do you get a little boost for having a b.s. in engineering? Forum

[pnguyen9]

i've been reading a lot of threads and i feel like there have been mixed responses on whether or not law schools actually care about majors. my gpa isn't too great and i wanted to know if it'll even matter that i have a background in engr.

[fatduck]

not really

[rinkrat19]

It could possibly give you a small advantage over someone with a similar GPA who majored in underwater basketweaving, but an engineering major isn't going to make up for a bad GPA. There are plenty of 4.0 engineers out there.

[Deuce]

Nah

[Big Shrimpin]

not really

[waitlisteddd]

i think it gives a slight advantage.

i have a 3.7 in engineering and i think that some schools view it similarly to a 3.8/3.9. its only a slight, slight advantage, but it's something!

[Borhas]

i've been reading a lot of threads and i feel like there have been mixed responses on whether or not law schools actually care about majors. my gpa isn't too great and i wanted to know if it'll even matter that i have a background in engr.

I think it'll help if you make sure to tell them you'll pursue IP law. Schools want employed grads. IP grads have an easier time with that.

[fatduck]

i've been reading a lot of threads and i feel like there have been mixed responses on whether or not law schools actually care about majors. my gpa isn't too great and i wanted to know if it'll even matter that i have a background in engr.

I think it'll help if you make sure to tell them you'll pursue IP law. Schools want employed grads. IP grads have an easier time with that.

maybe. it's going to be very slight, if anything. i personally have a BSEE, my PS was focused on patent law, and i got into every school i was supposed to get into, none that i wasn't.

[Borhas]

i've been reading a lot of threads and i feel like there have been mixed responses on whether or not law schools actually care about majors. my gpa isn't too great and i wanted to know if it'll even matter that i have a background in engr.

I think it'll help if you make sure to tell them you'll pursue IP law. Schools want employed grads. IP grads have an easier time with that.

maybe. it's going to be very slight, if anything. i personally have a BSEE, my PS was focused on patent law, and i got into every school i was supposed to get into, none that i wasn't.

ehh you're probably right

[DoubleChecks]

yeah id say it only gives a slight bump, i.e. if it came down to you and someone else with a very similar GPA in a liberal arts, might swing your way

[09042014]

It's a decent soft.

I've noticed a lot of the lower GPA admits at Michigan are patent eligible.

But you shouldn't expect your cycle to go any differently.

[androstan]

There are plenty of 4.0 engineers out there.

Show them to me.

[pnguyen9]

There are plenty of 4.0 engineers out there.

Show them to me.

Agreed. About 75% of the people who started out in my major switched to something else (because of difficulty), which seems pretty high to me.

[Big Shrimpin]

This story has nothing to do with LS admissions, but I thought it would be funny here as food for though as engineers gear-up for OCI.

In a screening interview, I was asked a peculiar question...

**interviewer looks at my resume, searchingly**
**looks up**...**says, "I see here you were an engineer"**
*Yes, that's correct!*
**hmmm, 3.4x GPA, huh?** (for anonymity, not my GPA, but in the ballpark)
*Indeed*...*palms start sweating*
**So, hmm, no offense...but, um, that's a pretty bad GPA...what happened?**

True story. I wanted to palm --> face, but I laughed it off and explained it away. To be sure, however, I didn't get a CB.

[rinkrat19]

There are plenty of 4.0 engineers out there.

Show them to me.

I had several of them in my classes. I got a 3.56 (meh for law school, of course) and I was neither the hardest worker nor the most naturally gifted. If more than half of my grades were A's (without, frankly, trying all that hard), it's not a huge leap to think that people smarter and more dedicated than me could get all A's.

[stratocophic]

There are plenty of 4.0 engineers out there.

Show them to me.

Agreed. About 75% of the people who started out in my major switched to something else (because of difficulty), which seems pretty high to me.

+1 maybe at crap state college of dentistry and civil engineering. I think generally the better the engineering school, the worse the average engineering GPA is. See, e.g., GT and Illinois.

