Top Law Schools

I'm transferring from my current college to either Emory or Umich for the Spring semester of 2013.
I will enter as a junior.

I have three questions - 1) which school will give me a better chance of getting into a top law school.
and 2) what are some of the majors that are good for law school. (I know law schools really don't care but there seems to be a large amount of applicants from specific majors)
3) do departmental rankings for undergrad matter? Because just in case I don't get into a good law school, I want to be able to make somewhat decent money from my BA. For example, Michigan's political science program is ranked 4, and Emory's is ranked 20-something. But Emory has higher overall rankings, so I'm not sure. If I decided not to go to law school and tried to make money off my BA alone...will departmental rankings matter?

Sorry for the long questions and thanks in advance at any input.

CanIGetAnAmen wrote:I'm transferring from my current college to either Emory or Umich for the Spring semester of 2013.
I will enter as a junior.

I have three questions - 1) which school will give me a better chance of getting into a top law school.
and 2) what are some of the majors that are good for law school. (I know law schools really don't care but there seems to be a large amount of applicants from specific majors)
3) do departmental rankings for undergrad matter? Because just in case I don't get into a good law school, I want to be able to make somewhat decent money from my BA. For example, Michigan's political science program is ranked 4, and Emory's is ranked 20-something. But Emory has higher overall rankings, so I'm not sure. If I decided not to go to law school and tried to make money off my BA alone...will departmental rankings matter?

Sorry for the long questions and thanks in advance at any input.

1. Whichever school gives you the highest gpa.
2. Whichever major gives you the highest gpa.
3. No. You probably will not make a whole lot of money with just a liberal arts BA from either school.

Go to the free one.

CanIGetAnAmen wrote:I'm transferring from my current college to either Emory or Umich for the Spring semester of 2013.
I will enter as a junior.

I have three questions - 1) which school will give me a better chance of getting into a top law school.
and 2) what are some of the majors that are good for law school. (I know law schools really don't care but there seems to be a large amount of applicants from specific majors)
3) do departmental rankings for undergrad matter? Because just in case I don't get into a good law school, I want to be able to make somewhat decent money from my BA. For example, Michigan's political science program is ranked 4, and Emory's is ranked 20-something. But Emory has higher overall rankings, so I'm not sure. If I decided not to go to law school and tried to make money off my BA alone...will departmental rankings matter?

Sorry for the long questions and thanks in advance at any input.

For getting into law school, the difference is negligible, just go to whichever will get you the highest GPA.

Keep in mind that having a useful major will give you a back-up plan in case you decide not to go to law school (or can't get into one worth going to). Also keep in mind that certain UG majors can give you a (small) boost during OCI (after you get an interview, meaning it won't make up for crappy grades). Lastly, your major can be helpful for signalling purposes if you want to go into a specific kind of law, and may give you a slight leg up in understanding a particular field - but it doesn't really matter unless you get the job to begin with

i dont know if this has been mentioned but the one you can get the highest gpa at

Does anyone know which school gives the higher GPA?

CanIGetAnAmen wrote:Does anyone know which school gives the higher GPA?

Community college?

The average GPA of Emory College graduates is 3.38. Undergraduate GPA was 3.202 at umich unless ur in engineering then its like 2.9-fyi this is from 2 seconds worth of googling you should prob research more...whats your current gpa

dingbat wrote:

CanIGetAnAmen wrote:Does anyone know which school gives the higher GPA?

Community college?

Titcr

I have 61 credits with a 4.0

dingbat wrote:

CanIGetAnAmen wrote:I'm transferring from my current college to either Emory or Umich for the Spring semester of 2013.
I will enter as a junior.

I have three questions - 1) which school will give me a better chance of getting into a top law school.
and 2) what are some of the majors that are good for law school. (I know law schools really don't care but there seems to be a large amount of applicants from specific majors)
3) do departmental rankings for undergrad matter? Because just in case I don't get into a good law school, I want to be able to make somewhat decent money from my BA. For example, Michigan's political science program is ranked 4, and Emory's is ranked 20-something. But Emory has higher overall rankings, so I'm not sure. If I decided not to go to law school and tried to make money off my BA alone...will departmental rankings matter?

Sorry for the long questions and thanks in advance at any input.

For getting into law school, the difference is negligible, just go to whichever will get you the highest GPA.

Keep in mind that having a useful major will give you a back-up plan in case you decide not to go to law school (or can't get into one worth going to). Also keep in mind that certain UG majors can give you a (small) boost during OCI (after you get an interview, meaning it won't make up for crappy grades). Lastly, your major can be helpful for signalling purposes if you want to go into a specific kind of law, and may give you a slight leg up in understanding a particular field - but it doesn't really matter unless you get the job to begin with

What are the most useful majors that are commonly found for law school student's undergrad degrees.

CanIGetAnAmen wrote:What are the most useful majors that are commonly found for law school student's undergrad degrees.

Any major you can get a 4.0 in.

Seriously. Go through any candid "ask an admissions dean" and they'll tell you that they can't justify admitting harder majors with lower GPAs over easy majors with higher GPAs. Do criminal justice or communications or something.

CanIGetAnAmen wrote:

dingbat wrote:

CanIGetAnAmen wrote:I'm transferring from my current college to either Emory or Umich for the Spring semester of 2013.
I will enter as a junior.

