chances of making to a top tier law school... Forum

[awoken_soul]

I've been trying to find posts regarding the difference undergrad schools make in determining the admission process at top tier law schools, T20. I am attending University of Arkansas at little rock and its not even on the US ranking, but I am doing very well in all my courses so far. I am a double major in history and philosophy. With a very high LSAT score (suppose 168-174) and a GPA of 3.4-3.7, would the ranking of my school affect my admission?

[kalvano]

It doesn't matter at all unless you are looking at Yale or Stanford, and even then it's my understanding it's pretty far down on the list of important stuff.

GPA is what matters, not where it came from.

[KibblesAndVick]

Law schools don't really care where you went to UG. Some people suggest that the very top law schools (Yale, Harvard, Stanford) look favorably upon elite UGs. However, if you didn't go to an ivy and you didn't get your degree online it's all pretty much the same. The conventional wisdom goes something like this:

Elite Undergrads (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, so on and so forth) -- small boost in admissions especially at the top law schools

Everything else -- no one cares, they just look at your GPA. It won't hurt you but doesn't help either.

University of Phoenix and other such faux-college crap -- raises eyebrows and probably hurts your chances

[mst]

Sometimes adcomms will look at the avg LSAT of your schools test takers to make sense of your GPA, but that's about it. Honestly, it really doesn't matter, as long as it's not Univ. of Phnx. (and even then, you'll probably have only a bit of a discount). The LSAT school comparison sometimes kicks in when an ad comm is comparing somebody who went to say... Cornell and got a 3.8 and someone who went to university of west central north mississippi and got a 3.8;

USNews doesn't care where the reported GPAs come from, so either do the committees. Which is kind of sad.

[KibblesAndVick]

I almost forgot...

If reading this made you think "Well that's kind of fucked up, I should have just gone to a crappy college full of stupid students, majored in something pointless but easy, and waltzed into a 4.0" then you just realized how to win at law school admissions a couple of years too late for it to make a difference.

[mst]

I almost forgot...

If reading this made you think "Well that's kind of fucked up, I should have just gone to a crappy college full of stupid students, majored in something pointless but easy, and waltzed into a 4.0" then you just realized how to win at law school admissions a couple of years too late for it to make a difference.

TITCR. WIN WIN WIN.

[Bildungsroman]

Your chances will not be hurt at all. Undergrad institution doesn't matter; there is absolutely no difference in the way someone from Cornell and the way someone from Cardinal Direction State University is treated in terms of admissions. Even with people of exactly the same LSAT and GPA there are at least a half-dozen other factors that law schools will use to differentiate between those candidates before they even consider their undergrad institution (URM/PS/LORs/WE/extra-curriculars/community service/non-URM diversity/level of interest/etc.)

[osmlpz]

I almost forgot...

If reading this made you think "Well that's kind of fucked up, I should have just gone to a crappy college full of stupid students, majored in something pointless but easy, and waltzed into a 4.0" then you just realized how to win at law school admissions a couple of years too late for it to make a difference.

Comment of the year.

[Bildungsroman]

Also, you are likely to have some of your peers making snide comments about where you went to college and acting superior because they didn't go to state, but just bear in mind that they are grappling with severe inadequacy issues coupled with crushing undergraduate debt because they went to an obscenely expensive university in the (frustrated) hope that its name would be an instant panty-dropper in business and social circles.

Be proud of where you went to college, and don't let anyone convince you that it is in some way inferior or that you are in some way less deserving because of where you went.

[pandorasfox]

I almost forgot...

If reading this made you think "Well that's kind of fucked up, I should have just gone to a crappy college full of stupid students, majored in something pointless but easy, and waltzed into a 4.0" then you just realized how to win at law school admissions a couple of years too late for it to make a difference.

+1, also LMAO

[romothesavior]

Get a GPA and LSAT score and come back to us.

[fl0w]

Get a GPA and LSAT score and come back to us.

well played, sir. I'mma just follow you around TLS for some

[awoken_soul]

thank you everyone...Believe me I will work my ass off to make it in this country. Being a son of an immigrant family I remind myself of my work ethics lol. Thanks again everyone.Yes I will be back next year on this forums until then let me study hard!

[Montevillian]

Sorry to bump this, but, for real, considering your other board saying that you practically failed out of community college, I don't think the prestige of your undergraduate school will matter in the slightest, not that it would terribly regardless, obviously, but you shouldn't get your hopes that high considering your past grades.