Do lawschools prefer students from their undergraduate? Forum

[ykim5]

My friends and I have this question whether
lawschools prefer students from their undergraduate program

[reasonabledoubt]

+ "S"

[Gamecubesupreme]

Save for a few law schools, they really don't care that much about their alumni if you don't have the numbers required.

[turkishangora]

which ones?

[GATORTIM]

which ones?

Does it really matter? Apply to yours and see what happens?

[EzraStiles]

Not too many of them have lower standards for their own students-- don't pick your undergrad based on their law school, pick your undergrad for its undergrad program.

[princepointe]

which ones?

Does it really matter? Apply to yours and see what happens?

Kind of a dick response there.lol.
@TC, The myth running around the University of Texas is that they "hate" us. My fraternity went to the school for a tour and sit down with admissions and someone asked this question. We were told that they don't give a boost or negation for us going there but they try to keep it at about 25% UT undergrads. Hope that helps. Good luck either way.

[GATORTIM]

which ones?

Does it really matter? Apply to yours and see what happens?

fix'd

[mytwocents]

I applied to UNC this cycle, and I've always heard that their adcomm is harder on students from their undergraduate program. FWIW this claim is totally unsubstantiated and kind of just a "word on the street" thing. Also, I didn't go to UNC for undergrad.

[princepointe]

which ones?

Does it really matter? Apply to yours and see what happens?

fix'd

See now thats far less dickish.lol

[BenJ]

I applied to UNC this cycle, and I've always heard that their adcomm is harder on students from their undergraduate program. FWIW this claim is totally unsubstantiated and kind of just a "word on the street" thing. Also, I didn't go to UNC for undergrad.

Weird. UNC is one of the few schools where the undergrad is substantially stronger than the law school, relative to other schools. (Wisconsin is the only other that immediately springs to mind.)

Anyway, some do, some don't. Name a few schools, and we might be able to tell you.

[jcl2]

I applied to UNC this cycle, and I've always heard that their adcomm is harder on students from their undergraduate program. FWIW this claim is totally unsubstantiated and kind of just a "word on the street" thing. Also, I didn't go to UNC for undergrad.

I think those rumors are pretty common among universities that have law schools. It probably stems from undergraduates at those schools assuming that by graduating and doing moderately well at the school they should be qualified to go to the law school at that same university. Obviously this is not the case, I would bet that at every single tier 1 and maybe even most or all of the tier 2 law schools out there, the GPAs and LSATs required to get into the law school are significantly higher than the average GPA's and lsat scores of the undergraduates at that university.

[09042014]

Some schools (Alabama, Illinois, and Michigan) have early application programs for their undergrads, in which they get accepted, but never take the LSAT. So for those with a high gpa, but who do poorly on standardized tests, this is a very easy way into their law school.

[s0ph1e2007]

UofM dean of admissions said that there is very little preference given to UofM undergrads (i.e. its like if you have two completely equally qualified candidates, if one of them is a UofM undergrad student they will likely get in, even if its only because they are likely to matriculate or more likely to give lots of money eventually when they become successful)

only similar thing that can really help you is residence. UVA dean of admissions specifically states that they reserve something like 40% of spots for Virginia residents, so perhaps if you live in the state of your alma mater it can help. Yet, Michigan for instance, does not care at all about residence, as it appears to me.

[mytwocents]

I applied to UNC this cycle, and I've always heard that their adcomm is harder on students from their undergraduate program. FWIW this claim is totally unsubstantiated and kind of just a "word on the street" thing. Also, I didn't go to UNC for undergrad.

I think those rumors are pretty common among universities that have law schools. It probably stems from undergraduates at those schools assuming that by graduating and doing moderately well at the school they should be qualified to go to the law school at that same university. Obviously this is not the case, I would bet that at every single tier 1 and maybe even most or all of the tier 2 law schools out there, the GPAs and LSATs required to get into the law school are significantly higher than the average GPA's and lsat scores of the undergraduates at that university.

+1.

That sounds about right. I remember waaaay early in my undergraduate career wanting to transfer to UNC, thinking that graduating from there would give me a leg up in getting into their law school (I went to a very science/engineering/research heavy school as a humanities major, and I thought that make my degree seem less rigorous. My undergrad is definitely NOT known for its humanities department). But I was told that staying at my undergrad would be just fine, because UNC law is "harder" on its own undergraduates. I now realize that really neither of those ideas are true.

Anywho, /story, just wanted to show that your theory holds some weight.

[kosherboy2]

SMU has a pre-law scholar program during UG that has certain requirements that will give you auto acceptance to the university.

I think its GPA-3.75/LSAT-153...or GPA-3.2/LSAT-164

[vanwinkle]

@TC, The myth running around the University of Texas is that they "hate" us. My fraternity went to the school for a tour and sit down with admissions and someone asked this question. We were told that they don't give a boost or negation for us going there but they try to keep it at about 25% UT undergrads. Hope that helps. Good luck either way.

I don't think they "hate" UT undergrads, I think the problem is just that they try to maintain a diverse student body and there are so many UT undergrads applying to go there that they have to reject most of them.

