Top Law Schools

This isn't exactly a chances thread, but I figured this is the best place.

Due to some hard work in school, as well as a pretty large chunk of good fortune, I have a greater than 75th percentile LSAT, and a median or just below median GPA, for HYS. I have a pretty standard background: ok but not elite school, normal major for law school, never been caught for anything illegal I've accomplished, pissed away a year travelling/drunk and doing odd jobs, a bit of work experience, and ok but not stellar softs for HYS, etc. etc. I am not exactly asking my chances--I've done enough research to know the rough percentage of applicants that get in with my numbers (close to 50/50 for YS, and roughly 90 percent for Harvard this past cycle)--but there are enough rejections that I thought I'd ask:

What accounts for high number applicants that get dinged at all of HYS, including many with numbers higher than mine? Is there anything in particular one should do to avoid this fate? There always seem to be a few applicants a year that fall through the HYS cracks, and having had my numbers in hand since December, I've had enough time to worry about this happening to me.

So why the outliers?

..

Actually, this last cycle a large factor that seemed new was the GPA... HLS seems to have put greater emphasis on the GPA as compared to previous cycles. (Don't know if the school consciously shifted focus, new dean of admissions, better applicants, etc. but there did seem to be a change).

Thus for your example there is a big difference between being median GPA and below median. I think if your:

Slightly Below Median GPA/ 75th+ LSAT: 50 to 70% chance at HLS
Median+ GPA/ 75th+ LSAT: 80 to 90% chance at HLS as you were thinking.

There were many many more 3.8+, 176+ types waitlisted at H last cycle then ever before.

Na_Swatch wrote:Actually, this last cycle a large factor that seemed new was the GPA... HLS seems to have put greater emphasis on the GPA as compared to previous cycles. (Don't know if the school consciously shifted focus, new dean of admissions, better applicants, etc. but there did seem to be a change).

Thus for your example there is a big difference between being median GPA and below median. I think if your:

Slightly Below Median GPA/ 75th+ LSAT: 50 to 70% chance at HLS
Median+ GPA/ 75th+ LSAT: 80 to 90% chance at HLS as you were thinking.

There were many many more 3.8+, 176+ types waitlisted at H last cycle then ever before.

50-70% is too low for a gpa over 3.8 and an LSAT 75th percentile or greater. For 176 - 180 and 3.8 - 3.87 (probably 0.03 below this year's GPA median), there were 10 acceptances, 1 rejection, and 2 waitlists = 77% accepted without a waitlist. But I used the 90% total acceptance figure because that is roughly where my actual numbers place me (they are higher than the searched range). The new semi-wall at Harvard seems to be 3.8 GPA.

In any event, my interest is more why those with higher numbers than mine get rejected. For instance, carterth 3.97/180 (probably top 10 for all applicant numbers!) got shut out of HYS but got a Darrow. Since LSN tends to encourage self-reporting when the results are good, I suspect there are a fair amount more people that this happens to.

I think acrossthelake has a nice list.