Top Law Schools

Hi guys, I just recently started looking into law school but am skeptical about my chances. I am graduating from UC Santa Barbara with a Bachelor of Science in biopsychology. I understand that UC Santa Barbara may not be a top tier university, but they are well known for their rigorous science based curriculums. I will be graduating with ~3.3 GPA and was wondering how much this will hinder me? I would preferably like to stay in CA for law school, but are UCLA, UC Berkeley, and USC out of the question? I understand my LSAT score will be a large component of my acceptance, so what range should I aim for to have a chance?

GPA is much, much, much, much more important than your school/major.

Berkeley generally favors high GPAs, so I'd say that's probably not happening. But you should aim for a 180 instead of figuring out what your "ideal range" is. Get the highest score you can, then start figuring out whether you have good options.

The GPA you gave will present a challenge at Berkeley, but won't necessarily rule you out at UCLA or USC. Your chances at any of these schools will largely hinge on your LSAT score, which will likely need to be exceptional for Berkeley and very good (170+) for USC or UCLA. In addition to a high LSAT, an otherwise compelling application (a well-crafted personal statement, strong letters of rec, etc.) would go a long way here.

tl;dr: you're not out of the running but you'll have to crush it on the rest of your app

Yeah, CA schools tend to be pretty GPA heavy. I'd just focus on crushing your lsat and going from there. Good luck !

Are there any T-14 that are known to rely on more than GPA and LSAT like WE, Undergrad prestige, major, other degrees, leadership, personal statement, interviews, etc.?

corporatemandaorbust wrote:Are there any T-14 that are known to rely on more than GPA and LSAT like WE, Undergrad prestige, major, other degrees, leadership, personal statement, interviews, etc.?

Yale and Stanford to some extent, but by and far GPA and LSAT still are the most important.

Platopus wrote:

corporatemandaorbust wrote:Are there any T-14 that are known to rely on more than GPA and LSAT like WE, Undergrad prestige, major, other degrees, leadership, personal statement, interviews, etc.?

Yale and Stanford to some extent, but by and far GPA and LSAT still are the most important.

Any other schools? I've also heard there's a trend in law schools moving more towards the B-School model where they weight WE more. Any truth to this?

corporatemandaorbust wrote:

Platopus wrote:

corporatemandaorbust wrote:Are there any T-14 that are known to rely on more than GPA and LSAT like WE, Undergrad prestige, major, other degrees, leadership, personal statement, interviews, etc.?

Yale and Stanford to some extent, but by and far GPA and LSAT still are the most important.

Any other schools? I've also heard there's a trend in law schools moving more towards the B-School model where they weight WE more. Any truth to this?

Nope

corporatemandaorbust wrote:

Platopus wrote:

corporatemandaorbust wrote:Are there any T-14 that are known to rely on more than GPA and LSAT like WE, Undergrad prestige, major, other degrees, leadership, personal statement, interviews, etc.?

Yale and Stanford to some extent, but by and far GPA and LSAT still are the most important.

Any other schools? I've also heard there's a trend in law schools moving more towards the B-School model where they weight WE more. Any truth to this?

Yes, I would say all t-13 schools takes "softs" into consideration, just Yale and Stanford more so. With regard to WE, it does seem like more schools are taking it into consideration more heavily than in the past, but I wouldn't expect to outperform my numbers on the basis on WE alone. If anything, WE is a marginal boost when evaluating candidates with similar numbers.

corporatemandaorbust wrote:

Platopus wrote:

corporatemandaorbust wrote:Are there any T-14 that are known to rely on more than GPA and LSAT like WE, Undergrad prestige, major, other degrees, leadership, personal statement, interviews, etc.?

Yale and Stanford to some extent, but by and far GPA and LSAT still are the most important.

Any other schools? I've also heard there's a trend in law schools moving more towards the B-School model where they weight WE more. Any truth to this?

Harvard and Northwestern don't like KJDs to some extent.

goldenbear2020 wrote:

corporatemandaorbust wrote:

Platopus wrote:

corporatemandaorbust wrote:Are there any T-14 that are known to rely on more than GPA and LSAT like WE, Undergrad prestige, major, other degrees, leadership, personal statement, interviews, etc.?

Yale and Stanford to some extent, but by and far GPA and LSAT still are the most important.

Any other schools? I've also heard there's a trend in law schools moving more towards the B-School model where they weight WE more. Any truth to this?

Harvard and Northwestern don't like KJDs to some extent.

Northwestern seems to put more importance on WE than other schools.