<p>School: UC Berkeley
Major: Political Science
GPA: 3.92
LSAT: 171
EC's: Research assistant to well-known prof for 1 year (will get a good letter of rec from this prof), VP of Political Science Club, Finance Director and Tutor for a club devoted to helping underprivileged HS students get into college</p>
<p>I just graduated a few days ago and will be taking a year off before I start law school (working as a legal clerk at a large law firm). I'm applying this Fall and wil have my apps in no later than October 1st. Any idea what my odds are at Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, and Berkeley? Those are my top 4 choices and I'm trying to get a sense of how likely I would be to get into these schools.</p>
<p>I bet you get into at least one (your LSAT score is a bit low) but hard to predict which. Are you a CA resident? I think Berkeley’s your most likely acceptance. Hopefully you have some safety schools, too.</p>
<p>Based on your school list, it seems to me like you’re treating Berkeley as a sort of a safety school. I think you should add a couple others just in case. You seem like you’ve got a good shot at Berkeley, but you can see for yourself that there’s definitely some dangerous precedents there.</p>
<p>I think Columbia and Harvard will both be tough but not impossible. Stanford… I have no idea how to predict. On the assumption that they’re more selective than Columbia, also tough.</p>
<p>My numbers were close to yours (higher GPA with a 170), and I only got into Berkeley out of those 4. Berkeley can be unpredictable, so you definitely need other options. You have a good chance to get money out of Penn or Michigan, and you might also want to try Duke and Georgetown as safeties.</p>
<p>my numbers are identical to yours. i was waitlisted at both harvard and columbia. didn’t apply to the other two schools. your ECs sound a little better than mine though.</p>