<p>also, grading even within a school can be very different based on the departments. I know at my college, a 3.5 is looked at as quite a strong gpa for an econ major, but practically flunking for an asian studies major. it all depends on your field (and being in the department with the lowest gpa is, i'm sure, going to kill my chances for law school)</p>
<p>So what happens if you have a solid 3.7 at your current school and transfer somewhere else, supposedly known for tougher grading? They say your best years should be your junior and senior year but how does it look if your grades aren't as stellar? Also, I believe the law schools, especially the ivies, are aware of most schools grading policies and the difficulty of one major as opposed to another.</p>
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Also, I believe the law schools, especially the ivies, are aware of most schools grading policies and the difficulty of one major as opposed to another.
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<p>Knowing and caring are two different things. Keep in mind that law schools know that the LS rankings are based in part on 'selectivity' as measured by GPA, so if they start admitting students with grades that are too low, their ranking will drop. That's a powerful disincentive not to admit somebody with low grades, even if that person got low grades only because he went to a difficult school or studied a difficult major. Since the LS rankings only care about high grades and don't care about where they come from, the law schools are incented to do the same. </p>
<p>The other aspect is the same economies of screening. The fact is, the top law schools are bombarded with thousands upon thousands of applications, and they simply don't want to spend the time to carefully examine every single app. Hence, every law school uses a system of mechanical screens to sort their candidates by numbers into various bins. Those with bad numbers will be placed into the lowest bin where they will, at best, be given a cursory skim before being rejected and in many cases, will simply be summarily rejected without having their apps read at all. As your numbers get better, your chances of being sorted into a more favorable bin increase. Hence, the better the bin you're placed in, the most chances you have of something good happen to you. If you get placed in the lowest bin, you basically need a miracle. </p>
<p>But hey, don't take my word for it. Go ask ariesathena. She got into law school after completing a degree in chemical engineering, which is an extremely difficult major. She can tell you about how many of the law schools she applied to didn't know or didn't care that her major was graded on a completely different and far lower scale than most liberal arts majors were.</p>
<p>Wow that's true. It totally makes sense what you are saying. I didn't mean to sound like a 3.5 GPA in the most difficult major would get you into Harvard. Long before I ever knew about this board I spent a lot of time reading books about getting into law school. While I agree with everything you said I think the difficulty of courses is considered. While there are cutoffs for scores, the solid applicants were able to work through the tough classes not simply attain a 4.0 in "whatever-the-easiest-school-and-major-may-be." For example:</p>
<p>"We're looking for both bredth and depth.. there is nothing I examine more closely than the transcript." -Jim Milligan, Dean of Admissions, Columbia</p>
<p>"The Gpa is just a starting point. Our first concern is how rigorous the courseload has been." -William Hoye, Dean of Admissions, USC</p>
<p>Anyways.. I completely agree with you on the selection methods, you have no chance if your scores aren't up to par. Yale gets a thousand applicants with scores in the 90th percentile who don't make the cut. I still think the adcoms must take undergraduate school and courseload into consideration when narrowing the thousands of well-qualified applicant to a few hundred. Those selected made the GPA cutoff AND had tough majors and whatnot. It's just my opinion and like I said, I totally agree with what others have said. I guess that's why HLS and Yale are nearly unattainable.</p>