place too much emphasis on where the grade was obtained from.
Re: Do undergrad reputation and class rank matter?
Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2012 1:52 pm
by JetsFan1990
I would say that the degree earned is more important. A BS is certainly going to be more highly regarded than a BA.
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Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2012 1:55 pm
by VasaVasori
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Re: Do undergrad reputation and class rank matter?
Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2012 1:56 pm
by Nova
It doesn't really matter. You are either at/above or below the LSAC GPA median, and that matters far more than anything else.
Re: Do undergrad reputation and class rank matter?
Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2012 1:58 pm
by afnaidel
JohnV wrote:it *may* give you a few points of consideration with admissions if they had to choose between you and someone with similar numbers, but really it shouldn't matter.
Nova wrote:It doesn't really matter. You are either at/above or below the LSAC GPA median, and that matters far more than anything else.
That's what I fear. I'm wondering whether or not I should ED to UPenn.
According to LSN, around 50% of the people with 170/3.61-3.81 gets in with RD, and 50% don't.
So I'm debating about EDing to UPenn and maybe lose a chance to get $, or not EDing and risk being waitlisted.
Re: Do undergrad reputation and class rank matter?
Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2012 2:01 pm
by afnaidel
Ludovico Technique wrote:Lolol. Save this post, it will be useful at least once a week
I know how you guys feel about this kind of questions, but if you are really future lawyers, you should know that every situation is different. As I posted above, I'm wondering whether or not to ED when I'm around the median, and I'm wondering whether or not my undergraduate school makes difference in answering that.
As I mentioned in the above reply, I wonder I should consider my chance as in the lower side among the applicants with the same number as mine because of my UG and class rank. If I can know the answer to that, I can decide to or against EDing to UPenn.
Re: UG reputation / class rank when EDing (edited)
Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2012 2:15 pm
by Gandalf205
afnaidel wrote:Ludovico Technique wrote:Lolol. Save this post, it will be useful at least once a week
I know how you guys feel about this kind of questions, but if you are really future lawyers, you should know that every situation is different. As I posted above, I'm wondering whether or not to ED when I'm around the median, and I'm wondering whether or not my undergraduate school makes difference in answering that.
If you are really a future lawyer, you should become adept at using internet search parameters to resolve your questions.
Re: UG reputation / class rank when EDing (edited)
Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2012 2:17 pm
by afnaidel
Gandalf205 wrote:afnaidel wrote:Ludovico Technique wrote:Lolol. Save this post, it will be useful at least once a week
I know how you guys feel about this kind of questions, but if you are really future lawyers, you should know that every situation is different. As I posted above, I'm wondering whether or not to ED when I'm around the median, and I'm wondering whether or not my undergraduate school makes difference in answering that.
If you are really a future lawyer, you should become adept at using internet search parameters to resolve your questions.
Did you actually do the search? Even when I used the terms like "early decision" and "class rank" or "reputation" I couldn't find the answer specific to my case. Well, if my search skill is not that good, I'm sorry. But I did my best, and I couldn't find any good answer. If you can find another post with the same situation, the link to that post would be nice. Thanks.
Re: UG reputation / class rank when EDing (edited)
Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2012 2:31 pm
by Ludo!
As a lawyer a lot of times there is no exact answer to what you are looking for and the best you can do is find answers to questions similar to yours. In your case - UG does not matter for admissions or for jobs, so it's pretty likely it doesn't matter for EDing either. It probably matters even less. I wish the questions I researched at work were as easy as that
Re: UG reputation / class rank when EDing (edited)
Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2012 2:35 pm
by afnaidel
Ludovico Technique wrote:As a lawyer a lot of times there is no exact answer to what you are looking for and the best you can do is find answers to questions similar to yours. In your case - UG does not matter for admissions or for jobs, so it's pretty likely it doesn't matter for EDing either. It probably matters even less. I wish the questions I researched at work were as easy as that
Thanks. I know that it is extremely hard to get a perfect answer to a question like this, but you never know if there's someone who were in the same situation and can provide an answer. My belief is that as a future lawyer I need to prepare myself to recognize even the smallest details, and I didn't want to jump into the admission process without knowing exactly what I'm doing.