Top Law Schools

Please, not flame.

3.63 and 170. Two of my uncles went to YLS.

I know my chances for other schools, and am considering a retake. What are my chances at YLS because of legacy and my stats? Am considering application next cycle if any chance at YLS.

Unless one of your uncles has a wing named after them, I don't think being a legacy is going to make any difference.

Serious question - are either of your uncles bigwigs? I.e., someone important in law, politics, entertainment, business, journalism, etc.? If so, have them make calls, that may help. If not, I seriously doubt that their having attended YLS will help you get in.

I think I hate you for asking this question.

Longtimecoming19 wrote:Serious question - are either of your uncles bigwigs? I.e., someone important in law, politics, entertainment, business, journalism, etc.? If so, have them make calls, that may help. If not, I seriously doubt that their having attended YLS will help you get in.

Why does YLS ask whether a closs relative attended on the app?

iamapipersson wrote:

Longtimecoming19 wrote:Serious question - are either of your uncles bigwigs? I.e., someone important in law, politics, entertainment, business, journalism, etc.? If so, have them make calls, that may help. If not, I seriously doubt that their having attended YLS will help you get in.

Why does YLS ask whether a closs relative attended on the app?

All (most) schools ask that. And it could be used to get a sense of your dedication to attend the achool if admitted, not necessarily to admit those with lower numbers.

iamapipersson wrote:

Longtimecoming19 wrote:Serious question - are either of your uncles bigwigs? I.e., someone important in law, politics, entertainment, business, journalism, etc.? If so, have them make calls, that may help. If not, I seriously doubt that their having attended YLS will help you get in.

Why does YLS ask whether a closs relative attended on the app?

Justice Alito's son didn't get YLS and ended up at Duke. Justice Scalia's son didn't get HLS and went to Uchicago, the list goes on and on. Having a relative that attended a top law school means dick if your stats aren't competitive.

rav17 wrote:

iamapipersson wrote:

Longtimecoming19 wrote:Serious question - are either of your uncles bigwigs? I.e., someone important in law, politics, entertainment, business, journalism, etc.? If so, have them make calls, that may help. If not, I seriously doubt that their having attended YLS will help you get in.

Why does YLS ask whether a closs relative attended on the app?

Justice Alito's son didn't get YLS and ended up at Duke. Justice Scalia's son didn't get HLS and went to Uchicago, the list goes on and on. Having a relative that attended a top law school means dick if your stats aren't competitive.

*Relatives. What were their LSAT scores and GPAs?

rav17 wrote:

iamapipersson wrote:

Longtimecoming19 wrote:Serious question - are either of your uncles bigwigs? I.e., someone important in law, politics, entertainment, business, journalism, etc.? If so, have them make calls, that may help. If not, I seriously doubt that their having attended YLS will help you get in.

Why does YLS ask whether a closs relative attended on the app?

Justice Alito's son didn't get YLS and ended up at Duke. Justice Scalia's son didn't get HLS and went to Uchicago, the list goes on and on. Having a relative that attended a top law school means dick if your stats aren't competitive.

What is Scalia's sons name? He he get a clerkship at the Supreme Court?

Could be wrong, but pretty sure legacy only helps if you have the numbers, if it helps at all. Your GPA (and LSAT, but mostly GPA) is probably too low for YLS unless you have some incredible soft that we don't know about.

Both parents of a friend of mine were YLS alumni, and that friend's numbers were comfortably above both of YLS' 75ths. Friend was waitlisted. If your uncles are big donors, maybe it could help you slightly, but otherwise it'll barely impact your chances.

iamapipersson wrote:

rav17 wrote:

iamapipersson wrote:

Longtimecoming19 wrote:Serious question - are either of your uncles bigwigs? I.e., someone important in law, politics, entertainment, business, journalism, etc.? If so, have them make calls, that may help. If not, I seriously doubt that their having attended YLS will help you get in.

Why does YLS ask whether a closs relative attended on the app?

Justice Alito's son didn't get YLS and ended up at Duke. Justice Scalia's son didn't get HLS and went to Uchicago, the list goes on and on. Having a relative that attended a top law school means dick if your stats aren't competitive.

*Relatives.

yes we almost forgot that two random alums combine to greater than one scotus justice.

I am a graduate of Yale undergrad but of a t6 law school that is not Yale. I have a colleague who graduated from Yale Law who worked with the admissions office on a research project. This is what she told me: applicants are graded on a 12 scale (applications are reviewed by 3 faculty members who each can give a maximum score of 4). If you get a 12, you get in; if you get an 11, you are likely to get in. If you get a 10, you MAY get in. An applicant whose parent or parents graduated from Yale Law gets an automatic "1" added to his or her score on the 12 scale. So if you are a strong applicant, to be a legacy can provide a critical 'tip'. I don't know about uncles--I somehow doubt if that will make a difference but I speculate here.

lol. Yale literally has an article on their website that says it doesn't matter if you personally know the president of the United States. I doubt having a couple uncles that went there matters

drillteam wrote:I am a graduate of Yale undergrad but of a t6 law school that is not Yale. I have a colleague who graduated from Yale Law who worked with the admissions office on a research project. This is what she told me: applicants are graded on a 12 scale (applications are reviewed by 3 faculty members who each can give a maximum score of 4). If you get a 12, you get in; if you get an 11, you are likely to get in. If you get a 10, you MAY get in. An applicant whose parent or parents graduated from Yale Law gets an automatic "1" added to his or her score on the 12 scale. So if you are a strong applicant, to be a legacy can provide a critical 'tip'. I don't know about uncles--I somehow doubt if that will make a difference but I speculate here.

