<p>Besides a good GPA and an excellent LSAT score, what matters in law school admissions? Does it help to have a study abroad experience? What about a hard science major? What about work experience in between undergrad and law school? What sort of internships have people done during their undergrad years that look good on law school admissions?</p>
<p>Bump…</p>
<p>Nothing else really matters in law school admissions. “LSAT and GPA only” isn’t a joke; they predict the decision perfectly something like 90% of the time, even at the top schools.</p>
<p>Bump…</p>
<p>I agree that LSAT and GPA are the most important factors in admissions, but after a recent “study” I did, I think they are often overly-praised.</p>
<p>I create a computer program that would calculate a pearson correlation coefficient for how well your numbers predict your chances of being accepted to these T14 schools, based upon LSN data. Here’s what I got:</p>
<ol>
<li>Columbia (.78)</li>
<li>NYU (.72)</li>
<li>Georgetown (.69)</li>
<li>Duke (.66)</li>
<li>Northwestern (.66)</li>
<li>UVA (.61)</li>
<li>Harvard (.61)</li>
<li>Penn (.58)</li>
<li>Chicago (.58)</li>
<li>Michigan (.57)</li>
<li>Cornell (.54)</li>
<li>Berkeley (.49)</li>
<li>Stanford (.47)</li>
<li>Yale (.35)</li>
</ol>
<p>Columbia clearly cares the most about your numbers, and for most of the schools they’re incredibly important. But then you have Berkeley, Stanford and Yale, where numbers count for less than half of what they seem to consider.</p>
<p>Other factors they consider include your URM status, when you apply, and for some schools (like Yale) recommendations supposedly matter a lot.</p>
<p>I mean, URM status matters too; people just don’t mention that because it’s not something you have any control over. (I’d be interested to see those numbers controlled for URM status, if you have them.)</p>
<p>Good stuff, rankinr. I will have to investigate this a little bit more. Anybody with recommendations about the value of undergrad internships (i.e. during the summer)? Should I pursue these vigorously? Also, what about taking time off to work in between undergrad and law school? Do schools put any weight on work experience at all?</p>
<p>@amarkov, if I exclude URM’s each category gets a bump of about .1. Columbia is up to .89 with self-identified URM’s excluded and excluding applications submitted late. And you’re totally right, that’s a part of the application that no one has control over.</p>
<p>Also, it’s noteworthy that .89 (and really anything above .7) is actually a really good correlation value.</p>
<p>CollegeKY - do it, as long as it won’t hurt your GPA and LSAT. It’s good to show the admission committee that you have real-world experience, but I wouldn’t recommend pursuing them “vigorously” to the point that it hurts your GPA and LSAT - don’t do anything to the point that it hurts your GPA or LSAT.</p>