What do schools like Harvard, Yale, and Stanford look for in applicants besides the high GPA/LSAT?
What’s a “previews study?”
GPA/ LSAT are the biggest factors, but “softs” can help. The best soft is usually some kind of impressive work experience. I’m sure extracurriculars can help too, but it’s hard to really stand out with something you do part-time in school when there are people applying with several years of full-time work experience in a particular field. I’m sure competing in a D1 sport or something like that would be a strong advantage though.
I have never heard that playing a sport can help in law school admissions… Why would they care?
Maybe I overstated it as a “strong advantage” — it’s not like law schools recruit athletes. But I was just thinking of the kinds of extracurricular activities that might help you stand out. D1 sports are a huge time commitment. One of the guys on this list of sample admissions essays from UChicago wrote about playing football: http://www.law.uchicago.edu/alumni/magazine/spring11/intheirownwords
Again though, GPA and LSAT are the biggest factors.
First, let me strongly advise you to look at the top 10 schools. Getting into any of perennial top five ( Yale, Stanford, Harvard, UCHicago and Columbia ) is a total lottery. Any of the top 10 with reasonably good grades will ensure you have plenty of opportunities.
Second, GPA , LSAT, rigor of course selection and references are key. As to EC, do something that would be related to a particular area of the law or public service most relevant to you. Present yourself as a candidate with an angle, a perspective and maturity. All aspects of your application should be form a coherent argument and statement about yourself and your aspirations in the law.
Not true. Only Y&S are really selective; thier classes are really small so they can pick and choose.
In contrast, HLS has a humongous class, and needs to accept nearly every 173+ that is available (+decent recs and decent essay). Look at the numbers for HLS on other websites, and you’ll see admission rates are high for those with both numbers above median. Lottery? Not even close. Columbia also accepts plenty of apps with at least one number above median. Chicago has been favoring high GPA’s recently.
Let me fix this for you, for all but S & Y:
“GPA [and] LSAT…are key.”
@bluebayou you have no clue. HLS and Columbia have just waitlisted folks with 172/171 LSAT and 3.8 GPA from Harvard. I know this first hand from contacts. Intangibles matter a great deal beyond numbers.
the season is young, churchill. Plenty of applicants to come off of the WL, even up to the first day of orientation.
btw: 1-2 points on the LSAT is yuuuuge. In other words, 173 (which I clearly wrote), is light years ahead of a 171 for HLS and CLS.
Run the math for HLS. It’s really simple. There are just not that many 173’s+ to go around, particularly since that number can earn big merit money at other T14’s.
edited to add: take look a law school numbers. Right now, there are only ~4 non-accpetances (1 rejection) in a pool of green for 3.8/173.
There is no question that GPA amd LSAT are by far the two key factors. But it is a mistake to assume that essays, references and pertinent EC do not matter. These can compensate for some weakness in LSAT and certainly make the difference between similarly qualified candidates. Remember that the applicants to the top 5 will all be highly qualified and in the score zone ab initio.
Uchicago Law School is also small. Similar to Y and S in size. HLS The largest. CLS In the middle.
bluebayou, I usually agree with you almost 100%, but saying that only Yale and Stanford are “really selective”?
As per lawschoolnumbers.com, HLS has (tied with Yale) the highest median LSAT score of any school, and while it has a larger class size than Yale and Stanford, it also gets way, way more applicants than those schools and still waitlists or rejects plenty with 173+ LSAT scores.