This story has nothing to do with LS admissions, but I thought it would be funny here as food for though as engineers gear-up for OCI.

In a screening interview, I was asked a peculiar question...

**interviewer looks at my resume, searchingly**
**looks up**...**says, "I see here you were an engineer"**
*Yes, that's correct!*
**hmmm, 3.4x GPA, huh?** (for anonymity, not my GPA, but in the ballpark)
*Indeed*...*palms start sweating*
**So, hmm, no offense...but, um, that's a pretty bad GPA...what happened?**

True story. I wanted to palm --> face, but I laughed it off and explained it away. To be sure, however, I didn't get a CB.

At that point, you knew it was over. You should have leaned forward and backhanded the interviewer. Lean back as if nothing happens, they say what the hell, and you say that's what engineering does to people. It's like one to two years of getting slapped in the face when you're not expecting it, followed by two to three years of expecting the degradation.

That's legitimately ridiculous, though. Doesn't bode well for people like myself and fatduck.

[Big Shrimpin]

There are plenty of 4.0 engineers out there.

Show them to me.

Agreed. About 75% of the people who started out in my major switched to something else (because of difficulty), which seems pretty high to me.

+1 maybe at crap state college of dentistry and civil engineering. I think generally the better the engineering school, the worse the average engineering GPA is. See, e.g., GT and Illinois.

This story has nothing to do with LS admissions, but I thought it would be funny here as food for though as engineers gear-up for OCI.

In a screening interview, I was asked a peculiar question...

**interviewer looks at my resume, searchingly**
**looks up**...**says, "I see here you were an engineer"**
*Yes, that's correct!*
**hmmm, 3.4x GPA, huh?** (for anonymity, not my GPA, but in the ballpark)
*Indeed*...*palms start sweating*
**So, hmm, no offense...but, um, that's a pretty bad GPA...what happened?**

True story. I wanted to palm --> face, but I laughed it off and explained it away. To be sure, however, I didn't get a CB.

At that point, you knew it was over. You should have leaned forward and backhanded the interviewer. Lean back as if nothing happens, they say what the hell, and you say that's what engineering does to people. It's like one to two years of getting slapped in the face when you're not expecting it, followed by two to three years of expecting the degradation

True. It was actually sort of a relief, since I knew that I didn't really have to try anymore. At that point, I just wanted to save some face and style on the interviewer for being such a jerk. In essence, I proceeded to show him/her, through implication, that I was glad to be wasting his/her time, which could have been spent on someone more "qualified" than me. 95% of OCI interviewers are great, it's just that 5%...there's not enough headroom to look down at interviewees in hotel-suite ceilings when you're sitting atop a giant horse.

[stratocophic]

Show them to me.

Agreed. About 75% of the people who started out in my major switched to something else (because of difficulty), which seems pretty high to me.

+1 maybe at crap state college of dentistry and civil engineering. I think generally the better the engineering school, the worse the average engineering GPA is. See, e.g., GT and Illinois.

This story has nothing to do with LS admissions, but I thought it would be funny here as food for though as engineers gear-up for OCI.

In a screening interview, I was asked a peculiar question...

**interviewer looks at my resume, searchingly**
**looks up**...**says, "I see here you were an engineer"**
*Yes, that's correct!*
**hmmm, 3.4x GPA, huh?** (for anonymity, not my GPA, but in the ballpark)
*Indeed*...*palms start sweating*
**So, hmm, no offense...but, um, that's a pretty bad GPA...what happened?**

True story. I wanted to palm --> face, but I laughed it off and explained it away. To be sure, however, I didn't get a CB.

