Questions re: Chicago Law Scholars Forum

[Drspencerreid]

1. Could anyone give insight on this? I looked around the forum and couldn't find any stats on people who got accepted into CLS. What's the general GPA floor?
2. Read that Chicago doesn't like Chi undergrads who apply RD but don't apply to CLS. Myth?
3. For the subset mentioned above, does Chi ug still play a factor in RD (bump? negative?)
4. Read that Chicago favors high GPA over splitters. Does this apply to the CLS pool (since Chi ug doesn't exactly go around handing out A's? Lol)

Thanks all.

[chicagolawscholars]

Hi! I think you're going to find it hard to find much information on Scholars on these boards--only a handful of people are admitted to the program each year (I think the 2019 class was the largest year ever--10/33 were admitted I believe). I'd really recommend talking to the UCIL advisor. I'll do my best to answer however, since I would really have appreciated this info as I was going through.

1) I'm not aware that there's a hard GPA cutoff. I had a lower GPA then would probably be acceptable from a non-Chicago alum but not significantly lower (I had honors etc etc). I'd say hovering around a 3.4 or a 3.5 is probably as low as it goes though (unless maybe STEM?)

2. I think this is true. Certainly if you have amazing stats you're in regardless (I have friends where this has been their experience--applied RD with super stats, got in with money no problem--but I'm talking 3.8/3.9 175+). If you don't apply to Scholars and apply RD I think Chicago (rightly) assumes you aren't particularly interested, because if you were, wouldn't you apply to scholars and snag the 150k? I think RD applicants from Chicago are more likely to get WLd without the aforementioned super stats. Of course this is all speculation, but if they are already taking ~10 or so Chicago apps for Scholars in such a small class, I'm not sure they are too interested in the RD apps.

3. They like Chicago grads. They really do. Clearly if they are willing to wiggle on their stats AND give 150k to alums. But I do think applying RD shows a lack of interest that is problematic to adcoms.

4. I found that they were more willing to go lower on GPA for me at least, then would be normally expected. Let me also caveat this with saying I think I had pretty stellar (Chicago-based) softs to boost my apps.

Tl,dr I really recommend talking to the UCIL people about your specific situation. I'm happy to talk with you about mine, but not really willing to say much more then I've said here given how small our group is--it would be very easy to out myself (and I may have already). Good luck!

[Drspencerreid]

Tl,dr I really recommend talking to the UCIL people about your specific situation. I

Oops didn't know how to reply without quoting. Thank you thank you for answering all my questions! I'll make sure to talk to the UCIL advisors.

[chicagolawscholars]

No problem! Good luck!