Questions about Northwestern. Forum

[ilsa]

The most recent Northwestern thread was rather old, so I'm beginning a new one. I hope someone can answer! This is my first time posting. I only made the decision to switch my academic goals toward law school a few months ago. I am taking the LSAT in October, so I don't have a score yet. My GPA is a 3.71.

I am very interested in Northwestern because of its location and ranking, but far more so because of the joint JD-LLM in international human rights. No, I am not one of those "Let's save the world" people (I keep reading those nasty comments). I merely believe people can be a decision maker and can improve upon the world, and that's what I want to do with a law degree.

I've read Northwestern is heavily loaded with those with work experience. I see no point in taking time off after undergrad if it isn't professional. With a Philosophy degree, I can't do that. The main problem is I graduating high school early, so I'll be only 20 when applying. Will this damage my chances? I've lead organizations on campus, and been active in the Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking, Amnesty International club, and with the Cities of Refuge organizations at my school. I've done a lot of service learning and I do not feel that my inability to legally drink makes me immature. If I have a good LSAT, and I push my service experience hard, will that offset and allow me one of the coveted spots?

Thanks for any feedback.

[270910]

Those kinds of programs tend to be marketing gimmicks; i.e. they rarely actually increase your employability in the desired field (minor exception: Tax). And for that matter, most LLM programs are designed for foreign trained lawyers coming to the U.S., not as an extra layer of mastery.

See also: http://www.annaivey.com/iveyfiles/2008/ ... e_the_hype

If you actually know what field you want to get into it won't be as impossible as those who just want "international law" because it sounds appealing as a title - but it doesn't mean the various offerings of schools are any more suited to actually making it a reality.

[StupidQuestions]

I see no point in taking time off after undergrad if it isn't professional. With a Philosophy degree, I can't do that.

What's the opposite of TITCR? My most successful friend from college has a philosophy BA and got his job right out of school without connections or anything unusual. There are CXO-level executives in the fortune 500 with no education beyond their philosophy degree. Companies hire smart people, even ITE, even with a philosophy/english/basketweaving degree.

Point isn't that you have to go get professional work experience, just don't claim you can't work professionally with only a philosophy degree if you want people to take you seriously.

[Bildungsroman]

Yeah, it doesn't matter even a little bit whether you think there's a point to it, Northwestern isn't taking you without work experience after college unless you have HYS-caliber numbers.

[09042014]

Yeah, it doesn't matter even a little bit whether you think there's a point to it, Northwestern isn't taking you without work experience after college unless you have HYS-caliber numbers.

CCN caliber might pull it too. GPA might be too low though.

[Bildungsroman]

Yeah, it doesn't matter even a little bit whether you think there's a point to it, Northwestern isn't taking you without work experience after college unless you have HYS-caliber numbers.

CCN caliber might pull it too. GPA might be too low though.

Yeah probably (on both counts). I just looked through LSN for people accepted this cycle at Northwestern straight out of undergrad:

swimbrad 173/4.1 (contingent on deferral for 1 year)
CoaltoNewCastle 179/3.77 (contingent on deferral for 1 year)
thisiswater1488 172/3.83 (contingent on deferral for 1 year)
Dominusfiki 173/3.91 (no mention of deferral stipulation, but absence of evidence is not evidence of absence)
jim9o011 173/3.88 (no mention of deferral stipulation, but absence of evidence is not evidence of absence)
PrincessAJ 175/3.8 (contingent on deferral for 1 year)

So, to sum up, it seems very unlikely that OP will be accepted without work experience with that GPA, and even if s/he has a chance it would very likely take an LSAT score that only 1 out of 100 people get, and even then the OP would probably have to wait a year anyway.

Not to be mean, but this kind of speculation isn't worth your time, ilsa. Until you get your LSAT score you could be anything from a Tier 2 auto-reject to a Top 14 auto-admit.

[ncct07]

A few weeks ago they pulled a 170, 3.2 off the waitlist straight from undergrad - Cal Engineering. Search LSN - WL, Accepted

It does happen.

High LSAT, High GPA = Full Ride contingent on waiting a year.

High LSAT, Decent GPA = Waitlist with hopes of making the cut.