It's probably something like that at many schools; I've heard the same thing said about Columbia for example, but I don't buy it. Why would CLS have any reason to hate on its own undergrads? It has to just be that they have to reject a bunch of them for various reasons, either to increase diversity or insufficient LSAT or whatever.

[avacado111]

uva undergrad=BIG BOOST AT UVA LAW!

[princepointe]

@TC, The myth running around the University of Texas is that they "hate" us. My fraternity went to the school for a tour and sit down with admissions and someone asked this question. We were told that they don't give a boost or negation for us going there but they try to keep it at about 25% UT undergrads. Hope that helps. Good luck either way.

I don't think they "hate" UT undergrads, I think the problem is just that they try to maintain a diverse student body and there are so many UT undergrads applying to go there that they have to reject most of them.

It's probably something like that at many schools; I've heard the same thing said about Columbia for example, but I don't buy it. Why would CLS have any reason to hate on its own undergrads? It has to just be that they have to reject a bunch of them for various reasons, either to increase diversity or insufficient LSAT or whatever.

I totally agree. I wasn't saying that they actually hate us. I was just relaying the sentiment among members of phi alpha delta here. I think your points are right on target. Only the Admins at the schools know for sure. We are all just blowing smoke here in the mean time.lol

[SandyC877]

which ones?

Does it really matter? Apply to yours and see what happens?

Kind of a dick response there.lol.
@TC, The myth running around the University of Texas is that they "hate" us. My fraternity went to the school for a tour and sit down with admissions and someone asked this question. We were told that they don't give a boost or negation for us going there but they try to keep it at about 25% UT undergrads. Hope that helps. Good luck either way.

wtf 25% is a lot.

[turkishangora]

I applied to UNC this cycle, and I've always heard that their adcomm is harder on students from their undergraduate program. FWIW this claim is totally unsubstantiated and kind of just a "word on the street" thing. Also, I didn't go to UNC for undergrad.

I think those rumors are pretty common among universities that have law schools. It probably stems from undergraduates at those schools assuming that by graduating and doing moderately well at the school they should be qualified to go to the law school at that same university. Obviously this is not the case, I would bet that at every single tier 1 and maybe even most or all of the tier 2 law schools out there, the GPAs and LSATs required to get into the law school are significantly higher than the average GPA's and lsat scores of the undergraduates at that university.

+1

I know that the law school at my undergrad apparently has a lot of students from our school, but it's because almost every pre-law applies there. the overall % accepted is higher than the law school's %, but it's the same for % admitted at peer schools. However, I do hear that law schools supposedly know their own undergrad curriculum more (e.g. so which majors hard, easy, profs, otherwise weird-sounding majors, etc.). I would say that in itself can be an advantage at times.

[ScaredWorkedBored]

I applied to UNC this cycle, and I've always heard that their adcomm is harder on students from their undergraduate program. FWIW this claim is totally unsubstantiated and kind of just a "word on the street" thing. Also, I didn't go to UNC for undergrad.

Weird. UNC is one of the few schools where the undergrad is substantially stronger than the law school, relative to other schools. (Wisconsin is the only other that immediately springs to mind.)

That's also weird because both of those schools have large preferences for in-state residents, UNC extremely so. Being state schools, a large chunk of their undergrad will, surprise, be resident.

[mytwocents]

I applied to UNC this cycle, and I've always heard that their adcomm is harder on students from their undergraduate program. FWIW this claim is totally unsubstantiated and kind of just a "word on the street" thing. Also, I didn't go to UNC for undergrad.

Weird. UNC is one of the few schools where the undergrad is substantially stronger than the law school, relative to other schools. (Wisconsin is the only other that immediately springs to mind.)

That's also weird because both of those schools have large preferences for in-state residents, UNC extremely so. Being state schools, a large chunk of their undergrad will, surprise, be resident.

Yeah but, UNC isn't the only school in North Carolina either...there are tons of undergrads here (UNC isn't even close to the biggest), a lot of them are liberal arts focused. That equals LOTS of pre-law kids. Also, UNC is a huge deal here...it's reputation and in-state tuition make it so that most students from the numerous undergrads in NC who are applying to law school pretty much apply to UNC just because it's there, whether they plan to go or not.

[ughOSU]

I think it can hurt you... geographic/regional/institutional diversity ftw.

[heyguys]

I think that as far as state schools go they'll prefer their own, but this may only be because they have to fit a mandate of X% of their students being from that state. I suspect that the top tier law schools (HYSCCN) prefer their own undergrads. I can only speak for my own law school, but it seems like a very high percentage of our students went to Yale for undergrad. I at first would have thought this could be explained in other ways (high LSATs, etc), but there are many, many more Yale alums here than Harvard or any other college of that caliber.

I would think that the main places where they won't prefer their own undergrads would be places like Wake Forest--mid range private school.

A counterpoint to that though would be that I would bet that ceteris paribus they would take the alum if for no other reason than that someone who went to both ugrad and grad school somewhere would probably be more likely to donate money and such for the school.