Columbia vs Princeton Pre-Law

<p>Which one has better pre-law program Columbia vs Princeton ?
Especially for Top 4 Law schools ? Here is what I found
Looks like Columbia sends more students to top 4 law school even though Columbia
is smaller than Princeton</p>

<p>Harvard Law : About same number of Columbia vs Princeton undergrads.
Yale Law : 32 Columbia undergrad vs 24 Princeton
Stanford Law : no data
Columbia : Substantially more Columbia undergrad than Princeton. </p>

<p>Will it disadvantageous to go Princeton because princeton does not have law school ?
Can anyone tell me why I should choose princeton ?</p>

<p>Princeton carries more prestige, period. But Columbia has a higher percentage of minority students (about 50%) versus Princeton (about 37%). This may account for the higher number of students from Columbia at Top Law Schools. The fact that Princeton does not have a law school obviously skews the numbers (home cookin' for Columbia Law).</p>

<p>Flame away, Princetonians!</p>

<p>Law School admission stat shows that Princeton lags greatly behind Harvard, Yale, Columbia.</p>

<p>According to Revealed Preference Ranking, Princeton is admitting students using 'strategic admission' Process, which
reject highly qualified applicants because the Princeton admissions committee know that
most top cross admit applicants will choose not to attend Princeton.</p>

<p>I guess the lack of top students at Princeton results in disappointing Law School admission records.</p>

<p>Princeton does not have Pre-law...</p>

<p>jomjom your ideas about strategic admissions are from years ago. No longer the case. Look at the SAT scores of HYP etc.</p>

<p>qmos and jomjom are both trolls. probably the same guy too lol.</p>

<p>Law school admissions is a numbers game - GPA and LSAT. Grade deflation at Princeton may hurt your GPA compared to a student at a good state school. I can't speak to Columbia's grading policy.
I saw a brochure from Princeton about the effect of their policy on grad school admissions. Reading between the lines, it appeared to me that med school applicants were not hurt but that law school applicants may be.</p>

<p>According to Schimler, Reach the Ivory Tower (2005) Princeton beats Columbia in this area:</p>

<p>Yale Law: 31 to 18
Harvard Law:68 to 57
Michigan: 13 to 20
Berkley: 9 to 13</p>

<p>It is not the school, it is your numbers. Having had a son recently go through law school admissions, it is LSAT and GPA. Go to the school where you best fit in and will thrive.</p>

<p>As a Columbia student, I'll tell you that wanting to go to the school with better law placement is ridiculous. P and C both place really well for law school and not as well as H. </p>

<p>Moreover, differences in law school acceptance (or med school or wall street placement) are insignificant compared to the differences in student body, atmosphere and fit. If you go to one school and kick a$$, because it suits you, it's better than being just above average at the other. Figure out which school you'll thrive and be pushed in, then come back. Also don't expect to get into either, let alone both.</p>

<p>Really now, what is the deal with all the random hate and misinformation. I think confidentialcoll is right on this one. But seeing as how I'm a princeton alum and in law school I guess I should shed some light on this. </p>

<p>For starters, the number of students placed is pretty meaningless, from my own experience law school just isn't as popular of an option among princeton students as it is among yale/harvard ones. Maybe that will change with the lack of wall street recruiting this year, but who knows. I've seen the pre-law stats for each of HYP and the only real difference is that HLS tends to favor HC grads more than it does YP. Thats not to say that YP don't get huge legs up over other schools. (i've definitely posted on this before but if you look at yale's pre-law stats (princeton has almost identical numbers), youll see the average gpa/lsat for accepted students to hls, sls, etc. is significantly lower than that for berkeley, which also has its pre-law stats available).</p>

<p>I really can't speak for Columbia but having seen the numbers for Dartmouth, it does seem like the ivy league gets a boost up in the admissions process. The average gpa for a Princeton grad accepted to HLS/SLS was a 3.7 (avg lsat for hls admit from princeton was 172) when I applied and thats way lower than their normal acceptances. </p>

<p>Also, I still don't really see how "selective admissions" could have been true or could be true when Princeton has stats/yield/acceptance rate on par with any top university. It doesn't even have an early admissions program anymore...</p>

<p>""Also, I still don't really see how "selective admissions" could have been true or could be true when Princeton has stats/yield/acceptance rate on par with any top university. ""</p>

<p>The evidence of strategic admission is here ::
<a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w10803%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nber.org/papers/w10803&lt;/a>
it also questions the "quality of an admissions class" [at princeton]</p>

<p>Princeton also ranks behind MIT, Caltech, Stanford</p>

<p>jomjom, the link you provided is to an abstract. Read the whole paper... you'll learn your whole theory is probably wrong.</p>

<p>Well
on the left side of the abstract, there is link to full paper.<br>
If you still can't find it here is the direct link:
<a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w10803.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nber.org/papers/w10803.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>The full paper used Princeton as an specific example of strategic admission process, which
result in questionable academic aptitude of the enrolled students. That is why princeton graduates do so poorly in top graduate school admissions, especially Law...</p>

<p>Look page 6
Page 7 states that </p>

<p>"Such behavior [strategic admissio at Princeton] is potentially costly to the actual quality of an admissions class, with no clear benefit
beyond a higher reported matriculation rate."</p>

<p>Increased matriculation rate may help US News rankings but will not help grad school admissions. </p>

<p>Page 26 also shows the ranking, princeton is #6</p>

<p>I don't think the "quality" of the students is the cause of the unfavorable comparison of Pton with HY as far as law school goes. The differences in the kids has to be vanishingly small given the competitiveness of the process. Jomjom obviously has an ax to grind here.</p>

<p>I have absolutely no warm fuzzy feelings about Princeton. I have a freshman son there and I wish he had picked a different place. It is a strange place for a "regular" kid who hasn't been inculcated in the milieu of East Coast prep schools.</p>

<p>Anyway, if Pton does suffer in comparison with other schools re: law school admissions, it is because of grade deflation. If one wants to go to a to 14 law school, all you need is a 4.0(even if it is in fashion merchandising) and an LSAT > 175. Just ask Elle Woods.</p>

<p>It will be much easier to get that high GPA at Harvard where 75% of the students graduate cum laude. Or at Big State U.</p>

<p>jomjom did you get rejected from Pton or something? Cause all you're doing is ragging on it</p>

<p>Higgins, I am very surprised by what you say. I have a son and daughter there. Neither came from East Coast prep schools. My son is downright quirky and love it there. He says while the preps are there, you can easily avoid them.</p>

<p>I'm not sure he would have had much of a different experience at any of the "elite" schools. He thinks that too much of the social scene is driven by jocks and the eating clubs. Maybe not as intellectual as he had hoped. He is trying to find his place and seems more accepting of his lot this semester.</p>

<p>
[quote]
He is trying to find his place and seems more accepting of his lot this semester.

[/quote]

Oh yes, pity the poor Princetonian...may he find peace with himself and his sorry lot in life</p>

<p></p>

<p>That being said, my little brother is at Princeton now, and while he definitely hasn't enjoyed it as much as I loved my years at Penn, he certainly still enjoys it. Neither of us will ever go to law school though...</p>

<p>I think Columbia's Core curriculum (with a mandated focus on <em>gasp</em> dead white males) might help in producing an abundant crop of law school applicants who are well-versed in the Western traditions that, not surprisingly, underline Western law.</p>

<p>I hate bagels.</p>