Top Law Schools

I know that this question has been driven into the ground on TLS - I've been lurking for quite a while; but of the dozen or so threads I've perused, it always seems like the "lousy" undergrad in question tends to be quite a respectable one. People seem to equate a lousy undergrad with one that isn't Harvard or MIT (or the like.) I've read maybe half the threads posted on that quoted response that always pops up on this type of question but none seem to address a situation similar to mine.

My issue is that I turned down the opportunity to go to a few upper end tier one schools, (along with the opportunity to go into six figure debt), to accept a full ride at a local public commuter school. I thought that the opportunity to graduate without debt and the benefits of the scholarship (covers all expenses for study abroad, special two week long seminars taught overseas free of charge in honors college, smaller lectures for honors students) outweighed the prestige of attending a school like USC or Carnegie Mellon if I had strong law school ambitions. But I still have serious concerns.

There seems to be no definitive answer as to whether or not someone coming from a really, really awful undergrad (my school is often equated to a 4 year community college with how... liberal their acceptances are) can make it into a t-14 law school if everything else about the applicant is strong. I asked on College Confidential and was berated by people who implied that I was trying to take an easy (academic) route to law school and that it'd bite me in the arse when it came to employment prospects post-LS.


My school is probably the lowest on the totem pole of public universities in my state - probably the polar opposite of our much more respected flagship.

Oh, and another thing - tier doesn't even apply to my school; its rank isn't even published by USNWR.

If everything else about your app is strong (btw, numbers?), then there is nothing holding you back from getting into a T-14 (which?). I've seen people from undergrads like yours underperform a bit, but there were other weaknesses in their apps, and it was nothing like getting shut out of the entire T-14.

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What state OP?

From a podunk college in the middle of nowhere in the Midwest. Got a good GPA, did some cool stuff during college, worked some, and then got a good LSAT. In at most T14 and H. Prestige schmestige.

very poorly regarded undergrad
pretty crappy gpa
majored in music composition
avoided rigorous courses
even managed to rack up a couple "no credits" on my transcript
and had a clear downward grade trend
didn't seem to make a difference
in fact, i overperformed my numbers

lawyers i know told me that adcomms would be highly critical of my ug and major
i have no way of knowing if that was true or false
but either way, it didn't stop them from admitting me

Two things matter. LSAT & gpa. Period.

HYP might get a boost, but your UG won't hold you back if you have a gpa better than a schools median.

sundance95 wrote:Two things matter. LSAT & gpa. Period.

HYP might get a boost, but your UG won't hold you back if you have a gpa better than a schools median.

TCR

Attended unheard of online university. Got into schools on par with my GPA/LSAT.

DKM wrote:What state OP?

Massachusetts.

.

won't matter. the reality is, times have changed a bit over the past five years. top schools used to be super picky about basically anything comparative they could get their hands on: minor C&F violations, withdrawing from a college course, working minimum wage jobs, how much volunteer/extracurricular work you've done...and certainly where you went to college.

Now they'll take anyone with a pulse and above median LSAC GPA & LSAT. Only Yale and Stanford can continue to practice truly "selective" admission policies now and maintain medians. While traditionally the T14 were flooded with newly minted prestigious/elite BA's, with declining applications (and the USNWR metric ignoring all admissions factors other than gpa and lsat) they resemble more a patchwork of students from anywhere. TLS is a testament to this trend.

Very top schools will always attract smart students from good colleges - more than 2/3 of my incoming class hailed from ivy or ivy-type - but it's notable that some of the largest declines we've seen in applications have been from people attending elite colleges. This is because they are the ones who have the most opportunity cost sacrificing 3 more yrs to law school; they have the best job opportunities out of undergrad, and have begun to turn away from immediately applying to law school in this market.

You're fine. Sounds like you probably made the right choice attending the local school - USC and CMU aren't worth $50K/year anyway.

preamble wrote: There seems to be no definitive answer as to whether or not someone coming from a really, really awful undergrad (my school is often equated to a 4 year community college with how... liberal their acceptances are) can make it into a t-14 law school if everything else about the applicant is strong. I asked on College Confidential and was berated by people who implied that I was trying to take an easy (academic) route to law school and that it'd bite me in the arse when it came to employment prospects post-LS.

Those people sound like idiots who shelled out six figures to get a shitty GPA in a shitty major and are now jealous of you because all they can get into is sticker at Hastings or Santa Clara.

You have a good LSAT and GPA? It don't matter.

yomisterd wrote:From a podunk college in the middle of nowhere in the Midwest. Got a good GPA, did some cool stuff during college, worked some, and then got a good LSAT. In at most T14 and H. Prestige schmestige.

Identical to the above.

lawschool22 wrote:

yomisterd wrote:From a podunk college in the middle of nowhere in the Midwest. Got a good GPA, did some cool stuff during college, worked some, and then got a good LSAT. In at most T14 and H. Prestige schmestige.

Identical to the above.

high five LS22.

*slap*

Won't matter for getting into law school. A prestigious (or well respected in the area you are targeting) undergrad could help getting a job though.

WheatThins wrote:Won't matter for getting into law school. A prestigious (or well respected in the area you are targeting) undergrad could help getting a job though.

Yea this is true but a prestigious undergrad also helps with getting summer gigs that impress schools that care about that sort of thing (HYS).

I was K-JD so summer gigs were all I had and I remember one of them had a cohort where everyone was Ivy or similar. It was the sort of thing that would impress YLS, SLS, and HLS (however much they cared about it); I don't think I would've been able to land my summer stuff if I had chosen undergrads differently at the time the decision was presented to me.

Also I will say that literally 30% of YLS (I was going off the FB group but I think it's officially published somewhere) came from either Harvard or Yale undergrad, and the rest of the ivies easily pushed it to 60/70% if not more. HLS is similar but not that drastic. So take that for what you will--it's probably mostly because of a combination of 1. kids from prestigious undergrads are more likely to do well on the LSAT and 2. they're more likely to land softs that HYS care about (like McKinsey).

I didn't follow nonHYS threads/app cycles when I was preparing my applications but I'd imagine none of the rest of the T14 care about going to an undergrad like yours (as described by you).