At that point, you knew it was over. You should have leaned forward and backhanded the interviewer. Lean back as if nothing happens, they say what the hell, and you say that's what engineering does to people. It's like one to two years of getting slapped in the face when you're not expecting it, followed by two to three years of expecting the degradation

True. It was actually sort of a relief, since I knew that I didn't really have to try anymore. At that point, I just wanted to save some face and style on the interviewer for being such a jerk. In essence, I proceeded to show him/her, through implication, that I was glad to be wasting his/her time, which could have been spent on someone more "qualified" than me. 95% of OCI interviewers are great, it's just that 5%...there's not enough headroom to look down at interviewees in hotel-suite ceilings when you're sitting atop a giant horse.

Awesome

[androstan]

There are plenty of 4.0 engineers out there.

Show them to me.

I had several of them in my classes. I got a 3.56 (meh for law school, of course) and I was neither the hardest worker nor the most naturally gifted. If more than half of my grades were A's (without, frankly, trying all that hard), it's not a huge leap to think that people smarter and more dedicated than me could get all A's.

I guess everyone's experience is different. We had a huge portion of our sophormore class switch majors. Then, come junior year, there were many students accustomed to always getting straight A's their whole life crying about several B's. Other students students were thrilled just to pass with a C. Several should have switched majors and needed actual F's staring them in the face to get them to try something else.

[Patriot1208]

FWIW, I go to a school that has a pretty good engineering program with a couple programs ranked in the top ten and the average graduating GPA for engineers was on par with the university overall.

[Bumi]

It depends on the school. I think it helped me get into NU with a spectacularly bad GPA. Not because it's a boost - it's not going to get you over a GPA floor. Just as a good soft for schools that care about it.

This story has nothing to do with LS admissions, but I thought it would be funny here as food for though as engineers gear-up for OCI.

In a screening interview, I was asked a peculiar question...

**interviewer looks at my resume, searchingly**
**looks up**...**says, "I see here you were an engineer"**
*Yes, that's correct!*
**hmmm, 3.4x GPA, huh?** (for anonymity, not my GPA, but in the ballpark)
*Indeed*...*palms start sweating*
**So, hmm, no offense...but, um, that's a pretty bad GPA...what happened?**

True story. I wanted to palm --> face, but I laughed it off and explained it away. To be sure, however, I didn't get a CB.

Great. I can't wait to explain my UG 2.x at OCI.

[hurldes]

^seriously... how much do they care if your LS grades are stellar?

[czelede]

Re: engineering grades in general. It depends on the program, it depends on the school. I went to a top 5 engineering school, where it wasn't too hard to do well in Industrial Engineering or General Engineering (which accounted for a large proportion of the engineering population). For Aerospace, nobody in my year (~120 people) graduated with a 4.0, and top 20% started at ~3.3. Classes were curved to a 2.5 (which is what I would say to explain to a prospective employer, I guess).

Re: engineering in law school applications. It doesn't really help as much as it should (given grade deflation); however, I think top schools (schools that can afford to look past pure numbers) do take into account the entire application package. This is particularly true of "holistic" schools. A hard major won't offset a bad GPA, but a good LSAT AND a hard major can offset a bad GPA more than just the good LSAT would, if that makes sense. Between a 3.1/engineering and a 3.2-3.3/Communications major, given an equal LSAT and overall application quality I would wager that most schools would take the former.

[stratocophic]

FWIW, I go to a school that has a pretty good engineering program with a couple programs ranked in the top ten and the average graduating GPA for engineers was on par with the university overall.

I was near the average GPA for my engineering school, but our average was in line with the university average, and my GPA's far from great... maybe the university itself has more to do with than the strength of the engineering program? I dunno

[Patriot1208]

FWIW, I go to a school that has a pretty good engineering program with a couple programs ranked in the top ten and the average graduating GPA for engineers was on par with the university overall.

I was near the average GPA for my engineering school, but our average was in line with the university average, and my GPA's far from great... maybe the university itself has more to do with than the strength of the engineering program? I dunno

I was actually told that the engineering program had an average graduating gpa just above a 3.4 and the university as a whole is around 3.33 or something like that. I mean, maybe it is just a tighter group or smarter kids, but it's hard to really attribute it to that without further analysis.