Top Law Schools

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HEC is probably, along with Sciences Po, the easiest way to become a French elite. Because of the particular Grandes Écoles system there, HEC is mind-blowingly respected. But, that's not going to help you get into a top law school in America. I'd choose one path and then pursue it. In terms of starting salaries, biglaw pays way more than whatever you'll get out of HEC. But long-term, who knows. Emmanuel Macron made a couple million working at Rothschild in Paris. Unless Le Pen wins the election, immigration will also be way easier for you working in Paris than in New York, which is an important consideration. All in all, I'd take HEC and forget the American law school idea.
Plus, your English is definitely solid, but getting a 170+ on the LSAT is probably very difficult for an ESL person.
I'd drop the Manchester idea. HEC is a more respected degree in continental Europe, where you're from.

Veil of Ignorance wrote:HEC is probably, along with Sciences Po, the easiest way to become a French elite. Because of the particular Grandes Écoles system there, HEC is mind-blowingly respected. But, that's not going to help you get into a top law school in America. I'd choose one path and then pursue it. In terms of starting salaries, biglaw pays way more than whatever you'll get out of HEC. But long-term, who knows. Emmanuel Macron made a couple million working at Rothschild in Paris. Unless Le Pen wins the election, immigration will also be way easier for you working in Paris than in New York, which is an important consideration. All in all, I'd take HEC and forget the American law school idea.
Plus, your English is definitely solid, but getting a 170+ on the LSAT is probably very difficult for an ESL person.
I'd drop the Manchester idea. HEC is a more respected degree in continental Europe, where you're from.

Thank you for the reasoned answer! However, I've not been admitted to HEC but to EDHEC, which is 10 position behind in rankings, and not to the Grande Ecole program. This is just a shifting master from my undergrad in philosophy to the social sciences. After that, the path will be law school or very top business school.

InterLaw wrote:

Veil of Ignorance wrote:HEC is probably, along with Sciences Po, the easiest way to become a French elite. Because of the particular Grandes Écoles system there, HEC is mind-blowingly respected. But, that's not going to help you get into a top law school in America. I'd choose one path and then pursue it. In terms of starting salaries, biglaw pays way more than whatever you'll get out of HEC. But long-term, who knows. Emmanuel Macron made a couple million working at Rothschild in Paris. Unless Le Pen wins the election, immigration will also be way easier for you working in Paris than in New York, which is an important consideration. All in all, I'd take HEC and forget the American law school idea.
Plus, your English is definitely solid, but getting a 170+ on the LSAT is probably very difficult for an ESL person.
I'd drop the Manchester idea. HEC is a more respected degree in continental Europe, where you're from.

Thank you for the reasoned answer! However, I've not been admitted to HEC but to EDHEC, which is 10 position behind in rankings, and not to the Grande Ecole program. This is just a shifting master from my undergrad in philosophy to the social sciences. After that, the path will be law school or very top business school.
You are right about lsat, I'm scoring always around 164, but I'm sure I can get 3-4 more points. With that I could have a shot in something interesting... If I won't, let's go with gmat.

But, concerning the law school, do Manchester and EDHEC have a different impact on admission?

People on this forum often say that "soft factors" play a small role in admissions. Soft factors would include things like whether you have a masters degree. So I think having a masters would help only a little. However, I'm pretty positive that no law school would value Manchester or EDHEC over the other. So I would say to choose the program you like best, BUT if you are looking to go to a top American law school, spend your time preparing for the LSAT and hit a 170+. That will be infinitely more valuable.

Another thing to consider is that graduate programs in the states, for better or worse, are considered to be inflated GPA wise. If you go to a grad school and are below like 3.7 this may work against your application. Just get your 172 and enjoy Harvard.

AJordan wrote:Another thing to consider is that graduate programs in the states, for better or worse, are considered to be inflated GPA wise. If you go to a grad school and are below like 3.7 this may work against your application. Just get your 172 and enjoy Harvard.

Grad school GPAs are not considered at all in admissions, specifically because there is no general grading standard across programs. Some programs may have a default GPA of a 4.0, while others might have a harsher curve. Having a high or low graduate GPA is completely meaningless.

OP: go where you want. If you still want to go to law school after business school, the place you choose won't impact your admissions chances.

cavalier1138 wrote:

AJordan wrote:Another thing to consider is that graduate programs in the states, for better or worse, are considered to be inflated GPA wise. If you go to a grad school and are below like 3.7 this may work against your application. Just get your 172 and enjoy Harvard.

Grad school GPAs are not considered at all in admissions, specifically because there is no general grading standard across programs. Some programs may have a default GPA of a 4.0, while others might have a harsher curve. Having a high or low graduate GPA is completely meaningless.

OP: go where you want. If you still want to go to law school after business school, the place you choose won't impact your admissions chances.

Absolutely clear, thank you!

I take the opportunity to pose a second question: how does an exchange program impact my admission in terms of GPA? I mean, I'm internationally educated so I don't have any UGPA, just a "Superior" evaluation (the best you could get). However, I spent a semester at Cal State and since just 2 classes that I was attending there were recognized from my home university (out of the four I took), I have a terrible 2.1 gpa (1 withdraw and 1 failed without even attending). This is for just 12 credits in an exchange transcript. I suppose that this will not be very good for me, but my question is: how much will it weight on the overall file?

I just got admitted in the Harvard Summer School, where I'll be able to take 2 classes (Undergrad level) with a related transcript for 6 credits. I'm pretty sure I'll end up with two A's, will this be helpful in my case?

cavalier1138 wrote:

AJordan wrote:Another thing to consider is that graduate programs in the states, for better or worse, are considered to be inflated GPA wise. If you go to a grad school and are below like 3.7 this may work against your application. Just get your 172 and enjoy Harvard.

Grad school GPAs are not considered at all in admissions, specifically because there is no general grading standard across programs. Some programs may have a default GPA of a 4.0, while others might have a harsher curve. Having a high or low graduate GPA is completely meaningless.

OP: go where you want. If you still want to go to law school after business school, the place you choose won't impact your admissions chances.

I think it's stretching it to say that grad school GPAs aren't considered *at all.* Adcomms will still see the grad degree, and a low GPA might be a minorly negative soft. Like all softs, it's *nowhere* near as important as UGPA and LSAT, which are largely determinative. But to the extent that softs matter, performance in another grad program still counts as one. It just is very unlikely to count very much. (The very nature of softs is that they're not standardized across applicants - kind of like UGPA.)