Top Feeder Undergraduate Schools to Yale and UVA Law Forum

[Gagnam Style]

YLS Enrollment (2011-12)
http://www.yale.edu/printer/bulletin/pdffiles/law.pdf

1. Yale: 86
2. Harvard: 80
3. Princeton: 39
4. Stanford: 34
5. Brown: 22
6. Penn: 21
7. Duke: 17
8. Columbia: 15
9. Dartmouth: 14
9. Cal Berkeley: 14
11. Chicago: 13
11. Cornell: 13
11, NYU: 13
14. University of Michigan: 12
15. Wesleyan: 10

Georgetown (huge surprise), Emory, Vanderbilt, CMU, JHU, Rice, Notre Dame, and USC all had less than 5 students represented at YLS. State schools did pretty well with UVA and UNC represented with 9 and 7 students a piece.

The real winners here are the LACs, who even with their significantly smaller class sizes, were still represented at YLS in high single digits or 10 in the case of Wesleyan. Swarthmore had 8, Williams had 6 and Amherst had 5 students listed.

Virginia Law Total Enrollment (2011-12)
http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/prospe ... lass15.htm

Represented as Top Feeder Schools in all of the Past Three Classes
1. UVA: 92
2. William & Mary: 38
3. Duke: 31
3. Brigham Young University (BYU): 31
5. University of Florida: 24
6. UNC-Chapel Hill: 22
7. University of Georgia: 19

Represented as Top Feeder Schools in at least Two of the Current Classes
8. Vanderbilt: at least 16
9. University of Texas: at least 13
9. Princeton: at least 13
11. UCLA: at least 12
11. Georgetown: at least 12
13. University of Maryland: at least 11
13. GWU: at least 11
13. Virginia Tech: at least 11
16. University of Michigan: at least 9
16. Cal Berkeley: at least 9

Wow, I'm shocked at how regional the representation is at UVA Law! I guess those HYS graduates aren't that interested in going there? Outside of Yale and possibly Stanford, these results show that it doesn't really matter where you get your undergraduate degree.

[NoodleyOne]

Yale has dat IVY BIAS.

[Gagnam Style]

Yep, 7 of the 10 top feeder schools to YLS are Ivies.

[BigZuck]

I find this fascinating. Would like to see this for the rest of the t14 (if those lists are accessible).

[02889]

This is really interesting! Thanks for posting. I wonder what this information means in the discussion over whether a person's undergrad influences their admissions chances. Everyone here is quick to say that unless you went to HYP there's no effect, but UVA mostly selected from regional schools (sort of? no super obvious pattern after UVA, W&M and Duke), and Yale mostly selected from ivies. I wonder if the rest of the top schools also have some undergrad selection bias.

[Gagnam Style]

I think that each T14 Law School, the most represented institution will always be its home undergraduate school (Berkeley for Boalt, Duke for Duke Law, Penn for Penn Law, etc.). Beyond that, it looks like at least at Yale, going to a top school does matter (Ivy+Stanford+Duke+Berkeley+Chicago).

[bernaldiaz]

This is really interesting! Thanks for posting. I wonder what this information means in the discussion over whether a person's undergrad influences their admissions chances. Everyone here is quick to say that unless you went to HYP there's no effect, but UVA mostly selected from regional schools (sort of? no super obvious pattern after UVA, W&M and Duke), and Yale mostly selected from ivies. I wonder if the rest of the top schools also have some undergrad selection bias.

http://top-law-schools.com/forums/viewt ... 2&t=193185

I posted this a little while ago. Gives a teeny bit more insight.

[dr123]

Not too shabby, BYU

[bobbyh1919]

This is really interesting! Thanks for posting. I wonder what this information means in the discussion over whether a person's undergrad influences their admissions chances. Everyone here is quick to say that unless you went to HYP there's no effect, but UVA mostly selected from regional schools (sort of? no super obvious pattern after UVA, W&M and Duke), and Yale mostly selected from ivies. I wonder if the rest of the top schools also have some undergrad selection bias.

I don't think there is necessarily any direct bias on UVA's part, other than the fact that they have to fill a certain number of seats with Virginia residents. It's more likely that they get far more applications from local schools than they do from other schools as most students don't usually find law school the appropriate time to start moving around the country. Basically, I wouldn't expect a William and Mary kid to have any sort of advantage over an equally respected northeast/midwest/west coast school. Unless, of course, they are a Virginia resident, in which case there is a sort of bias but it's unrelated to undergrad school.

[ndirish2010]

I love these stats. Nevertheless, I think this is all self-selection. The top schools have a large amount of students who are good at taking standardized tests, therefore most likely to score highly on the LSAT and be admitted to Yale. Therefore, it makes sense that Yale would have a lot of people from these schools.

[moonman157]

Ivy League grade inflation?

[law2015]

NYU gave a similar breakdown during orientation. The top five feeder schools to NYU this year were Penn, Columbia, Cornell, Princeton and Tuft.

[moonman157]

NYU gave a similar breakdown during orientation. The top five feeder schools to NYU this year were Penn, Columbia, Cornell, Princeton and Tuft.

Hmm Penn is interesting, since there seems to be a consensus that Penn and NYU are close to being peers and probably compete for the same applicants

[Doorkeeper]

I definitely think there's a self-perpetuating bias when it comes to HYPS UGs for YLS for 3 reasons:

1) Faculty recommendations. The biggest name professors teach at these schools and their recommendations are going to carry a lot of weight for YLS Faculty Members. 172/3.9 looks a lot better when Jack Rakove or Amartya Sen is saying the kid is great.

2) For HYS, those UG students have access to take classes in the law school. Not only does this provide the ability for these students to get recommendations from YLS's academic colleagues both inside and outside of YLS, but it also must be a boost in terms of the grades. "This UG got two HPs in a law school class? That's great! Obviously he can compete here!"

3) HYPS UGs have access to jobs (politics, consulting, IBs, etc) that just aren't available to many other UG graduates, and these jobs provide huge application boosts, especially when the application is paired with a recommendation from a Senator or Deputy Treasury Secretary.

This being said, I think the larger Ivy bias is in large part because those students who are bound to get both a 172+ AND a 3.8+ will cluster at the top 10-12 schools, with the best public schools being included on that list (Michigan, Berkeley, UVA, etc).

[skers]

Not too shabby, BYU

The worst strivers.

[paulinaporizkova]

Not too shabby, BYU

You have no idea

[HeavenWood]

Students from top undergraduates are the most represented at top law schools? Color me schocked.

[Ruxin1]

Does Wachtell recruit from the best schools?

[J-e-L-L-o]

Not to mention the A+ grading scale at many of the aforementioned schools...

[SehMeSerrious]

Students from top undergraduates are the most represented at top law schools? Color me schocked.

Not all Ivies are top undergraduates.

[HeavenWood]

Students from top undergraduates are the most represented at top law schools? Color me schocked.

Not all Ivies are top undergraduates.

165

[Borg]

Interesting lists, thanks. I was specifically surprised when I started school at how many NYU alums I had made friends with. I thought it was just that I happened to fall in with that group, didn't realize they were among the top feeders.

[Chickensoup]

Students from top undergraduates are the most represented at top law schools? Color me schocked.

Not all Ivies are top undergraduates.

120

Fixed.

[3ThrowAway99]

sigh

[3ThrowAway99]

.