@HappyAlumnus, Isn’t your comparison of applicants here a false dichotomy, or at any rate so unlikely as to be implausible? How often do law school recommendations flush an applicant’s chances down the toilet?
The applicant in your anecdote who put his feet on the interviewer’s desk flushed his own chances down the toilet.
@frazzled1, my comparison comes from a real-life experience. One grad school informed my relative that a star student who had top grades and test scores was not accepted into a competitive grad school program because a recommendation letter basically said, “despite the grades and test scores, he’s not a good match for your program”. He was not accepted due to the recommendation letter.
I am not so sure about the statement of two applicants with perfect grades, and both getting admitted – without exception. Now, I am not saying that is the course most of the time, however at a place like YLS, and its relatively small class size, I could certainly conceive that one or both of the applicants do not obtain admission. Long story short, YLS admission are highly fickle.
@frazzled1: Notice how HappyAlumnus said “grad school” and not “law school.” Also missing were words like “recently.”
I do agree that doing something like putting your feet on an interviewer’s desk can kill your chances though. Adcoms like numbers, but not to the extent of overcoming personal animus. I know a guy, absolutely brilliant but kind of arrogant, had a really high GPA (I think it was 3.8+) and was just killing the LSAT, so much that he knew he’d get a 180. So when it came to the essay (which he knew didn’t count for anything) he wrote in capital letters on successive lines “F” “U” “C” “*” “Y” “O” “U”. Without the star of course. When LSAC delivers the LSAT package to schools the essay is the very first thing on it. While adcoms don’t care about the essay, that kind of cover letter is hard to miss. He got rejected from every school he applied to.
Admittedly this was from around 2006, when the glut of law school applications was in full force, but I expect it would hold true today too.
@boolaHI: You are correct, YLS can afford to look to things like your class load. SLS can also do so, though I have no evidence of their bothering. They’d both get into most of the T6, however.
@Demosthenes49 I agree, that except for the holy grail law schools, YSH, that hypothetical person would have a solid chance at the remaining T6 schools.
no, he was not accepted because it was a bad academic fit. The recommender knew that. It may or may not have been a poor letter, but it makes no sense – except to those vested in prestige – to apply to the wrong grad program. (You can do a thesis in something that they don’t offer or have a faculty sponsor for.)
But, unlike grad programs – where even basic majors like English and Psych can be significantly different – law school education is much more similar, as required by the ABA. “Fit” is just no an issue at vocational schools.
With a good LSAT score, HLS, too.
@bluebayou, the grad school admissions office stated to my relative, according to my relative, that he would have gotten in but for that recommendation letter, which sabotaged him. If he had been a bad fit but still gotten a decent recommendation letter, he would have gotten in.
Please do not resurrect old threads.