<p>i've heard conflicting reports from a variety of sites so im hoping some of you guys can give me some feedback here.</p>
<p>i am a transfer student from a community college and my two options for college are:</p>
<p>1.) cornell university - public policy major (applicant, haven't heard back yet, jkc scholar so im hoping i will get in) </p>
<p>2.) arizona state @ barrett honor's college - public policy major</p>
<p>im hoping to attend a top 20-30 law school.
harvard, standord, boston u, university of chicago, univ of penn, univ of washington</p>
<p>is it better to go to asu and get a 3.9 or 4.0 with a very high lsat (165-180) or go to cornell and get a lower gpa 3.4-3.7 with maybe a lower lsat (im not sure what if my lsat score would be higher or lower at cornell. prob better lsat resources but less time to devote to studying)</p>
<p>im sure if i go to asu i will have so much time to study for the lsat and the classes will undoubtedly be easier. </p>
<p>i just dont know if i should sacrifice major gpa points at an ivy if it doesn't really matter</p>
<p>of course i know it's best to to cornell AND get a 4.0 AND do awesome on lsats, but i just want to be realistic.</p>
<p>This may be a silly question…but…why are you assuming you would earn lower grades at Cornell? Why are you posturing that it is “realistic”? Instead…why not “assume” you will do well at both schools, will exceed your expectations on the LSAT, and then choose the school you feel you will gain the most from attending…different way to frame your scenario.</p>
<p>however, cornell’s curriculum is going to be much more rigorous so i have to prepare myself for a gpa drop. i hope it doesn’t happen but it very well could. in addition, their public policy curriculum is heavily centered on statistics and math a very weak, weak subject for me. so, trying to be realistic, at ASU I can prob get a 3.9-4.0 w/out much fuss, intern at a law firm, excel at the honors college, etc, be far less stressed out and devote tons of time to lsat prep.</p>
<p>at cornell, there is a much higher likelihood i will “struggle” academically.</p>
<p>i just don’t know how much of a numbers game law school is?</p>
<p>^ That’s true. People at Ivy League schools usually have HIGHER gpas. And, in my opinion, if you work hard at whatever tanked school, you should be fine.</p>
<p>I don’t know about 10-15, but I just showed you that it happens. Go to whatever school suits you best. However, in my bias opinion, I would go to Cornell because I prefer New York. I really love the city, and I prefer New York’s atmosphere. Cornell is also a good school. And, if you chose to opt out of law school, you can still get a decent job from an ivy school. However, if you are 100% you want to be a lawyer and you are going to ASU because of location AND price, you should got to ASU. Go to the ranked school that makes you happiest. I just would go to Cornell because I love New York, and it would be a good backup plan if I no longer wanted to go to law school.</p>
<p>^those are good points. price isn’t really a factor b/c i will likely have a full ride to cornell (jack kent cooke scholar) </p>
<p>im a certain i want to go to law school and just want to make sure i don’t shoot myself in the foot by attending a more prestigious school and while getting a better education, lose gpa points and end up reducing my chancing for a t20 law school</p>
<p>if it’s “better” to lose a few gpa points but go to cornell than that’s great. but if im automatically going to be filtered out b/c i have let’s say a 3.6 at cornell and my undergraduate school doesn’t matter to law school adcoms in the first filtering out process, then i’d rather go to asu were i KNOW i can do awesome</p>
<p>Well, if it’s free, then there’s no point to this thread. I would go to Cornell in a heartbeat if I could go for free. Again, I love New York, so I would be happiest there. Go to the school that best fits you. I personally would go to Cornell if I could go for free. Some people said Yale and Stanford care more about prestige, so I guess a lower gpa would look a little better than one that is a little higher (3.6 vs 3.58). Or if it was the same gpa, you probably wouldn’t need any ECs. I have no idea how this stuff works either (I’m a Sophomore), but I heard several people say the same thing. Well, good luck.</p>
<p>^ i get your point but i do think it’s still worth a discussion. </p>
<p>if law school admissions are first about my numbers and second about my undergrad college then more emphasis should be put on where i can achieve the best gpa/lsats </p>
<p>if numbers are important but the adcom are much more rounded, then the fact i went to cornell may be a major + and a drop in gpa (i have a 3.95 at my community college) will not adversely affect me application making it past the first round.</p>
<p>both schools are a great fit for me just in very different ways. for me, the problem lies with the fact the asu and cornell are not even comparable schools (in terms of rankings)</p>
<p>i have awesome EC opportunities here in AZ and will definitely have a less stressful environment to get the grades/lsats AND intern with a law firm. plus, i will get to keep all of my connections open at my current college which can later be used for lors from professors that will have known for me 5+years. </p>
<p>cornell is an amazing and awesome educational, no doubt. and if i was just going for my undergrad and possibly considering law school then i would for sure go. but i am most certainly going to apply to law schools and want to make sure i don’t make the wrong decision. ahh, so stressful!</p>