I have three questions - 1) which school will give me a better chance of getting into a top law school.
and 2) what are some of the majors that are good for law school. (I know law schools really don't care but there seems to be a large amount of applicants from specific majors)
3) do departmental rankings for undergrad matter? Because just in case I don't get into a good law school, I want to be able to make somewhat decent money from my BA. For example, Michigan's political science program is ranked 4, and Emory's is ranked 20-something. But Emory has higher overall rankings, so I'm not sure. If I decided not to go to law school and tried to make money off my BA alone...will departmental rankings matter?

Sorry for the long questions and thanks in advance at any input.

For getting into law school, the difference is negligible, just go to whichever will get you the highest GPA.

Keep in mind that having a useful major will give you a back-up plan in case you decide not to go to law school (or can't get into one worth going to). Also keep in mind that certain UG majors can give you a (small) boost during OCI (after you get an interview, meaning it won't make up for crappy grades). Lastly, your major can be helpful for signalling purposes if you want to go into a specific kind of law, and may give you a slight leg up in understanding a particular field - but it doesn't really matter unless you get the job to begin with

What are the most useful majors that are commonly found for law school student's undergrad degrees.

my guess would be either something technical (IP/patent) or finance/business

TripTrip wrote:

CanIGetAnAmen wrote:What are the most useful majors that are commonly found for law school student's undergrad degrees.

Any major you can get a 4.0 in.

Seriously. Go through any candid "ask an admissions dean" and they'll tell you that they can't justify admitting harder majors with lower GPAs over easy majors with higher GPAs. Do criminal justice or communications or something.

The only worry I have is that if I do horrible on the LSAt and don't get into a top law school, my BA would be mean nothing and I can't do much with it.

Then don't do horrible on the LSAT. It's a learnable test.

If the school you're at now is cheaper than the other two, and you have a 4.0, maybe you should consider staying?

As someone else said, the LSAT is learnable and a liberal arts ba is generally useless anyway.

Don't do Political Science at UMich. Trust Me.

This is one of the strangest cases of TLS hivemind. What is clear is that in virtually all cases, GPA and LSAT are all that matter to law admissions, because caliber of UG is not part of US News' ranking methodology for law schools and these schools are rankings sluts. What is far less clear is how UG caliber plays into actual law hiring --both in terms of how employers regard it as a line on your resume and also how it shapes you as a person and a thinker. It also needs to be mentioned that even though you're 100% sure now you'll want to go to LS things change, you'll want to be at a top UG. The people you can meet at elite or tier 1 undergrads are far better than the ones you'll encounter in a commuter school environment and by hanging out with them, you'll become a cooler person, and employers want to hire cool people.

So with that said, Michigan and Emory are basically the same academically. Emory probably has a slight edge in the sciences/public health, but I doubt you'll be picking that up at this point. Their business schools are both top notch. I'd go to Michign though because then you get to be a part of the football alumni network and have a chance of making cool new friends. Emory undergrads kinda suck and it's also in a shitty area --Atlanta is nice, but Emory hasn't really forged a collegey area in their neck of the woods.

Also, about the last question: Microeconomics is unquestionably the most useful course of study prior to LS --but certain majors like engineering or accounting may give you a boost in getting hired.

*Disclaimer: I had a really bad GPA and didn't go to an elite UG, and also I don't go to an elite LS, and also I've only done 1 semester of LS.

CanIGetAnAmen wrote:What are the most useful majors that are commonly found for law school student's undergrad degrees.

You haven't sufficiently defined what you mean by "useful." If you mean what's the optimal major for law school admission, the credited answer is whatever will get you a 4.0. If you mean what's the optimal major for doing well on the LSAT, the answer is likely something like philosophy/computer science (look up the stats on the majors that do the best). If you mean the most useful in terms of a backup plan, then the answer is the major that will give you a decent salary straight out of undergrad. If you mean the most useful for legal employment, then it's a technical degree (for ipsecure). I could go on, but you need to do some research--that doesn't mean asking underspecified questions on an online forum.

Suralin wrote:

CanIGetAnAmen wrote:What are the most useful majors that are commonly found for law school student's undergrad degrees.

You haven't sufficiently defined what you mean by "useful." If you mean what's the optimal major for law school admission, the credited answer is whatever will get you a 4.0. If you mean what's the optimal major for doing well on the LSAT, the answer is likely something like philosophy/computer science (look up the stats on the majors that do the best). If you mean the most useful in terms of a backup plan, then the answer is the major that will give you a decent salary straight out of undergrad. If you mean the most useful for legal employment, then it's a technical degree (for ipsecure). I could go on, but you need to do some research--that doesn't mean asking underspecified questions on an online forum.

God, I love your avatar

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dsn32 wrote:Don't do Political Science at UMich. Trust Me.

I second this. Worst decision of my life. Too late to change now though.

.

I can't speak about Michigan, but I can speak about a similar school, UC Berkeley. At Cal most of the Poli Sci majors do not have great employment options after college, and this includes people with good grades. Many of them are left with the following choice: go to law school or struggle mightily to find work.

I'm doing polisci at Umich (and philosophy), I love it, and it got me into my law school of choice.