<p>hi, i'm relatively new to the law school picture, and i was just wondering whether it is important to go a good undergrad school in order to go to a good (top 10) law school, or if it doesn't matter as much (like med school)</p>
<p>Doesn’t matter as much… GPA + LSAT = In or not.</p>
<p>I heard it does. Go to a State college instead of a recognized school if you want to play it safe. Better to get As in a easier college than Bs and Cs at a prestigious one.</p>
<p>You have more leeway with regards to LSDAS GPA and highest LSAT.</p>
<p>A graduate of Podunk U might need a 3.9/175 to be admitted to Harvard, but a Yale graduate would need only a 3.75/172.</p>
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<p>This is completely, utterly, ridiculously, and laughably wrong. First, both 3.9/175 guy from Podunk U and 3.75/172 guy from Yale are likely to get into Harvard Law, since both have high enough credentials. Actually, guy with 175 from Podunk U would be a shoe-in to Harvard Law, while guy with 3.7/172 from Yale would be a borderline candidate for Harvard Law. Furthermore, if a guy from Podunk U had 3.75/172, (s)he would face pretty similar prospects of getting into Harvard Law as someone with 3.75/172 from Yale Undergrad.</p>
<p>Prestige of undergrad matters very small amount. LSAT is the king of law school admissions, followed distantly by GPA. Having gone to Harvard/Yale Undergrad may help a borderline candidate to be considered a bit more favorably. However, the prestige of undergrad will never compensate for LSAT score below 25-50th percentile of each law school.</p>
<p>Completely agree with Lazykid’s post. However , from what I have seen, the prestige of the undergrad school doesn’t matter at all. It’s all about the LSAT and GPA and maybe a few soft factors such as URM, silver star award from military etc.</p>
<p>First of all, I STRONGLY advise you NOT to go to law school.</p>
<p>There is a vast over-supply of lawyers.</p>
<p>I have a million reasons for my advice. Feel free to contact me if you want to know more.</p>
<p>There was even a post recently on CC talking about law schools as a fraud and a racket.</p>
<p>I base my advice not only on my own experiences, but also that of a myriad of friends and co-workers.</p>
<p>But in answer to your question, coming from a top undergraduate school, in my opinion, is indeed important, if you are applying to the tip top law schools. That doesn’ mean you won’t get into a top law school if you don’t go to a top undergraduate school, but let’s face it, “labels” are important.</p>
<p>But that being said, it is relatively easy to get into SOME law schools. That’s why I would shut half of them down.</p>
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<p>Just curious, what jobs/industries would you suggest to others, over becoming lawyers?</p>
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<p>Actually, I think that there is an over-supply of everything except maybe doctors or accountants. For instance, everyone and his brother and sister has a college degree nowadays. Being a college grad, in today’s job market, really doesn’t yield much advantage at all in and out of itself. If you want job security, you should major in accounting in college or go to medical school. The problem with law school is that there are so many garbage law schools out there. I really wish ABA would step up its game, stop accrediting garbage law schools, and stop screwing over its own people: lawyers.</p>
<p>“LSAT is the king of law school admissions, followed distantly by GPA.”</p>
<p>What is the evidence for the claim the LSAT is far more important than GPA?</p>
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<p>You can get into a top law school with a mediocre GPA but a high LSAT score. The reverse almost never happens.</p>
<p>“You can get into a top law school with a mediocre GPA but a high LSAT score.”</p>
<p>Where is the evidence to support the proposition that you can get into a “top” law school with a “mediocre” GPA?</p>
<p>EMMI, you can take this advice as you wish. Go to Law School predictor. You input your LSAT and GPA. Try doing this with a wide variety of options. You wll come to the conclusion that the LSAT is vastly more important than the GPA. Lazy kid is right,but I urge you to do your own homework if you are so cynical about his advice.</p>
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<p>As taxguy suggested, it would help if you do some research on the topic beforehand. To give you some real-life examples to demonstrate the point, I know several people who got into top law schools with GPA around or slightly above 3.0 with LSAT of 172+. My roommate got into University of Virginia with 3.1 GPA and 172 LSAT. And, my brother got into Northwestern, Cornell, Virginia, and Georgetown with 3.2 GPA and 172 LSAT. At the same time, I’ve never heard of anyone getting into a top law school with a high GPA and low LSAT score. My high school friend had 3.8 GPA but 161 LSAT - he ended up at a tier 2 law school and likely will end up unemployed. (He’s just done OCI this year and it’s not looking good at this point)</p>
<p>There’s some debate about GPA-does going to a “top” school give your GPA more push(I would argue it does, but only slightly)-it’s clear that law schools view the LSAT as the “objective”-e.g. not affected by grade inflation-measure of applications. So listen to lazykid, and study hard for the LSAT.</p>
<p>I always think it is interesting when people assume that they are sure to make higher grades at a lower-ranked school than they would at a higher-ranked school. Many times, things just don’t happen that way . . .</p>