Lol, and of course publicly Yale says that legacies don't matter. This is what I mean when I say (on this forum) that law schools actively mislead prospective students on everything from admissions, scholarships, to employment.

drillteam wrote:I am a graduate of Yale undergrad but of a t6 law school that is not Yale. I have a colleague who graduated from Yale Law who worked with the admissions office on a research project. This is what she told me: applicants are graded on a 12 scale (applications are reviewed by 3 faculty members who each can give a maximum score of 4). If you get a 12, you get in; if you get an 11, you are likely to get in. If you get a 10, you MAY get in. An applicant whose parent or parents graduated from Yale Law gets an automatic "1" added to his or her score on the 12 scale. So if you are a strong applicant, to be a legacy can provide a critical 'tip'. I don't know about uncles--I somehow doubt if that will make a difference but I speculate here.

Just to add to information. The Admissions office makes the decision on a certain number (I don't know what the number is) of applications on its own and does not turn them over to the faculty. For the applications to be reviewed by the faculty, applications are screened by the Admissions office first (on the basis of some criteria which I presume includes the GPA/LSAT) before they are randomly assigned to the professors for review. Some professors do not want to know the LSAT/GPA of the applicant (they assume the Admissions office has already looked at that aspect of the application) when they are rating him or her on a 1 to 4 scale. So this process makes Yale Law somewhat unpredictable in that you cannot simply look at someone's score and say, for example, he is above the 75th%ile and is sure to get in. The 'softs' matter at Yale AFTER you have achieved the GPA/LSAT threshold.

.

Wait, are these your mom's brothers or your dad's? This is a hugely important factor.

TheSpanishMain wrote:Wait, are these your mom's brothers or your dad's? This is a hugely important factor.

Father's.

iamapipersson wrote:

TheSpanishMain wrote:Wait, are these your mom's brothers or your dad's? This is a hugely important factor.

Father's.

...I was joking. I know nothing about Yale admissions but I'm sure it doesn't matter. My sense is this kind of thing might make a difference if you were right on the bubble, but even then I highly doubt it. FWIW, your numbers seem prohibitively low for Yale but I'm sure you'll have other good options.

acr wrote:lol. Yale literally has an article on their website that says it doesn't matter if you personally know the president of the United States. I doubt having a couple uncles that went there matters

Three words: George Walker Bush.

seashell.economy wrote:

acr wrote:lol. Yale literally has an article on their website that says it doesn't matter if you personally know the president of the United States. I doubt having a couple uncles that went there matters

Three words: George Walker Bush.

Didn't go to law school there?

TheSpanishMain wrote:

iamapipersson wrote:

TheSpanishMain wrote:Wait, are these your mom's brothers or your dad's? This is a hugely important factor.

Father's.

...I was joking. I know nothing about Yale admissions but I'm sure it doesn't matter. My sense is this kind of thing might make a difference if you were right on the bubble, but even then I highly doubt it. FWIW, your numbers seem prohibitively low for Yale but I'm sure you'll have other good options.

I assumed you were asking if my last name was similar.

By the way, I'm retaking in June.

A. Nony Mouse wrote:

seashell.economy wrote:

acr wrote:lol. Yale literally has an article on their website that says it doesn't matter if you personally know the president of the United States. I doubt having a couple uncles that went there matters

Three words: George Walker Bush.

Didn't go to law school there?

It's Yale, c'mon. You think Yale, as a whole, law school or otherwise, is a bastion of meritocracy?

drillteam wrote:I am a graduate of Yale undergrad but of a t6 law school that is not Yale. I have a colleague who graduated from Yale Law who worked with the admissions office on a research project. This is what she told me: applicants are graded on a 12 scale (applications are reviewed by 3 faculty members who each can give a maximum score of 4). If you get a 12, you get in; if you get an 11, you are likely to get in. If you get a 10, you MAY get in. An applicant whose parent or parents graduated from Yale Law gets an automatic "1" added to his or her score on the 12 scale. So if you are a strong applicant, to be a legacy can provide a critical 'tip'. I don't know about uncles--I somehow doubt if that will make a difference but I speculate here.

I'm a YLS student.

The above is the credited response.

Also, want to add that in university admissions, "legacy" benefits are generally only understood to attach if your mother or father attended the specific school to which you are applying. "Legacy" in the admissions context is a narrower concept than that of having any kind of family relationship to the university.

Example 1: if your mother attended Yale College, you would get legacy at Yale College. You would not get legacy at Yale Law School.

Example 2: If your mother attended Yale Law School, you would have legacy at Yale Law School. You would not have legacy at Yale College.

Example 3: Your uncle/sister/grandparent attended any school at Yale University. You would receive no legacy benefits at any school within Yale University.