Top Law Schools

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jjrialva wrote:It's simple. Whats your take on including in one line the ranking of the undergrad university attended because the admission committee might not be familiar with it. Its a Latin-American university and its ranked around top 30 out of 1369 universities (a list that included universities from Europe) and ranked top 20 among Latin-American universities.

I have seen law schools that suggest to include the information in an addendum but I find it much easier and practical to include it in one line in the resume.

The other option I see is to write asterisk * besides the name of the institution and adding a footnote.

Thanks in advance.

Lol. Yesssss, by all means do this. Admissions Darwinism at work.

The other option is not writing anything, which is what you should do.

jjrialva wrote:It's simple. Whats your take on including in one line the ranking of the undergrad university attended because the admission committee might not be familiar with it. Its a Latin-American university and its ranked around top 30 out of 1369 universities (a list that included universities from Europe) and ranked top 20 among Latin-American universities.

I have seen law schools that suggest to include the information in an addendum but I find it much easier and practical to include it in one line in the resume.

The other option I see is to write asterisk * besides the name of the institution and adding a footnote.

Thanks in advance.

I would do this. I came into this thread expecting the question to be about listing the ranking of a school in the US, and that would be absurd, but I think that because it's a Latin-American school the admissions committee would understand that they wouldn't know about the ranking of your school if you didn't tell them. I would do the line on the resume. The addendum makes too big of a deal about it and I always think asterisks are a little too cute for something like a resume, but maybe that's just me

I think it’s a fair bet that, if you feel as you though need to asterisk your institution, it can’t be well-known enough to do much for you. (Cf. Oxbridge, LSE, Toronto, Ecole Normale Superieure, U of Tokyo, etc.)

Which isn’t to say your school isn’t a good one, but I don’t think a footnote to a ranking – one probably as obscure to admissions officers as many of the schools on it – is going to convey the only thing you’re trying to get across: prestige. More important, I would imagine, is having done well at whatever you attended, and to note that as prominently as you can.

I think that this is tacky but wish that I could have done it. I actually went to a pretty good school in Europe, but no one had ever heard of it. I think that having something like its a top 10 in its country would help give interviewers etc. some context. If this is just for law school apps then I'm sure admissions will either know your school or google it.

If I can find it in Google in less than 2 minutes, you probably shouldn't do it

They won't care if its "Top 10" in your country. Top 10 in your country isn't the same thing as Top 10 in the US - there are so many colleges with such a large gap in quality in the US that going to an elite college means something. Going to the 10th best school in the UK/Canada/Sweden won't give you any boost. If you went to Oxbridge, LSE, or Stockholm School of Economics they have already heard of it. Writing you went to "Warwick - Top 10 in the UK" on your resume is pointless.

aca0260 wrote:They won't care if its "Top 10" in your country. Top 10 in your country isn't the same thing as Top 10 in the US - there are so many colleges with such a large gap in quality in the US that going to an elite college means something. Going to the 10th best school in the UK/Canada/Sweden won't give you any boost. If you went to Oxbridge, LSE, or Stockholm School of Economics they have already heard of it. Writing you went to "Warwick - Top 10 in the UK" on your resume is pointless.

Although I don't exactly agree with your rationale, it gets at the point that if the school is one they should be impressed by, they will be impressed. If they have never heard of it, they aren't likely to care whether you put some ranking next to it. And as much as people LOVE their rankings in the legal world, it looks kind of superficial to put things in those terms, just as it would be weird to put that you really wanted to go to X law school because of it's USNWR ranking (as opposed to saying that you wanted to attend for its focus on Y or its placement in Z market).

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jjrialva wrote:Thanks all for your feedback. I agree with almost everything except that it wasn't considered anywhere that if its ranked among the good ones it eliminates the possibility that it's diploma mill. But I guess the possible disadvantages outweigh the unlikely benefit.

Compared to the universities in the US it used to be ranked among the top 10 in America... but that was long time ago when they had Nobel prize winners teaching and a number of reputed PHD programs Its reputation has gone down the drain...

unless your school is one truly worth remembering, think HYPOxbridge equivalent, it's not really going to help or hurt you.

IMO, there is absolutely no disadvantage in putting it on your resume (but do NOT do an addendum or asterisk). There's probably a 99.9% chance that they won't care, as in it won't help you. But I don't see how it could possibly hurt.

