Does engineering preclude the possibility of going to a top 10 law/b-school?

<p>I have heard in the past that Law and business school admissions are very numbers oriented, meaning that a lot of emphasis is placed on having a good GPA/LSAT or GMAT. My question is, as a electrical engineering student w/ about a 3.4 at cornell, will I be at a disadvantage because of my GPA when applying to top 10 business/law schools? How much does GPA really matter if you're an engineer applying to highly-ranked graduate schools?</p>

<p>i have alot of cornell prelaw/premed friends who did engineering. most of them just graduated. </p>

<p>based on what happened to them;</p>

<p>for both law/med schools, they didn't care s*** that these kids did engineering. my friends used to say stuff like med schools gonna add extra 0.2 points to their gpa just because they did engineering. when all was said and done, ...yeah right.</p>

<p>honestly speaking, i really don't think it helps for anyone to major in engineering if their ultimate goal is going to law/med school. it might *not affect you if you are smart enough to handle the course load and keep above 3.5. but that's as far as it goes. it won't help you. now, i dunno about mba programs since so many ppl in CC say it's more based upon your WE.</p>

<p>thanks for the reply, xjis. is it worth switching to an easy major such as AEM (our business program) to get a high GPA so that my chances at a top law or business school are better? So essentially what you're saying is that what you study has absolutely no effect on your admission, and all they care about is GPA/ test scores?</p>

<p>Engineering can get high scores on the GMAT or LSAT. I took both and got 99% on each... not to mention the GRE. Without ever taking any pre-law or business. References on one of the most important things when applying to law school. Maybe more important than GPA.</p>

<p>
[quote]
honestly speaking, i really don't think it helps for anyone to major in engineering if their ultimate goal is going to law/med school. it might *not affect you if you are smart enough to handle the course load and keep above 3.5. but that's as far as it goes. it won't help you. now, i dunno about mba programs since so many ppl in CC say it's more based upon your WE.

[/quote]
If you are going into Patent Law, it's a virtual requirement.</p>

<p>mr payne/ i had no idea you have to do engineering to do patent law.. i'm not too knowledgable about patent law requirements... but i have a friend who did physics, doing graduate work on biology, who's trying to get into patent law. </p>

<p>anyway, brown man, unless you are thinking of going into this patent law, that's exactly what i'm saying... at least based on how my cornell friends fared after graduation.</p>

<p>again, i'm not too knowledgable about patent law requirements, but i had plenty of friends who did econ for prelaw... i know at least one guy who pulled something above 3.9 w/ econ major. and now he will be entering harvard law (he was waitlisted and then got in, that's what i heard)</p>

<p>other guy did english major for prelaw... he will be going to Berkeley</p>

<p>and again, on the subject of LSAT.... i guess that guy who went to harvard law must have pulled a pretty high score on the LSAT... i have another friend who also did Econ for prelaw; he just graduated but hasn't applied to any law school yet. ... he has something above 3.7. scored something like 178 (maybe not exact but something close.. he said his score was like 99% percentile or something)</p>

<p>...and why is your id Brown man anyway? lol.</p>

<p>^^ careful</p>

<p>^^ alright. i simply thought his id referred to Brown Univ (and brown man as in, brown student), that's why i was curious since he was a cornellian. maybe i misunderstood it.</p>

<p>yep, your GPA an test scores counts even if you're an engineering major. This applies to medical school too...</p>

<p>
[quote]
If you are going into Patent Law, it's a virtual requirement.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Science will do you just fine too.</p>

<p>i did mechanical engineering, while i was thinking about going into patent law, in retrospect, the best major for IP law is probably Electrical Engineering. It seems that most firms have majority EE/CE background with also a fair share of Bio/ChemE and maybe a couple of ME backgrounds. It's just that way because most of the new technology today are in the EE area, while mechanical engineering stuff just seems kind of dead.</p>

<p>
[quote]
If you are going into Patent Law, it's a virtual requirement.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Nah, majoring in a science will also do just as well.</p>