<p>Even though I look at rankings with a grain of salt, I found it curious that Yale's acceptance rate is 6.8% (ranked #1), Harvard's 12.6% (#2), and Stanford's 8.6% (#3).</p>
<p>Why is Harvard's admission rate marginally higher than the schools that trail it in the rankings? Although, I think the 10 most highly ranked schools can be shuffled and switched around, I still think this is odd? Also, any thoughts about why only 67.9% of people offered admission attend?</p>
<p>IMO, you can't shuffle the top 10 schools. There are tiers: group 1:YHS, group 2:CCN, group3: UVa, UPenn, UCal-Berk, Georgetown, UMich, Cornell, Duke, Northwestern. (No particular order within groups.) You can shuffle within groups, but there really is a major difference between Yale and Cornell in prestige. </p>
<p>That said, the primary reason Harvard has a higher admission rate than Stanford--which has outranked it in the ratings many times--is simply that Harvard is very large --much larger than Yale or Stanford. A Harvard class usually has ABOUT 580 or so people in it. A Yale class usually has ABOUT 180 people in it. To fill a class of 580, you need to accept more people than you do to fill a class of 180. </p>
<p>Even Yale only has about a 77% yield, which is the highest. There are a lot of people who get into both Yale and Harvard. They choose. The yield for the school they don't choose goes down. Some people get into Stanford, Harvard, and Yale. When they choose, yield of the school they don't choose goes down. (I phrase it that way because there is less of an overlap between applications to Stanford and the others than there is between Yale and Harvard.) </p>
<p>Many of the people who get into YHS can get free rides at other top 14 schools. Most people turn them down and go for YHS, but some people decide that a free ride to UMich or NYU or Columbia or Penn trumps $180,000 for YHS. Every person who makes that choice reduces the yield at the higher ranked law school. </p>
<p>Other people decide they don't want to go to law school after all. For example, it is not at all unusual for folks to apply to top Ph.D. programs and law school simultaneously. Some of these folks choose the Ph.D. Other people decide not to go to law school and just work instead.</p>
<p>All of these affect yield.</p>
<p>Harvard Law also has a much bigger class than Stanford and Yale. Probably has something to do with it.</p>
<p>I'm surprised it's not higher. HLS admission is pretty predictable, so many people who apply without getting in have plenty of advance warning that their applications are most likely going to be rejected. Apparently 90% of their pool is just "taking a shot."</p>
<p>I'm just curious....in what way is it predictable?</p>
<p>Unlike Stanford and Yale, HLS admissions is dominantly a numbers game. If you have the GPA and LSAT for it, you're in. If you don't, you're not. LSAC itself publishes calculators on the subject.</p>
<p>Mmkay, thanks.</p>
<p>This site allows you to view the raw admission numbers of any law school:</p>
<p>2008</a> Raw Data Law School Rankings : Acceptance Rate (Ascending)</p>
<p>You can click on any of the categories to rank law schools for that category.</p>
<p>Boalt also accepts a smaller percentage of students than HLS. The school with the fifth lowest admit rate is Rutgers. The sixteen schools with the lowest percentages of admissions include UConn, Georgia State, UNLV, the University of Arkansas, and the University of New Mexico.</p>
<p>People consider many factors when they decide where to apply. They typically ask themselves, "How realistic are my chances?" Back when I applied to law school, that question led me to strike Yale, Stanford, and Chicago off my list. I did apply to Harvard, because they were significantly larger, and because they were a lot less transparent in those days about the stats of admitted applicants. </p>
<p>As it turned out, I was rejected at Harvard the same day I was accepted at Boalt and Northwestern; that was probably roughly the day my applications became complete. Had Harvard been more transparent about its admissions statistics, I wouldn't have bothered to apply there, either.</p>
<p>Schools that are further down in the pecking order have more applicants within their typical range of scores, thanks to the bell curve.</p>
<p>Thanks for the link, GB. It bears mentioning that the "high" and "low" are not the actual highs/lows -- they're probably the 25/75th percentile.</p>
<p>HLS does have some students above 175, for example.</p>
<p>Jonri, doesn't group 3 receive a lot of offers from firms as well? It wouldn't be a TOTAL loss to go to any of those schools instead of YHS or Harvard, would it?</p>
