Top Law Schools

I've heard from these threads and pretty much everywhere else that law school admissions are largely a numbers game; soft factors play a small factor, only if impressive. That said, I was wondering about situations in which people were rejected from schools while having (both) numbers at or above the medians. In these cases, what went wrong? Terrible LORs and personal statements? Admission randomness?

beautyistruth wrote:I've heard from these threads and pretty much everywhere else that law school admissions are largely a numbers game; soft factors play a small factor, only if impressive. That said, I was wondering about situations in which people were rejected from schools while having (both) numbers at or above the medians. In these cases, what went wrong? Terrible LORs and personal statements? Admission randomness? Was it a "less qualified" URM who took your seat, perhaps?

Proceed with caution.

Rejected at Berkeley despite having both numbers above the 75th percentiles. I have also been accepted to higher ranked schools than B so I wouldn't attribute the ding to any technical issues with my app. They must have thought wasn't pinko-commie-hippie enough.

Of course people are rejected with the right numbers, although you'll probably see them waitlisted more often. One of the big things is yield protecting, where they'll waitlist you if they don't really think you'll come. I believe that's what happened to me for Notre Dame. I had numbers well above both 75%, but didn't write a why ND and got waitlisted.

Numbers play a big part for sure, but when many candidates have similar numbers, I think softs and personal statements, and maybe even randomness play a decent role. Just one more example, I got into Duke and UVA with $, but waitlisted at Michigan, which are pretty much peer schools.

All the time. If you can sit a spell, I'll spin ya a yarn.


We can always break out the de facto rejections too (i.e. waitlists).

Yeah, this happens. Some people over- or under-perform at particular schools. Not sure what accounts for this exactly. But I wouldn't dwell on these. By and large, it IS a numbers game most of the time.

Applying late could play a role in under-performing numbers as well.