WUSTL Class of 2013 Forum

[mte84]

maybe it is just me... but i really thought wustl class of '13's numbers would be a little better than they are... it seems 162 is low, if we are going to continue to climb in the rankings.... thoughts?

[JCougar]

maybe it is just me... but i really thought wustl class of '13's numbers would be a little better than they are... it seems 162 is low, if we are going to continue to climb in the rankings.... thoughts?

It's hard to bump those numbers up significantly in only one year's time. It almost never happens that any such numbers go up by more than a point at a time.

It's a big leap from number 19 to number 18. For as much attention that the T14 gets, the schools ranked 15-18 have been the same four schools for about the last 10 years. That's not just something you burst into by giving a ton of money to splitters. That's going to require quite a few years while our aggregate reputation catches up with our new-found semi-permanent spot in the T20. If anything's going to move us up and help us compete with USC, UCLA and Texas, it's going to be the reputation rankings -- which will be helped by adding high-profile faculty more than anything else.

Furthermore, increasing your median gets harder and harder the higher it gets, as the pool of applicants you get to choose from gets smaller at an exponentially higher rate the closer you get to 180. This only adds to the fact that WashU's LSAT score distribution of its entering students is already negatively skewed and the 167s in the pool already comprise of a good 15-20% of the class or so (or 30-40% of the above-median class). If you gun for a 168 median, you're going to have to make up that lack of 167s by paying a ton of new people that are locks for the T14 to come to WashU. And until our employment statistics start to look more like the T14 and less like the T30, people just aren't going to make that choice.

If we move into the 15-18 range any time soon, it's going to be because someone else is screwing up. Who knows what will happen with the UCLA tuition crisis, and if that will have a long-term effect on the school's entering class statistics. If that means more people from the region choose USC instead, but is not enough to completely cripple UCLA, that could make it harder for us, since USC is the low-hanging fruit on the T18 tree (we actually nearly tied them this time around).

I think moving up from here on out is going to be a slow process.

[romothesavior]

If you gun for a 168 median, you're going to have to make up that lack of 167s by paying a ton of new people that are locks for the T14 to come to WashU. And until our employment statistics start to look more like the T14 and less like the T30, people just aren't going to make that choice.

I did, but it is because I love all of you so much.

But you are definitely credited on your entire post. However, one other thing to keep in mind... at this point in our career's as students, it really doesn't matter. Sure, it would be nice to have seen us go up a little bit in LSAT, but it really will have zero effect on our future employment.

I do think we have a chance to surpass USC in the rankings soon though... the gap is closing. But again, who cares? They will still outpace us in jobs in all likelihood, and even that doesn't matter much (at least to me) because I don't really view USC students as my competition for STL/Chicago/Indy jobs anyway.

[stratocophic]

Good God. Even UIUC beat our numbers, and they're located in the middle of nowhere with worse facilities and less financial resources. Maybe we're holistic like Berkeley! ...

On the bright side... USC beat us in 25/75% category; we (barely) beat USC in the only things that are scored, the actual medians. LULZ

But yeah, all of that stuff's completely meaningless.

Random note. Pretty sure that career services meeting in the BC Courtroom said about 20% of the class had a math/science/engineering background. The CO2013 Profile says 12%. I'm torn in deciding whether to blame the disparity on the admissions office's inability to count/lack of knowledge of what a math/science/engineering background is or our inability to choose the correct response (of 2 choices) to questions about ourselves

[Oban]

Reputation and placement will always mean more than LSAT, i don't care if the median goes down if i still can get a jerb.

I mean the T14 does not read like a descending list of LSAT medians, Georgetown has higher medians than Berkley, Cornell, NU, UVA( i think?) Cornell Chicago have higher medians than Stanford, etc etc etc

[kdw94780]

I personally think the admin is confused because I would be surprised if the 75% lsat 5 years ago was lower than a 162. Didn't the Dean say that our 25% was about the same as the 75% was a few years ago. Also, the stats on what schools the students come from is also inaccurate. I know for sure that there is more than 1 from Michigan, Truman State, etc, but I don't know if there's 6 from Cornell.

[romothesavior]

I personally think the admin is confused because I would be surprised if the 75% lsat 5 years ago was lower than a 162. Didn't the Dean say that our 25% was about the same as the 75% was a few years ago. Also, the stats on what schools the students come from is also inaccurate. I know for sure that there is more than 1 from Michigan, Truman State, etc, but I don't know if there's 6 from Cornell.

The misspelled my undergraduate institution.

Oh well, I'm kinda on the "Who cares?" bandwagon WRT the medians. USNWR is about the last thing on my mind these days.

[kdw94780]

I personally think the admin is confused because I would be surprised if the 75% lsat 5 years ago was lower than a 162. Didn't the Dean say that our 25% was about the same as the 75% was a few years ago. Also, the stats on what schools the students come from is also inaccurate. I know for sure that there is more than 1 from Michigan, Truman State, etc, but I don't know if there's 6 from Cornell.

