<p>So I've been reading through some of these threads and studying LSN for my chances…
This forum seems to consist of extremely uninformed or mal-informed askers and very wise responders, so I am sorry in advance that I am likely a member of the former, but realize that I have attempted to answer my question on my own before asking.</p>
<p>Basically, am I wrong to say that where I went for undergrad will almost not matter at all? It seems to me that Ivy+ schools just send more people to T14 schools because they are a self-selected group of people, many of whom have the required skills and motivation to garner high GPAs and LSATS. Specifically I go to Penn, and have roughly a 3.48 GPA and a 171 on the LSAT. I'm curious as to whether someone from say, Penn State, with a 3.6 and 171 would have equal or better chances? </p>
<p>So I'd like to know your thoughts on the matter: how much, if at all, does attending a top 10 school buffer a law candidate's mediocre GPA?</p>
<p>The person would have a better chance with the Penn State stats. Numbers are the most important thing. Alma mater may come in, and is nowhere near as significant as everything else, unless you are applying to your current university’s law school.</p>
<p>thephilosopher is geneally correct. A 3.6 from Penn State will outshine a 3.45 from Penn assuming the same LSATs. There are two factors that need to be filtered in here:</p>
<p>First, LSAT is a very important exam for law school admission. In fact, it seems to have a greater influence on law school admission than the SAT had for undergraduate admission.</p>
<p>Secondly, two law school admission’s officers noted that they usually accept a percentage of people automatically based on numbers and reject a certain percentage of folks based on numbers. However, about one- third to one-half of the class who are within the middle of the applicants will get evaluated based on many factors such as choice of major. Law schools want a variety of folks applying. Thus for example, if very few people apply with an accounting major, those folks might have a slight edge. Also some majors are known for their grad deflation such as engineering and accounting,which law schools do try to take into account.
Finally, some schools are known to have grade inflation. I believe that there is a service that rates most undergraduate programs regarding their degree of grade inflation and deflation. Thus, some law schools may recalibrate the GPA using the formula garnered from this service.</p>
<p>However, with all that said, the general rule is that law school admission is done primarily “by the numbers.”</p>
<p>It’s important to understand that not all law schools make admissions decision in exactly the same way. </p>
<p>There are top law schools at which VERY few accounting majors are admitted and almost all of those have other special characteristics, e.g. URMs. Some top schools view accounting as a vocational major and in of itself, having a pre-vocational major will hurt your admissions chances at those law schools. </p>
<p>Business is THE most common undergrad major among law students. It’s one of the LEAST represented majors at YHS law schools. As far as I know, the only “business” school well-represented at the top law schools is Wharton. (As you may know, Wharton grads actually get degrees in economics. ) </p>
<p>Now, obviously, not everyone is aiming for the top 3 law schools. But, if you are, you should be aware that majoring in accounting is probably going to hurt the chances of the typical white or Asian-American suburban applicant.</p>
<p>Second, I’ve never heard of the “service” taxguy refers to. If it exists, it is NOT used by most of the top law schools. </p>
<p>Instead, to judge grade inflation, those law schools look at the median LSAT scores of applicants from any given college vs. the median LSDAS-calculated GPA of those applicants and the distribution of grades among those applicants. How the law schools interpret that data is up to the law school. ( There are previous threads about this. Do a search. )</p>
<p>The basic concept is that law schools judge how inflated gpa’s are at any given college by comparing the median LSAT of the applicants from that school with the median LSDAS calculated gpa for the same school. Law schools also know where your gpa puts you in the applicants from that college. They WILL know if your gpa is in the top 10% or the bottom half of applicants from your school. </p>
<p>Almost every college that sends lots of folks to law school keeps grids that show where people with your grades and LSAT got in. Take a look at these before applying. They will provide you with better guidance as to your odds of admission at any law school than anyone on this board can give you.</p>
<p>I might also add to Jonri’s post (with which I fully agree) that law schools don’t make decisions in exactly the same way year over year, or even over the course of a single admissions cycle, or over the course of a single afternoon. Sometimes the way they look at a given application may be influenced by the argument they were having about the previous application the committee was discussing.</p>
<p>Does going to HYP help or hurt in applying to the T14 (especially H&Y)? A Classics major with a 3.9 or better (depending on if they take this semester’s grades) and a 173, what would be the chances at the very top schools? Do those schools care if you can pay or not?</p>
<p>They don’t care whether you can pay. A 3.9 from Yale and a 173 are good enough to get into any law school. As long as he has decent LORs, writes a decent PS, has no disciplinary/legal issues and has some meaningful ECs, he should get into Harvard. Yale is trickier. Soft factors matter more.</p>
<p>This is just a matter of curiosity for me–do you know if that information (A school’s GPA and LSAT distribution among applicants…basically the transcript sheet that LSAC provides to you and the schools to which you apply) has been collected online, if only informally?</p>