Mentioning schools I turned down in interviews/essays Forum

[ChickenSalad]

Jesus Christ no don’t do this.

If you were interviewing with me, I’d immediately give you a “don’t hire” only because of the lack of self awareness

[2013]

Bit off topic but:

UCLA Median LSAT/GPA: 169/3.79.

Berkeley Medians: 168/3.81

Stanford Medians: 171/3.91

I’d say that a 3 point difference on LSAT and a .1-.2 difference on GPA doesn’t necessarily equate to “brighter” students average such that it would be unreasonable to infer that a top 10% student at UCLA wouldn’t be able to get around the same rank at the other two schools.

This is a really bad take.

Care to explain why exactly? Or you can just stick to your conclusory assertion unsupported by reasoning.

Should’ve clarified. It’s a bad take because you’re comparing UCLA to Berkeley/Stanford.

I think when most people talk about turning a school down to go to a local school, it’s like Ohio State compared to Penn or something.

[nixy]

I had that reaction as well - I think you could find people who would go to UCLA with $$$$ instead of Berkeley/SLS without, but T20 --> T14 isn't as big a gulf as what the OP seemed to be talking about.

Mind you, I think the top students at most T50ish-local schools - say, the respectable state flagships - would succeed wherever they go. I know people who've transferred from pretty modest schools to top half of the T14 and graduated with honors (so few of those schools rank, except for some clerkship candidates sometimes, that it's hard to say much more than that). Obviously that's pure anecdata, and I'm not comparing the average students at each. And the lower down the rankings you go, the fewer students will fit this mold.

(I also think that there is enough subjectivity in law school grading that small differences in rankings aren't that meaningful. Yes, of course they often matter to employers because they provide a way to weed out people, but I don't think a top 10% student is measurably smarter/more capable than a top 20% student, given that the difference in their grades could come down to class choice, the kind of exam the prof gives, personal circumstances, etc. So parsing out whether transfers end up top 1% or 5% or 10% or what isn't very meaningful. They're smart and capable, like everyone else at the school they end up at.)