<p>Hello,
I was wondering whether law schools consider your undergrad GPA straight up, or as it is relative to the school you go to. For example, I am choosing to transfer between Harvard and Swarthmore. Harvard has great inflation, whereas Swarthmore is considered to be very difficult, and therefore has a lower median GPA. How would a law school look at applicants from these two schools? Would the same GPA from these two schools mean different things? Would an edge go to either student based on their undergraduate school?
I've heard that the undergraduate education at Harvard is actually not that impressive, whereas the professors at a liberal arts school like Swarthmore are much closer to the students. However, I wasn't sure if going to Harvard would be better and more advantageous when applying to law schools.
Thanks for the help.</p>
<p>swathmore kids get the shaft in law school admissions. All that matters in cum GPA. A kid from Podunk U with a 3.9 is in better shape than a kid with a 3.7 from Swathmore. That's the way it is.</p>
<p>so even if you are clearly excelling at your school, beating the average GPA, it would not matter? the difficulty of the program you're in is not considered at all?
does this mean in terms of going to law school, grade inflation is ideal?</p>
<p>This point has been argued many times on this board. I'm in the camp that thinks your school IS taken into account. When you take the LSAT and register for the LSDAS, you'll get a report which states your score, the median score at your UG, and the median gpa of the students at your UG who have registered with the LSDAS (basically anyone applying to ABA-accredited law schools.) If LSs didn't take this into account, I don't think the LSDAS would bother to calculate these #s.</p>
<p>Swat's tough grading is well known. Its students don't suffer in LS admissions because of it. </p>
<p>At this point, someone usually points out that there are "only" 6 Swat grads vs. 13 Williams grads at HLS. (On the most recent list I have a link to, there were 5 Swatties at Yale Law). However, LOTS more Ephs (Williams students) apply to law school. </p>
<p>Back in the Iron Age when I was young, Swat was one of only two colleges which HLS admissions ranked as tougher than Harvard. Thus, a 3.9 at Swat was considered a higher GPA than a 3.9 at Harvard by the admissions office. </p>
<p>Seriously, Harvard and Swat are two VERY different schools. Choose the one at which you think you'll be happiest. You'll do better and enjoy yourself more.</p>
<p>I admit that, from what I've seen, LSs don't adjust much for the difficulty of your major--unless you have a "gut" major, in which case it hurts. But I don't think there's that much of an adjustment for majoring in physics rather than sociology. But that's different than an adjustment for your college. I think that adjustment IS made for those few schools that really do have tough grading.</p>
<p>The law school admissions staff knows which schools have grade inflation and deflation. They also know which majors tend to have tougher grading policies. It is their job to know. I can't say for sure whether they take these factors into account in granting admission to their law schools, but in my opinion, they clearly do.</p>
<p>How many students from its own undergrad does harvard law school have?</p>
<p>In the student body 2005-2006, the information on the HLS website says that 232 Harvard graduates currently attend Harvard Law School.</p>
<p>What are some colleges that are "known" to have a tougher grading system that Law Schools would take into account when looking at GPA?</p>
<p>with Harvard and Yale being neck and in rankings and other school going up the latter I doubt that whatever law.s you apply will give a **** where you went, the higher your gpa the higher they're LS median gpa will be so I would stick to whereever you feel you can for sure get four points.</p>