Not sure if this has been asked before but was curious as to how the caliber/disposition of students at top law schools (T14 or perhaps even T6 or T3) compared to those of med students at similarly ranked institutions. As a current 1L at HYS with little (read: none) experience interacting with top med students (hence my question), I offer my preliminary thoughts, broken down into three categories: intelligence, work ethic, and personality (this is NOT a post about job prospects or student loan debt, so please refrain from posts regarding either of those topics. Thanks
).1) Intelligence (obviously an ambiguous term with several potential definitions, but defined here as the capacity to process information and learn about a given topic, also known as fluid intelligence)
a) Test Score Percentiles: although I haven't done an exhaustive analysis, the two seem to be equal on paper. For example, students at HLS actually score higher than HMS students on average (mean of 173 / 99th percentile, vs. 36.16 / 97-98th percentile), though this could obviously be argued by the fact that the caliber of MCAT test takers is probably higher than the average LSAT test takers (some also say that the MCAT is a "tougher" test, though I would argue that the LSAT is more of a test of fluid intelligence than the MCAT, which has more to do w/ knowledge learned in pre-med classes [which some may define as crystallized intelligence]).
b) gpa: Here they seem about "equal," though it is common knowledge that pre-med classes are generally harder (perhaps significantly moreso) than liberal arts courses (at least at my school, it seems like the majority of the class comes have lib arts degrees).
c) selectivity: this fits in more with the next factors imo, but it's worth pointing out the enormous discrepancy in acceptance rates between ls and ms. Even prior to the LS "brain drain," acceptance rates were 3-4 times lower at med schools than at law schools (a lot of this probably has to do w/ emphasis on soft factors in med school admissions, which intuitively seem less tied to intelligence than to work ethic. There's also the concept of "self-selection" that other law students have mentioned, though idk exactly what the means or how convincing that argument is).
2) Work ethic
I don't have much to say on this other than I believe that, on average, med students are probably harder working (perhaps a lot more). Even at my LS, there seem to be a lot of "high functioning procrastinators" (as described by a 3L), who are very intelligent but tend to wait until the last minute to work on assignments (not sure if this is a result of or a reason for the lower workload of a Lib arts degree). Idk from experience but this seems far less likely w/ med students, not just b/c of the larger academic workload but also b/c of the soft factors they must accrue. It's worth pointing out, however, that at least at HYS, people do seem to have a large number of "soft factors," (most of my classmates have intimidatingly impressive resumes, despite the stereotype that LS admissions are mainly a #s game.)
3) Personality
Despite my predictably limited knowledge about top med students, I would assume they are a much more homogeneous group than top law students (considering they most likely actually want to work in the field in which they are studying). In my experience, law students tend to fall into several (sometimes overlapping) categories:
a) serious desire to practice law (pretty small minority, sadly), further divided into:
i) The annoying "I've always liked to argue" subtype (far fewer in my class than I was expecting, thankfully, so perhaps they tend to fill up the lower ranked schools)
ii) The puzzling "I'm a former engineer and think it would be cool now to do patent law" subtype
iii) The naive "I want a prestigious big law job" subtype
b) desire to work in government, public interest, or academia
c) vague sense of wanting to "make a difference in the world," beliefe that law (or at least a law degree) is best avenue
d) total uncertainty regarding professional future, hope that prestigious law degree will salvage or enhance dismal job prospects (often possess high degree of regret and self-loathing for majoring in lib. arts instead of stem or business)
In the case of med students, I would assume their motivations are much less stratified and more defined, with 99% of them wanted to practice medicine and/or perform research. Not sure how this manifests itself into character traits (competitiveness, philosophical mindset, moral code, etc.), which is partly why I ask the question, and hence I look forward to what you have to say regarding this comparison.
In any case, those are my thoughts. Thanks in advance for your responses; as mentioned previously, I look forward to hearing what you have to say.
(Once again, this is NOT a post about job prospects or student loan debt, so please refrain from posts regarding either of those topics. Thanks
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