Top Law Schools

Aside from many public university's caps on out of state students, does applying to your undergraduate college's law school give you any kind of boost?

My UG college has a top-50 law school in one of the country's largest legal markets, so it is an appealing option for me, and my numbers are borderline/median, so I was wondering if having graduated from that school would give me any kind of preference or boost?


Apologize if this has been answered before. I am sure it has but am new to TLS and still learning how to best navigate the site.

It can help - especially if you have a professor or two (who know you well) from that law school writing you recommendations.

I'd argue that in terms of getting in, it will play a small role. Getting in is about GPA/LSAT. Now, where I could see some influence is in $$$ , especially if you were involved at your school in prominent roles. This comes from personal experience, I received more money at my UGs law school than similarly ranked schools. Additionally, I received more $ than others with similar numbers who did not attend my UG.

If you go to Harvard or Yale then yes lol

t-14orbust wrote:If you go to Harvard or Yale then yes lol

Lol.


To the others, yeah, I figured it would give you at least a small boost. A school has to look out for its alumni to some degree, after all... I would think...

raferna3 wrote:

t-14orbust wrote:If you go to Harvard or Yale then yes lol

Lol.


To the others, yeah, I figured it would give you at least a small boost. A school has to look out for its alumni to some degree, after all... I would think...

Michigan Dean of Admissions Sarah Zearfoss claimed (IRL) that alumni applicants are frowned upon and tend to be at a disadvantage. So I would say no for UMich, maybe not for other T14s?

People always say it hurts but I think it helped me a bit. /anecdotal evidence

laotze wrote:

raferna3 wrote:

t-14orbust wrote:If you go to Harvard or Yale then yes lol

Lol.


To the others, yeah, I figured it would give you at least a small boost. A school has to look out for its alumni to some degree, after all... I would think...

Michigan Dean of Admissions Sarah Zearfoss claimed (IRL) that alumni applicants are frowned upon and tend to be at a disadvantage. So I would say no for UMich, maybe not for other T14s?

That's interesting, I know a dude who was an UG at Michigan and got into their Law school with numbers well below the median. He was a scholarship athlete (football), though so that might change things.

francesfarmer wrote:People always say it hurts but I think it helped me a bit. /anecdotal evidence

I have always heard it hurts in reference to employers, particularly in regard to MBA students, but I have not heard one way or the other in regards to law... Thus, this thread...

raferna3 wrote:

francesfarmer wrote:People always say it hurts but I think it helped me a bit. /anecdotal evidence

I have always heard it hurts in reference to employers, particularly in regard to MBA students, but I have not heard one way or the other in regards to law... Thus, this thread...

I don't know why it should hurt, unless you go to a super podunk/insular school in the middle of nowhere for 6-7 years.

I've heard it hurts you at Berkeley. Anecdotal evidence--friend got into Harvard, Penn, Michigan, and Columbia, and got rejected from Berkeley. And other people have told me that Berkeley is not a huge fan of its own undergrads. I mean, not necessarily the case because Berkeley is kinda a black box anyway, but just what people have told me.

Regarding Michigan specifically: I'm UG here, and they've done a lot of work to convince us that the "Mich UGs don't get in to MLaw" thing is a myth. They had a "Double Wolverine" panel not that long ago, where they went over the statistics of Michigan UGs versus other UGs getting in. I don't remember specific numbers, but the moral of the story was that Mich UGs had a higher chance of getting in than non-Mich UGs with an identical application. I want to say that it was something like 16% higher or something insane, but that could totally be a shot in the dark.

Granted, it could be total bull that they tell us to get us to apply but it seemed legit to me. It was an hour/hour and a half of a lot of anecdotal evidence and statistics. Dean Z was there giving these numbers, so I don't know what to make of the claim that she said the exact opposite as well. Grain of salt, I guess.

ETA: This claims that a good chunk of each entering class has been made up of Mich UGs. Just wanted to share.