Club 170 Forum

[sanguar]

Yeah, philo is awesome (or at least I think so, obviously...). My dissertation topic is on one's duty to obey the law. I'm also hoping to go to a program that is strong in philo of law and then become a law professor.

That's really cool. My boyfriend's getting his PhD in Philosophy and throws around the idea of going to law school afterwards. Out of curiosity, how did it affect your application process? Do you have any sense of how much your undergrad vs graduate gpas matter and how your PhD is viewed? Why didn't you apply to Yale? I get the sense that they basically just churn out academics and so it's the place to be if you want to be a professor. What's your sense of going into academia from a school like Yale vs. all around top schools with strong philosophy of law programs?

Edit: sorry, that whole post came off a bit strong. I guess generally I'm curious about how the process is different when you're applying out of grad school and want to become an academic instead of a lawyer.

I didn't apply to Yale because I honestly think I have almost no hope of getting in. My LSDAS GPA came out lower than my actual UG GPA. My grad GPA in both programs is a 4.0. I don't know how much that even matters, however. My PhD is from Bowling Green SU.

Basically my wife and I sat down, figured out where we would like to live (already done NYC, my first MA is from the New School) and then looked at the best programs we thought I had a chance at that were good for philo and being a professor. My wife's an architect (ND grad) so we also had to factor that in when making a decision. So I've applied to the T14 programs we decided on, plus a few that aren't too far off.

Moving a family of 4 when your wife has a job she loves is going to be tough. We live near Ann Arbor now, so she could keep her job and we'd still be near my family. Michigan is our top choice right now.

Cool! I hope I didn't come across negatively, I really was just curious. Good luck with everything (especially Michigan!)

Nope, not at all!

[Lou9]

I didn't apply to Yale because I honestly think I have almost no hope of getting in. My LSDAS GPA came out lower than my actual UG GPA. My grad GPA in both programs is a 4.0. I don't know how much that even matters, however. My PhD is from Bowling Green SU.

Basically my wife and I sat down, figured out where we would like to live (already done NYC, my first MA is from the New School) and then looked at the best programs we thought I had a chance at that were good for philo and being a professor. My wife's an architect (ND grad) so we also had to factor that in when making a decision. So I've applied to the T14 programs we decided on, plus a few that aren't too far off.

Moving a family of 4 when your wife has a job she loves is going to be tough. We live near Ann Arbor now, so she could keep her job and we'd still be near my family. Michigan is our top choice right now.

Go Falcons!

[pereira6]

I didn't apply to Yale because I honestly think I have almost no hope of getting in. My LSDAS GPA came out lower than my actual UG GPA. My grad GPA in both programs is a 4.0. I don't know how much that even matters, however. My PhD is from Bowling Green SU.

Basically my wife and I sat down, figured out where we would like to live (already done NYC, my first MA is from the New School) and then looked at the best programs we thought I had a chance at that were good for philo and being a professor. My wife's an architect (ND grad) so we also had to factor that in when making a decision. So I've applied to the T14 programs we decided on, plus a few that aren't too far off.

Moving a family of 4 when your wife has a job she loves is going to be tough. We live near Ann Arbor now, so she could keep her job and we'd still be near my family. Michigan is our top choice right now.

Go Falcons!

Negative. Go UB Bulls! Takin down the Falcons Jan. 8th

[sanguar]

Yeah, philo is awesome (or at least I think so, obviously...). My dissertation topic is on one's duty to obey the law. I'm also hoping to go to a program that is strong in philo of law and then become a law professor.

That's really cool. My boyfriend's getting his PhD in Philosophy and throws around the idea of going to law school afterwards. Out of curiosity, how did it affect your application process? Do you have any sense of how much your undergrad vs graduate gpas matter and how your PhD is viewed? Why didn't you apply to Yale? I get the sense that they basically just churn out academics and so it's the place to be if you want to be a professor. What's your sense of going into academia from a school like Yale vs. all around top schools with strong philosophy of law programs?

Edit: sorry, that whole post came off a bit strong. I guess generally I'm curious about how the process is different when you're applying out of grad school and want to become an academic instead of a lawyer.

As for how it affected the application process: I have no earthly idea. There seems to be very little information out there about how it would affect my prospects, likely because so few people take the route I have. I assume that if my Ph.D. was from a highly-prestigious school (e.g., Harvard, Chicago, NYU, Oxford, etc.) it would have mattered a lot. But I'm not coming from that tier of philosophy programs, so I can't say with any certainty.

Re: other programs. Many do rather well in churning out academics as well (Stanford, Michigan, Columbia, NYU, Virginia, and Texas - among others - fare particularly well). My suspicion is that one - though not the only - reason Yale has such a commanding lead is because they built that reputation to begin with and thus most of the people interested in pursuing a career in legal academia try to go there. Other programs thus do not produce as many of them, at least in part, because the students who choose to go to these other programs are often less interested in pursuing that career. That's just a suspicion though. I get the impression that if you go to a top law school, do well there, show the requisite academic chops, and want to become an academic, you'll be able to find work somewhere. But it is important to go to a top law school. Apparently the hiring is, as Leiter put it to me in some correspondence (which was later posted to one of his blogs), law school hiring is *incredibly* pedigree sensitive: where you got your J.D. matters *a lot*. This makes sense since prospective students are surely more impressed by a prof with a J.D. from Top-Tier-School-X than they are by a prof with a J.D. from a lower-rated school. Even if the latter may be more academically accomplished, prospective students will often be unaware of this.

