<p>I just thought I would throw this out there, what schools should I look at? I'm pretty clueless.</p>
<p>I'm a senior at Princeton
A.B. Politics (Political Theory), Finance 3.73 GPA, LSAT 174
Average EC's, president of one small club, member of some larger ones. I'm looking for all sorts of law schools (East/West coast) though Top 14 is preferred. What are my chances at:</p>
<p>Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Georgetown, U-Penn, Cornell, UT, UVA?</p>
<p>You look fine for T14. Apply broadly. Yale and Stanford are pretty EC focused, so "average" EC's (although you might just be being modest) probably aren't going to cut it. Numbers are around the range where Harvard is going to look through your LORs, essays, and EC's pretty closely.</p>
<p>Everywhere else, you're above 75th percentile in LSAT and pretty close in GPA.</p>
<p>Apply to Harvard, at least. Yale and Stanford, you never know what'll happen.</p>
<p>Rest of the T14, you're in good range; a perfectly fine GPA with a high LSAT.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for the suggestions! Does the school matter, or the school's grading policy matter? I don't know what a 3.72 would be anywhere else, at Princeton it puts me in the top quintile (the mark for the top quintile is 3.68) but definitely out of top 10%.</p>
<p>Might help some, but then, you don't need an awful lot of help. Yale and Stanford are going to be trouble if your EC's are average; boosting your GPA won't help you there.</p>
<p>Everybody else has 3.73 above their median, I think. So no boost needed because 3.73 is excellent anyway.</p>
<p>The only school where you might want a numbers boost of any kind is Harvard. They might well give it to you, which is why it's worth applying. They might not, which is why you it's worth applying to other places, too.</p>
<p>Thanks, though from most admissions lists, I saw that 3.73 certainly wasn't the 75th percentile--it was generally above 3.9. This is what worries/frustrates me. I can't do much about my EC's except present them in the best way possible. I will absolutely apply other places too, any advice. I am thinking of casting a wide net over T 14 (though paying all those fees might be unpleasant)</p>
<p>Yeah, it's not the 75th percentile, but it seems to me that it's above median at most places.</p>
<p>There need be no conjecture involved.
Medians (from 2006, should rise over two years):
Yale: 3.91
Stanford: 3.87
Harvard: 3.86
Berkeley: 3.79
Duke: 3.78
NYU: 3.75
Penn: 3.72
Columbia: 3.70
Northwestern: 3.70
Georgetown: 3.70
UVA: 3.68
Chicago: 3.67
Cornell: 3.67
Michigan: 3.67</p>
<p>As to the question, good chance at Harvard/Berkeley, near lock everywhere below, unlikely at Yale, Stanford (although Stanford likes HYP a lot)</p>
<p>For Harvard, you'll have about a 50% chance (based off of the admissions calculator.) The biggest thing you can do to up those chances is to work on your personal statement extensively (since your admission may come down to soft factors). That is also true for Yale and Stanford since they will be the hardest schools for you to get into. Other than that, you'll likely gain admission to almost all of the T14s you apply to. Good luck in the admissions process.</p>
<p>why do Duke and Berkeley have such high GPAs? :(</p>
<p>Boalt in particular is notorious for caring about GPA more than LSAT. I'm a little surprised by Duke, but it's probably a good thing overall.</p>
<p>Two of the T14 focus heavily on EC's. Ten of them are LSAT-dominant. It's probably a good thing that two of them are GPA-dominant, if only for balance's sake.</p>
<p>One explanation for Duke's focus on GPA might be that their law school teaches (supposedly) in a more "nuts and bolts" manner; they focus comparatively less on theory, and more on "transitioning students into [the] practice" of actual law (USNWR: Ultimate Guide to Law Schools, 9).</p>