The lolz here are too many to count.

oshberg28 wrote:IMO, there is absolutely no disadvantage in putting it on your resume (but do NOT do an addendum or asterisk). There's probably a 99.9% chance that they won't care, as in it won't help you. But I don't see how it could possibly hurt.

It would hurt if the admissions office is annoyed by pretentious d-bags.

Listing it is fair. If you can do it unobtrusively, then why not?

It's ranked #20 in latin america and #30 in the world?

IAFG wrote:

oshberg28 wrote:IMO, there is absolutely no disadvantage in putting it on your resume (but do NOT do an addendum or asterisk). There's probably a 99.9% chance that they won't care, as in it won't help you. But I don't see how it could possibly hurt.

It would hurt if the admissions office is annoyed by pretentious d-bags.

This. It violates the "don't be a douche" principle.

If they care, they can find it.

laxbrah420 wrote:It's ranked #20 in latin america and #30 in the world?

In the T20 of Latin Am, possibly higher.

Davidbentley wrote:

IAFG wrote:

oshberg28 wrote:IMO, there is absolutely no disadvantage in putting it on your resume (but do NOT do an addendum or asterisk). There's probably a 99.9% chance that they won't care, as in it won't help you. But I don't see how it could possibly hurt.

It would hurt if the admissions office is annoyed by pretentious d-bags.

This. It violates the "don't be a douche" principle.

If they care, they can find it.

So you would prefer that the admissions office research the school on the internet rather than simply take note of the ranking on the resume (I know, your response is that if the school is truly interested, they will research it. Thus, it's better to give them that option than to state it on the resume in the first place). I think everyone here is reading much more into this than they should. Your resume is an advertisement. Including a ranking of an international school that nobody has probably heard of on one's resume is not a bad idea if the ranking is high, although this is more likely to be relevant for employers rather than an admissions office.

Either I know the university when i see it or I don't. Putting the ranking on just makes me think you're a pretentious d-bag.

Let's say for a second I haven't heard of the university and I see the ranking. That's not going to impress me because I'll have no way to compare it to the top-ranked universities I know of (ie Harvard, Yale, etc.).

There is only a downside, and I can't believe this thread is actually still going.

jjrialva wrote:It's simple. Whats your take on including in one line the ranking of the undergrad university attended because the admission committee might not be familiar with it. Its a Latin-American university and its ranked around top 30 out of 1369 universities (a list that included universities from Europe) and ranked top 20 among Latin-American universities.

I have seen law schools that suggest to include the information in an addendum but I find it much easier and practical to include it in one line in the resume.

The other option I see is to write asterisk * besides the name of the institution and adding a footnote.

Thanks in advance.

Sounds good to me!

oshberg28 wrote:

Davidbentley wrote:

IAFG wrote:

oshberg28 wrote:IMO, there is absolutely no disadvantage in putting it on your resume (but do NOT do an addendum or asterisk). There's probably a 99.9% chance that they won't care, as in it won't help you. But I don't see how it could possibly hurt.

It would hurt if the admissions office is annoyed by pretentious d-bags.

This. It violates the "don't be a douche" principle.

If they care, they can find it.
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So you would prefer that the admissions office research the school on the internet rather than simply take note of the ranking on the resume (I know, your response is that if the school is truly interested, they will research it. Thus, it's better to give them that option than to state it on the resume in the first place). I think everyone here is reading much more into this than they should. Your resume is an advertisement. Including a ranking of an international school that nobody has probably heard of on one's resume is not a bad idea if the ranking is high, although this is more likely to be relevant for employers rather than an admissions office.

No, I would suggest the "don't be a douche" rule controls here. Imagine saying this out loud : "I attended undergraduate in brazil at Pontificia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro. It's the 15th best university in Latin America. So, there you go, yeah." They have seen foreign applicants before. They have seen applicants from tiny Liberal Arts colleges in the middle of a field in Montana. If the RIGOR/ Prestige of your UG is relevant to their decision, they will ascertain the necessary rankings/ information. All you do by including it is (a) assume the ignorance of your reader-- a person whose job it is to read applications from students who attended universities around the world-- and (b) increase the likelihood that your resume will fall into the lap of someone who shares the view expressed by the majority of those in this thread. Specifically, that the listing of rank screams petty desperation.

laxbrah420 wrote:It's ranked #20 in latin america and #30 in the world?

Who did the rankings?
I mean, I just googled world's best universities and the first three rankings (US News, Times, and QS) don't include a single latin american university in the top 100