[FlanAl]

as of thursday i got to join this club. i went to a foreign UG and got an "above average" so schools won't have any GPA to report to USnews. I've been told and it looks like the biggest factor will be my LSAT so I guess my cycle will be like some strictly 170 cycle.

good luck to you all!

[SentinelsOfEvil]

as of thursday i got to join this club. i went to a foreign UG and got an "above average" so schools won't have any GPA to report to USnews. I've been told and it looks like the biggest factor will be my LSAT so I guess my cycle will be like some strictly 170 cycle.

good luck to you all!

[FlanAl]

Welcome. I'm in almost an ident

what do you mean by ident? haha don't you have a way higher lsat than 170

[BlakcMajikc]

I'm in
Now to get into law school...

[r6_philly]

as of thursday i got to join this club. i went to a foreign UG and got an "above average" so schools won't have any GPA to report to USnews. I've been told and it looks like the biggest factor will be my LSAT so I guess my cycle will be like some strictly 170 cycle.

good luck to you all!

Congrats on the 170! Welcome!

I think you may fare better than a lot of 170 splitters. Most schools weigh LSAT better, so while you will not get the boost of a high GPA, you won't be penalized either. So you will probably have a good cycle, good luck!

[Nulli Secundus]

As of Thursday, I left the club with my new score. Good luck to you all.

[r6_philly]

As of Thursday, I left the club with my new score. Good luck to you all.

Nice!

[cardinals1989]

As of Thursday, I left the club with my new score. Good luck to you all.

Congrats on the impressive score!

[pereira6]

Welcome to all the new 170ers, and good luck to those who retook and are off to better places!

Update for the thread, I got priority reserved (read: fancy waitlist) at Duke. First bit of sad news

[r6_philly]

Welcome to all the new 170ers, and good luck to those who retook and are off to better places!

Update for the thread, I got priority reserved (read: fancy waitlist) at Duke. First bit of sad news

That's not so bad since at least 1 person already got off the PR already. So LOCI + update and you may get in soon.

I got held at Harvard but I am happy since 170 < 25%.

[sarahlawg]

That's not so bad since at least 1 person already got off the PR already.

Really?? I was under the impression pretty much no one gets off the waitlists at duke. Huh, glimmer of hope.

[khodorko]

Congrats on being Held at Harvard, that's seriously fantastic.

And I've heard good things about the list from Duke actually, few friends got kicked into the mix in April last year.

Kind of a broad question: are there any averages for how long the 'in review' step takes from the T14? Does/can such a stat exist?

[r6_philly]

That's not so bad since at least 1 person already got off the PR already.

Really?? I was under the impression pretty much no one gets off the waitlists at duke. Huh, glimmer of hope.

Yes check out the Duke non-priority thread, I just asked him about it today.

[r6_philly]

Congrats on being Held at Harvard, that's seriously fantastic.

And I've heard good things about the list from Duke actually, few friends got kicked into the mix in April last year.

Kind of a broad question: are there any averages for how long the 'in review' step takes from the T14? Does/can such a stat exist?

Thanks, now I may have to consider retake

You can get in review for as short as a couple of days to as long as 6 months, really no standards here.

[cardinals1989]

Welcome to all the new 170ers, and good luck to those who retook and are off to better places!

Update for the thread, I got priority reserved (read: fancy waitlist) at Duke. First bit of sad news

That's not so bad since at least 1 person already got off the PR already. So LOCI + update and you may get in soon.

I got held at Harvard but I am happy since 170 < 25%.

+1

[leopardRAWR]

Add UVA RD OOS and Chicago to the list of schools 170s have been accepted to

[r6_philly]

Add UVA RD OOS and Chicago to the list of schools 170s have been accepted to

Great job! Add it to the spreadsheet in OP.

[leopardRAWR]

Add UVA RD OOS and Chicago to the list of schools 170s have been accepted to

Great job! Add it to the spreadsheet in OP.

Thanks! Added my stats. Seems like we've got a pretty good group of 170s.

[r6_philly]

Add UVA RD OOS and Chicago to the list of schools 170s have been accepted to

Great job! Add it to the spreadsheet in OP.

Thanks! Added my stats. Seems like we've got a pretty good group of 170s.

We need some HYS cracking, in numbers

[starrydreamz3]

I wish all 170's good luck in two weeks for Columbia. And gratz to all those accepted at Chicago! 170 meetup during ASW?

[kch3684]

Just took a look at the spreadsheet - Unfortunately I didn't get into UVA (kch1234 on lsn) I changed it but not sure if I have the ability to save changes so it may not change on the sheet.
Damn 3.1