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Hi Everyone!

I've been lurking for a while trying to find answer to this question somewhere online, but to no avail.

Does anyone have an estimate of whether having a Master's degree carries a substantially positive influence in the admissions decision? Or likelihood of funding? What if the law school in question is the same university where the Master's was earned?

I'm planning to ask the admissions office after the October LSAT because I've had a lot on my plate with my thesis, but I'm hoping someone here has info!

Bradsj wrote:Hi Everyone!

I've been lurking for a while trying to find answer to this question somewhere online, but to no avail.

Does anyone have an estimate of whether having a Master's degree carries a substantially positive influence in the admissions decision? Or likelihood of funding? What if the law school in question is the same university where the Master's was earned?

I'm planning to ask the admissions office after the October LSAT because I've had a lot on my plate with my thesis, but I'm hoping someone here has info!

I have one and would consider it nothing more than a good soft. Didn't outperform my numbers by any means. If anything, it'll tilt the scales somewhere where your admission chances are 50/50.

It's a perfectly fine soft and it might be a tiebreaker between you and someone with the same stats without a master's, but it's not going to lead you to outperform your numbers.

Based on the majors stated in your profile, a masters degree in anthropology or sociology is unlikely to make a significant difference. Criminology, your minor, is also unlikely to help much regarding admissions to highly competitive law schools.

it will help in the sense that your letters of recommendation will probably be better from someone that supervised you on yoru MA thesis vs. you just got an A in the class

I got a nice letter of recommendation from a Proffesor in my grad program, but looking back I do not think that having the Masters pushed the needle much as my cycle came out close to what my UGPA and LSAT would have predicted.

Even having a masters degree that improves your employment prospects (e.g., engineering degree for patent) will have a marginal impact on admissions.

Schools maintain a status quo defined by LSAT/GPA and use softs only as a secondary factor between borderline candidates or candidates with similar numbers.

I have a Ph.D. in chem and my results were only marginally better than expected. It helps in an improved letter of rec and a slight leg up in case of ties, but don't expect it to open any doors for you that aren't already cracked open by your LSAT and GPA.

A. Nony Mouse wrote:It's a perfectly fine soft and it might be a tiebreaker between you and someone with the same stats without a master's, but it's not going to lead you to outperform your numbers.

Yep.

Thanks!

Mine helped reinforce my upward trend in my ugrad gpa b/c my master's was a 4.0. But still, they only get to use ugrad for USNWR.

antiworldly wrote:I have a Ph.D. in chem and my results were only marginally better than expected. It helps in an improved letter of rec and a slight leg up in case of ties, but don't expect it to open any doors for you that aren't already cracked open by your LSAT and GPA.

I too have a PhD in Chem and agree with antiworldly. Depending on your graduate degree, it will only help in getting jobs (IMO).

Okay, that's helpful!

I have my Master's from their psychology program. It's competitive in the world of psychology because it's one of the few fully-funded Master's program, so I was hoping that would carry some weight...