<p>i really appreciate all of your feedback. i just didn’t think about law school being a “numbers game” above all else and so i need to make sure i am aware of that when transferring.</p>
<p>I don’t understand the presumption that you will necessarily get lower grades at Cornell; yet, it is also somewhat presumptuous to be worrying over a dilemma you’re not actually in, since you have yet to be admitted. From what I know, Cornell is a fairly selective school.</p>
<p>Aside from that, even if you must work harder for a 3.8-3.9 at Cornell, what exactly is wrong with that? People (I hope) attend schools like Cornell because of the intellectual life such work brings, and for the opportunity to be surrounded by other students who are there for the same reason. I got a 3.8+ from my top private, and I have no regrets that I could have gotten the same GPA at a significantly lower ranked school. In earning my GPA, I cultivated substantive relationships with my professors, had enriching class experiences because of the super-small upper-level seminars I was able to enroll in as a sophomore, I published several papers and did substantive research on many novel ideas, and I left college feeling like I learned something and that I had matured and grown on an intellectual level. I doubt I’d have felt the same way if I did significantly less work.</p>
<p>Also, do not underestimate what your experience can do for you LSAT-wise. I found that while I was advancing in my major, the intellectual rigor allowed me to transfer many skills into my LSAT performance (though this may have had more to do with my major). Moreover, my peers challenged me. By hearing about their super-high LSAT scores, I became convinced that it was possible for normal people to perform just as well. By hearing so many people around me get into places like HLS, YLS, SLS, CLS, and so on, I became convinced that these were attainable goals. </p>
<p>I’m not saying this will not be the case at ASU. But I am saying that you significantly overestimate the difficulty of Cornell (or any top-flight institution), underestimate the intellectual benefits of having a difficult curriculum, and underestimate what a top-school can do for you outside of the tangibles.</p>
<p>The more rigorous your undergraduate curriculum, the more well prepared you will be for the rigors of law school. </p>
<p>Personally, I always found that when my time was the most limited (tough, time demanding classes, coupled with a varsity sport and a part-time job), I was the most efficient. Often, my grades were best during those times. </p>
<p>Yes, you have to get into law school, but there is no predicting in advance how your grades will play out over the next four years of your life whether you go to a school perceived as challenging versus a school perceived as less challenging. Different majors, professors, classes and exams can be more or less challenging regardless of which university you attend. You can also never predict how illness (common college things like bronchitis, flu, etc.), friends, family and other external factors will affect you during your undergrad years. </p>
<p>Go to the school that fits you best and study topics that interest you. Make the most of four of the most free and exciting years of your life. </p>
<p>If you still want to go to law school when the time comes, then you will take the LSAT and apply. For now, your job is to find the right school for you and to take advantage of everything that school has to offer you for the next four years.</p>
<p>go to the websites of the law schools you might be interested in. Some law schools list the undergraduate schools that their entering class has graduated from. You’ll see a variety of schools represented. Law schools primarily care about GPA and LSAT score.</p>
<p>Go to the college that fits you best. Seeing as you got into Cornell, you’d prolly fit better there. And you can’t just assume that you’ll get a higher GPA in ASU btw, the avg GPA of Cornell is higher than the avg GPA of ASU.</p>
<p>whose OP? i was just asking b/c i only have 2 weeks to decide on cornell **IF **i get in so i wanted to make sure i had my decision well thought out :)</p>
<p>I wouldn’t go so far to say that this implies that it is harder to do well at ASU than Cornell. (Not implying you insinuated this, just making sure the OP doesn’t get the wrong idea.) </p>
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<p>You. </p>
<p>I never understood why people thought attending a good university and getting good grades were mutually exclusive events. If you get into a top university, it’s assumed that you have the tools necessary to do well there. </p>
<p>That being said a 3.9 from ASU would trump a 3.6 from Cornell in LS admissions in almost every situation (assuming same LSAT scores/comparable softs).</p>
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<p>If by public policy you mean Policy Analysis and Management, PAM is widely regarded as one of the easiest majors at Cornell. </p>
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<p>You’ll study for the LSAT for a maximum of one semester and/or (most likely or) a summer. </p>
<p>Also do not underestimate the effect a solid education can have on your LSAT score.</p>
<p>OP would only have a year’s worth of Cornell grades when he/she applies to law school. Highly doubt a lot of damage will be done to the CC GPA. That said, I do think law schools will take the two years at CC in account in evaluating OP’s GPA.</p>
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