Does your undergraduate institution matter? Forum

[RVP11]

For what it's worth, the law adviser of my undergrad institution (HYP) gives us statistics from previous years of the average gpa and lsat scores of admits to top law programs.

The average GPA and LSAT score for admitted students from my school to Harvard 2 years ago, for example, is 3.79/172. When you plug in these numbers to lsp, the prediction is a 40% chance. For Columbia it's 3.70/171, which gives you a 41% chance on lsp. I guess this means people from my school get a slightly better chance since these are the average stats of admitted students, but am not entirely sure how to read this as I am bad at stats.

That info seems a strong indication of a boost. Although it is fairly common knowledge HYP = boost..i think the OP is more referring to a private school in the 30's against a TTT state school.

It would only be "strong" if you were comparing averages vs. averages. Averages vs. medians tells you a lot less, especially since admissions offices act in such a way to maximize their MEDIANS. A school's admitted class is nearly always going to have average numbers that are lower than their medians.

And even if we were comparing medians to medians, you'd have to consider the typical student at HYP is likely to have better softs (more prestigious internships, summer jobs, post-grad jobs, etc.) than the typical student from a big state school.

[parker09]

For what it's worth, the law adviser of my undergrad institution (HYP) gives us statistics from previous years of the average gpa and lsat scores of admits to top law programs.

The average GPA and LSAT score for admitted students from my school to Harvard 2 years ago, for example, is 3.79/172. When you plug in these numbers to lsp, the prediction is a 40% chance. For Columbia it's 3.70/171, which gives you a 41% chance on lsp. I guess this means people from my school get a slightly better chance since these are the average stats of admitted students, but am not entirely sure how to read this as I am bad at stats.

I think I come from the same HYP undergrad Either that, or my UG had the exact same admission numbers for Harvard and Columbia...

I didn't get as much of a boost as I'd hoped (still waiting to hear back from a lot of schools, but so far nothing about my cycle has been surprising looking strictly at my numbers), but I think it's because my GPA is fine and it's my LSAT that's lacking. If it'd been the other way around (higher LSAT, lower GPA), I feel there would have been a tiny bit of a boost.

However (and this may be pure speculation from lots of TLS lurking, but nothing I've heard of has contradicted it)... I think the general consensus is that though coming from certain schools (HYP and similar) may help you a tiny bit in certain cases, coming from a less-elite/prestigious undergrad does NOT hurt you, since law schools don't report on prestige of undergrad for rankings but do report on GPA.

[Derrex]

My guess is that HYP is worth about 1 LSAT point + a 0.05 boost in GPA. Not game changing, but a pretty strong soft numerically.

[Nom Sawyer]

My guess is that HYP is worth about 1 LSAT point + a 0.05 boost in GPA. Not game changing, but a pretty strong soft numerically.

A Harvard UG -> HLS is worth a much larger boost.. something like 2-3 LSAT points and, to a lesser extent, a decent GPA boost.

[englawyer]

My guess is that HYP is worth about 1 LSAT point + a 0.05 boost in GPA. Not game changing, but a pretty strong soft numerically.

A Harvard UG -> HLS is worth a much larger boost.. something like 2-3 LSAT points and, to a lesser extent, a decent GPA boost.

this seems to be true upon inspection of LSN over the years. 170-172 + 3.9 from H is looking pretty good. From most schools that is a stretch/reach.

[avacado111]

UVA undergrad-LSAT about 2+3 points=uva law school from what a friend was telling me

[09042014]

UVA undergrad-LSAT about 2+3 points=uva law school from what a friend was telling me

Just being from Virgina is a boost at UVA.