Advice on undergrad schools for pre-law please?!

Graduate School Law School
1

Hello! I am posting this on my brother’s account and am currently a junior in high school. I am planning to apply to Harvard, Yale,UChicago, UVA, UC Berkeley, UNC Chapel Hill, and maybe another school this coming fall. My safety school is the University of Florida. I recognize that getting admitted to any of those universities would be an honor and is extremely difficult. Based on my stats, I have been told that I have a decent shot at getting into them. I aspire to have a legal career and get admitted to a Top 6 or Top 14 law school, another goal that is lofty but nonetheless what I am hoping to achieve. My question is about my chances of being admitted to those universities based on where I attend for undergrad.

It is my understanding that GPA is way more important than the prestige of where I attend. Having learned that, I figured it might be best to just go to UF where I know I can get a high GPA. However, I dream of the ivy/ivy-like atmosphere and learning environment. I have worked extremely hard during high school and feel like I should at least try to attend a top institution such as Yale.

In your opinion, would attending somewhere like Uchicago or Yale be irresponsible if I can go to UF and have an approximately equal chance of being admitted to a top LS?? I really see myself loving my undergrad years more out of state than at UF but don’t want to pay a lot of money only to hurt my chances of going somewhere like CLS or YLS.

Thank you so much in advance! Once again I recognize not of the goals I mentioned will be achieved easily. I also don’t want to downplay the prestige of UF, it’s a great school, but just not where I have dreamed of going all my life.

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Also, I plan on studying econ and/or political science if that factors into your advice.

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Depends on the costs and your family situation. If you can afford a private school comfortably as full pay, and/or receive significant financial aid, go for it.

GPA+LSAT is 95%of the law school admissions game, but after that, a 3.7 from HYP will likely beat a 3.7 from a fine state school like UF. But its only a very minor plus, if any.

btw: not a fan of paying OOS fees to attend another state’s flagship, so I would not recommend applying to UC. UVa does offer financial aid to OOS’ers, however. Dunno about UNC.

4

The difference in undergraduate institution is negligible. I don’ know (or care about) the undergrad institution of any of my law school classmates, law firm colleagues, or potential hires. There is no evidence that law schools care either. Major can be important in hiring, but it’s another thing law schools don’t care about.

In your case, my concern is mostly in making sure you have a realistic picture of the practice of law. I know of only one way to obtain one, which is to actually go spend time in a law office. College is a great time to do this and you should make sure to intern/extern/spend summers working in law. Many people find that their picture of what law is, and what law is, diverge greatly.

5

Among those schools, where you go doesn’t matter. Just do not major in “Pre-Law”.