<p>What about Southern Methodist Uni, Baylor, UT-Austin, and U of Houston for TX residents?</p>
<p>Zetetic, of the schools you mentioned, UT-Austin has the best reputation. While you are very likely to find a job at any of other the schools you listed, your opportunities for clerkships, major firms, all jobs outside of Texas, and public interest work will be significantly greater at higher-ranked schools. Loan forgiveness programs at some of the higher ranked schools could make the increased loans a moot point if you go into public service. </p>
<p>If the choice was Harvard at full cost versus Baylor for free, I can't imagine picking Baylor. It gets more complicated when you're comparing BU or University of Wisconsin or American (higher ranked schools, but with a more regional reputation) to a Texas school. Then you have to decide how risk-averse you are (gamble more debt with greater chance of getting a high-paying job) and how positive you are you want to spend your career in Texas.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Many of the people who get into YHS can get free rides at other top 14 schools. Most people turn them down and go for YHS, but some people decide that a free ride to UMich or NYU or Columbia or Penn trumps $180,000 for YHS.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>If you go to lawschooldiscussion, you will see that there were quite a few students last year that took the Darrow @ Michigan and the Hamilton @ Columbia over YHS.</p>
<p>I thought it was interesting that when it comes to passing the NYS bar, the school(s) with the highest pass rate are 2 public universities- Michigan and UVa (followed by Penn, then Harvard).</p>
<p>"I thought it was interesting that when it comes to passing the NYS bar, the school(s) with the highest pass rate are 2 public universities- Michigan and UVa (followed by Penn, then Harvard). "</p>
<p>May I ask where you got this information? I don't mean to be rude, but I don't think that's true, based upon what I read in the NY Law Journal.</p>
<p>A little googling makes me think this might be the link sybbie is talking about:
The</a> Prelaw Advisor: Interested in Practicing Law in New York State?</p>
<p>It is a little confusing -- I had a hard time understanding for sure whether or not the author had really checked to make sure the listings were all for NYS.</p>
<p>I'm sorry, I should have prefaced my comment with:</p>
<p>Based on the link that Greybeard posted, </p>
<p>2008</a> Raw Data Law School Rankings : Acceptance Rate (Ascending)</p>
<p>I found it interesting that when I sorted the information by state, and looked at the bar passage rate that ...</p>
<p>The Raw Data Law School rankings ostensibly lists the passage rate for the state bar of the state in which the law school is located, which is only the New York State bar for schools located in New York. US News lists the rate within the school's jurisdiction, plus the overall pass rate.</p>
<p>California releases the pass rates for all law schools, in-state and out-of-state, that had ten or more people take the bar exam.</p>
<p>Here's the link for July of 2006: <a href="http://www.calbar.ca.gov/calbar/pdfs/admissions/Statistics/JULY2006STATS.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.calbar.ca.gov/calbar/pdfs/admissions/Statistics/JULY2006STATS.pdf</a></p>
<p>The University of Texas had the highest pass rate among first-time takers, with 96%. Yale only managed 76%.</p>
<p>Is Yale 76% of the student body, some of which might ostensibly not take the bar? Or 76% of takers?</p>
<p>76% percent of the 33 Yale graduates who took the California bar for the first time in July of 2006.</p>
<p>That's... bad, right?</p>
<p>(Stanford is 92% in CA, according to USN.)</p>
<p>Greybeard- I think Sybbie is right on this one. The State listed seems to be the one with the highest # of test takers from the law school. So Yale, Harvard, Duke, Georgetown and a bunch others show the info for "NY" state as the % for passing the bar.</p>
<p>I discovered the raw data website a while ago and I'm familiar with it. If you are trying to get info on the Top schools, then click onto the column " LSAT- high" and you'll get a listing in the order of the top schools. It's easy to see that NY state bar passage is listed for many OOS Law schools like Yale- Harvard etc. </p>
<p>I'm reading the data the same way as Sybbie-- interpreting it with UVA and U. Mich having the highest NYS bar passage rate. Yale's NYS passage rate is 94.2 for those interested!!</p>