Top Law Schools

what to do to give yourself the best chances of admission?
I know the answer isn't clear cut because these two are the biggest black boxes in the law school admissions game, but all answers are appreciated

jepps23 wrote:what to do to give yourself the best chances of admission?
I know the answer isn't clear cut because these two are the biggest black boxes in the law school admissions game, but all answers are appreciated

No clue w/r/t Yale- with Stanford it should be purely a numbers game. If your GPA/LSAT are both over 75th percentile then that more than anything else will give you the best chance of admission.

Having good numbers (above both 75ths) will help, but beyond that there's not much many of us can offer other than anecdotes. Make sure your application materials are airtight and well written and just hope for the best!

Edit: This is mostly in refernce to Yale.

PM me

thanks guys! what would you say an AA male needs to be in range at either of the two?

jepps23 wrote:thanks guys! what would you say an AA male needs to be in range at either of the two?

Both schools are still insanely hard to get into even if you are a urm. If you're an AA and want Yale, you'll most likely need at least a 3.9 and a 170 for a good shot, especially if you're a k-jd. One of my best friends who is also an AA is headed to YLS next month; he is a k-jd, had a 3.93 gpa which was also from Yale and a 173 lsat score. He also had some fairly noteworthy softs under his belt. Stanford is a bit more lenient than Yale on lsat scores for urm's but you'll still need a high gpa, maybe around a 3.8 and a high 160s lsat to have a good shot there.

oidsedidy wrote: No clue w/r/t Yale- with Stanford it should be purely a numbers game. If your GPA/LSAT are both over 75th percentile then that more than anything else will give you the best chance of admission.

It is still pretty black-boxy. This assumes being at or above both 75ths http://mylsn.info/rtscm7/
A great personal statement and lors helps. What they are looking isnt the same. For yale, try to seem curious and thoughtful. For stanford, try to seem down to earth but interesting and deep. PM me if you want.

^^ PM'd you and axe, did you receive ?

Stanford is a bit more lenient with LSAT scores than with GPA's, you can see this looking at lawschoolnumbers.com. They also are, as you said, a bit of a black box and are more willing to take applicants well below their medians than some other schools, especially URM students. It also helps (or so I've heard) to write a PS specifically tailored to them, and to have a rec specific to them (like an alum or something affiliated who can talk about why you're a good fit). Lastly, they like you to continue to show interest throughout the process, so you can send an LOCI before receiving a decision and another if waitlisted, and can update them with new info more frequently than you might other schools.

Best of luck