The misspelled my undergraduate institution.

Oh well, I'm kinda on the "Who cares?" bandwagon WRT the medians. USNWR is about the last thing on my mind these days.

lol mine too! oh well...back to reading legal practice

[dudnaito]

It's depressing to see how many people are in the library right now, and school's just started. Does everyone just live that close to school or should i start feeling like a bum right about now?

[ninano]

It's depressing to see how many people are in the library right now, and school's just started. Does everyone just live that close to school or should i start feeling like a bum right about now?

dude it's been 4 weeks...and I think now ppl are realizing how much they don't understand. Crowder Courtyard after 9pm is where it's at!

[dudnaito]

It's depressing to see how many people are in the library right now, and school's just started. Does everyone just live that close to school or should i start feeling like a bum right about now?

dude it's been 4 weeks...and I think now ppl are realizing how much they don't understand. Crowder Courtyard after 9pm is where it's at!

I've been drinking beer to lull myself to bed after buying 30 dollars of energy drinks to catch up to briefing the cases... can't believe i said school just started. Still, it's kinda bizarre when i'm in the library at 6 in the morning, and see the same faces, go back to the library at 2:30 after all my classes are over, and see the exact same faces until i leave at around 5:30.

And it's law school, we're not getting shot down during classes cause we're not raising legitimate points (except maybe some people) i think it's just part of the process of making us think harder. Just brief, outline, read GTM, Delaney, leews, and do your best to kill the exams. Then again, my contracts prof. telling me, 'you'll be fine' when i asked if the exam's gonna be filled with these bullshit questions didn't exactly fill me with warmth and puppy goodness.

[romothesavior]

What could anyone possibly be doing in the library at 6 AM in September?

[Oban]

Fuck man, i was on campus round midnight last week to catch a show(best coast) and i walked past AB to get to the metro, i kid you not there were kids in the carrels. I could see em through the windows. Le Sigh.

[nyyankees]

im pretty sure "september" is latin for screw around cuz november/december are gonna suck

[dudnaito]

Fuck man, i was on campus round midnight last week to catch a show(best coast) and i walked past AB to get to the metro, i kid you not there were kids in the carrels. I could see em through the windows. Le Sigh.

seriously. that was my first extended stay in the library ever, and there were... a lot of recognizable faces, and i don't recognize that many faces. I'm scared. I'm used to being above average, by which i mean right above the 50% mark, but this may be a challenge.

One of my first super productive days, and i came back home, drank 5 bottles of land shark, the local lager, and watched the entire first season of the League (only 6 episodes), despite not knowing anything about fantasy football... hilarious. huh, wait, what? when's nba playoffs starting anyway? i've been out of the country for awhile, i don't remember stuff.

[dudnaito]

What could anyone possibly be doing in the library at 6 AM in September?

you know how i missed all of orientation due to _____, right? apparently, they handed out activation codes for lexisnexis and westlaw, so i had to wait around for the school reps to give me the codes, so i could do some legal practicing. Except, apparently our rep's pregnant, so we don't know when she comes anymore. Seriously though, the same faces at 6 am are the same faces at 6 pm... scary stuff!

[Melkaba]

I certainly wish I had that kind of dedication to study. It's taking me everything in my power to study 4-7 hours a day, including breaks in-between class. And the said thing is, all that preparation doesn't help from getting demolished by one of my profs on cold call.

[dudnaito]

I certainly wish I had that kind of dedication to study. It's taking me everything in my power to study 4-7 hours a day, including breaks in-between class. And the said thing is, all that preparation doesn't help from getting demolished by one of my profs on cold call.

well you're apparently up at 6:30 in the morning, so you're not that lazy unless you just left the computer on, lol.

[J-tow10]

got another e-mail from Candy today ...i wonder what my transfer chances would be

[romothesavior]

got another e-mail from Candy today ...i wonder what my transfer chances would be

Haha get on it dude. What did she say?

[ec2xs]

Fuck man, i was on campus round midnight last week to catch a show(best coast) and i walked past AB to get to the metro, i kid you not there were kids in the carrels. I could see em through the windows. Le Sigh.

How was it? I'm lukewarm on Best Coast.

[Oban]

It was ok, it seemed like she played 40 songs in 45 minutes. Not many people at the show, but i did spot i think 2 other people from the lawl school.

[ninano]

It's all about the cotton, y'all.

[Oban]

So so far thinks still seem to be chill. Although i heard that this school wasn't super competitive before coming here, it's still less than i imagined. It seems like everyone wants/loves to help out their section, especially in legal writing where you up against 25 other people, and they still want to/are willing to help/spread around nuggets from the prof.

I keeping reading some of the manic shit on TLS about life at other schools, and it seems to much nicer here. Maybe im just not paying attention though and/or kids are simply being quiet about their gunning.

[JCougar]

Maybe im just not paying attention though and/or kids are simply being quiet about their gunning.

No, this school is truly awesome.