Will BU become more selective? Forum

[townizm]

BU placed much higher # in usnews ranking this year.

Will it affect to BU's lsat numbers in this cycle?

[JuliusCaesar]

The rankings are an indication of the selectiveness of the school among other factors, not the other way around.

[townizm]

The rankings are an indication of the selectiveness of the school among other factors, not the other way around.

So you mean the increase of BU's lsat median?

[zeglo]

.

[Aeon]

To the extent that BU's higher ranking causes more people to apply there, then it might affect selectivity. But as mentioned, there are many, many other factors at play.

[Dr. Nefario]

Doubt they get a lot more selective immediately. Don't wanna raise and then drop.

[SullivanLSAC]

I think it certainly will increase the vital signs (i.e., LSAT score and GPA) of the students who apply there and of the students who go there. I realize that selectivity affects rank, but it works the other way around, too. There is a sort of chicken and egg thing that goes on with this. Now that BU is in the top 20, it has crossed a certain line that some applicants use in selecting schools to apply to, not unlike the T14 standard that most applicants have, at least informally, in their heads. Moreover, better students will accept admission here now -- especially the best people who would have otherwise gone to Boston College -- because what this really does for BU is make its degrees better travelers. Until now, with a BU degree, you were largely (I know, not entirely) limited to a job in a New England state. In the top 20, while it is not necessarily a national school, it is less of a regional one, and its graduates will be more welcome in places like NY and DC.

By the way, I think BU's new ranking is largely a product of its brand new facility, which I hear is quite nice, and its medians have come down, and significantly, over the last several years (although there's a lot of that going around).

Dan Sullivan

[20160810]