[09042014]

A few weeks ago they pulled a 170, 3.2 off the waitlist straight from undergrad - Cal Engineering. Search LSN - WL, Accepted

It does happen.

High LSAT, High GPA = Full Ride contingent on waiting a year.

High LSAT, Decent GPA = Waitlist with hopes of making the cut.

Northwestern loves them some engineers. I think they take double their peer schools.

[Holly Golightly]

A few weeks ago they pulled a 170, 3.2 off the waitlist straight from undergrad - Cal Engineering. Search LSN - WL, Accepted

It does happen.

High LSAT, High GPA = Full Ride contingent on waiting a year.

High LSAT, Decent GPA = Waitlist with hopes of making the cut.

Northwestern loves them some engineers. I think they take double their peer schools.

Oh goodie.

[Bildungsroman]

A few weeks ago they pulled a 170, 3.2 off the waitlist straight from undergrad - Cal Engineering. Search LSN - WL, Accepted

It does happen.

High LSAT, High GPA = Full Ride contingent on waiting a year.

High LSAT, Decent GPA = Waitlist with hopes of making the cut.

If one person with a 98th percentile LSAT can get off the waitlist in late June with a degree that NU has a soft spot for (hint: it's not a BA in philosophy) without work experience, it still doesn't say a lot about OP's position.

And I stand by what I said about it being silly to speculate about what is a huge longshot no matter what that is dependent on the LSAT score when the OP hasn't taken the LSAT yet.

[sidgey]

Either get a job and then apply, or go somewhere else. The poster earlier was right, don't do an LLM program unless you're already an attorney, it won't help your employment in that field unless its something really specific like tax. Go to law school and study human rights and get involved in a group (Northwestern has NU Human Rights Project) that will give you human rights legal experience. Plus there's the clinic and you can do a semester working in human rights there.

Don't get an LLM until after law school, its extra $$ and not worth it.

If you really want Northwestern, do something you love for a year. NU doesn't care if its farming, being a bike messenger, being a paralegal or being a barista at starbucks. They just want work experience and a diverse group of backgrounds.

[SPE]

I am coming straight from u-grad and don't know anyone. I am looking at signing a lease at either McClurg or Onterie. I prefer a more social building. I would appreciate any insight about either place.

[homestyle28]

You also might want to think about how happy you'd be at NU as opposed to UC. There are a lot of old folks (i.e. I'll be 33 when I start at NU next fall) at NU, and you might not enjoy that aspect. And, thinking bigger picture here, a lot of people change there minds about what they want to do with their lives between ages 20-25, so working a job for a year or two might go along way in determining how happy you'll be at 50.

[Hannibal]

For any who have lived in Chicago and visited/lived in SF, are they comparable? If I could live in SF could I handle a city of Chicago's size?

[mavendark]

I live in the bay area and I have also visited Chicago. From a bay area resident's point of view, both these cities are pretty comparable. If you live in SF you can definitely handle a city of Chicago's size, depending on how much you like cities, you might like Chicago more than SF.

Personally, when I visited Chicago, I loved it. I love living next to the water and I feel like the views of the water at Chicago is equal to, if not better, than the views of the Bay (since it's usually very foggy in bay area). Also, I like the public transportation in Chicago. Being the second largest public transit system in the nation, Chicago's train system and bus system is way better than SF's BART (it's puny compared to Chicago's transit). Because it snows in Chicago, you can also get to a lot of places from underground which I thought was super neat. Also, the architecture there is pretty awesome, many more tall buildings than in SF. Furthermore, Northwestern is on the north side of the river (which is the nicer side in my opinion because it seems more upscale up there). You'll probably get a decent view of the river and bridges near there if you live near Northwestern.

When I went to Chicago, I didn't feel like it was that much of a bigger city than San Francisco. I feel like it was the city that's in between the size of NY and SF. It's smaller than NY but bigger than SF which I thought provided a nice kind of median between a super busy/rushy city to a more calmer city (like SF). The traffic there I think is equal or a little worse than SF's traffic but not as bad as New York's. There are plenty of taxis as well. Rent there is also much cheaper than SF I think.

Anyway, I'm going to visit Chicago again in the beginning of October and if you have any particular questions or things you want me to watch out for, I'll be glad to do it and report back to you

[yay for first post here]