<p>Just wanted to update this - my another friend from a ‘lower ranked’ UG - Penn State University - got recently accepted to UVa Law (top ten) with 3.4 GPA and 170 LSAT. Just talked to him via facebook. Knowing several Cornell kids who didn’t make a cut at any of T-14 Law despite having LSAT in upper 160s, breaking that 170 on LSAT does speak a very loud volume as many told me it would. Actually kind of glad that I canceled my road trip to Europe and gave up a paid internship past summer to lock myself in a library sweating over the LSAT.</p>
<p>“I sort of did have regrets,…”</p>
<p>It’s common to second-guess oneself after making a decision of great consequence, when the outcome is unclear. This is the first big decision of this ilk that many of you will make, but it will hardly be the last. You will have to buy a house, accept a job, choose a spouse, decide how to educate your kids, etc. </p>
<p>This is a well-recognized phenomenon, it even has a name, “Buyer’s Remorse”.</p>
<p>I imagine that each of you, before making your decision, went through a process you felt was reasonable and made the best decision you could, at the time, using the information that was available. In that case, I suggest do not dwell on the “What-ifs”, the decision is made so there is nothing productive to be gained from it. Instead, focus on the many positives, and devote all your efforts to making the best results you envisioned when you made your decision come true.</p>
<p>"Just wanted to update this "</p>
<p>Lacykid, there is no point updating for each individual data point. Unless you have a large # such data points these few individual instances are not sufficient to draw valid conclusions. Penn State is another school with a highly recognized Honors college anyway, but that’s besides the point.</p>
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<p>Having gone through LS admissions, I am here to provide the info to those considering law. And, I am basically warning prospective high school (or college) students that the choice of UG won’t affect the desired outcome of a top LS acceptance. There seems to be a widely circulated myth that among HS school students, attending that certain top UG would help them get into that certain Med/Law school. And, there is one particular poster, who happens to be an adult, who projects such belief in this thread. One kid from my high school gave up full merit scholarships at several schools, some Ivies, and ended up at Johns Hopkins premed paying sticker (200k) just so that he can have a better shot at Johns Hopkins Med School. And, to be honest, many parents, adults, students, and HS counselors are pretty clueless when it comes to professional school admissions. Attending a top UG paying near sticker just to enhance a shot at top LS or med school is a TERRIBLE decision. Unless you get a generous Fin Aid at a top UG, it isn’t worth it.</p>
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<p>I don’t have large data points. Yet, the small sample I have is aligned with the conventionally accepted fact among top law school students and admits, re: you need to ace LSAT to get into a top Law, and there is no other way around it unless you are a URM. (black or hispanic)</p>
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<p>Although Penn State is a decent school, few would consider it a top UG with Arizona State being farther away from it.</p>
<p>The Honors colleges at Penn State and Arizona State are among the two most well regarded of their ilk, and I would guess grads of these programs are probably as highly regarded as those from many good privates, IMO.</p>
<p>I don’t have large data points."
Therefore nobody should place much confidence in analyses or predictions made based on such small sample.</p>
<p>“Having gone through LS admissions,…”
as an applicant. Not as the person reading and evaluating the applications.</p>
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<p>Fair enough. But you know what? No one will have a large set of data on stuff like this unless he is an admissions officer at a top law himself - yet, somethings you know by doing research on it and going through the process.</p>
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<p>A top UG admit probably knows better how the college admissions are handled - than say a clueless HS student or a parent speculating. Same crap with LS or Med school.</p>
<p>"…yet, somethings you know by doing research on it… "</p>
<p>… and when one does that research, they will find the adjustment factors formerly used by Boalt Hall till they were exposed, which explicitly gave extra weight to GPAs of various undergrad schools. And they will look at the compositions of the top private law schools and find them highly weighted towards graduates of top-50 undergrad schools. Then you will be left to detangle whether it’s because all these students are just better than even the high tail at most publics, or whether something else is afoot. But there is not sufficient data to sufficiently detangle. Unless you are an admissions person.</p>
<p>“Same crap with LS or Med school.”
Exactly the same, IMO. So for example, there are endless posts saying undergrad school does not matter at all for med school. However current med student Norcalguy does not agree with this, despite that virtually everyone asserts it.</p>
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<p>I strongly wish that top LS actually would do this. I remember looking at MIT’s placement and acceptance statistics into top Law schools with GPA and LSAT breakdown, and it wasn’t pretty. Kids who major in like EE or CS at MIT have it much worse than kids majoring in stuff like American Studies at Arizona State. IMO, I think these MIT students with poor GPA should’ve been compensated and given a huge sympathy at top Law Schools, which probably wasn’t the case.</p>
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<p>Yes, except correlation doesn’t imply causation. </p>
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<p>Top UG has much higher proportion of kids who are both intelligent and gunning for success. You will be amazed at the difference of caliber between an average Harvard undergrad and an average Arizona State undergrad. Many kids at lower State U’s aren’t exactly gunning to get into a top LS, let alone have the requisite intelligence. They probably worry more about partying it up and sipping more cans of beer.</p>
<p>From the Harvard Law enrollment chart that a poster uploaded, there are over 200 H undergrads at H law, 100~ Yale undergrads, and 50~ Princeton undergrads. A person who is knowledgeable about Law School admissions wouldn’t believe it to be the case that Harvard Law ‘hugely’ favors its undergrads, to the point that it admits its undergrads at 4 times of a higher rate than a kid from Princeton or Stanford. Because, even a State U grad with high numbers can get into H law most of the times, given the predictable nature of top law school admissions. You look at the raw data, yet need to distinguish between ‘correlation’ and ‘causation’ with caution.</p>