<p>I've heard this so many times, that law school admissions only care about GPA and LSAT, without regards to Extracurriculars at all. Then for top schools like Harvard and Yale, these schools receive a lot of high scoring applicants, so do they look for something beyond just grades and score?</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“Recently Updated J.D. Profiles | Law School Numbers”>Recently Updated J.D. Profiles | Law School Numbers]Harvard[/url</a>] is notoriously numbers based. [url=<a href=“Recently Updated J.D. Profiles | Law School Numbers”>Recently Updated J.D. Profiles | Law School Numbers]Yale[/url</a>] can be a bit more choosy, but only because the people they consider already have the numbers. Yale is the exception, however, and most law schools are like Harvard: strictly by the numbers.</p>
<p>Those will small classes (Yale, Stanford, and perhaps Chicago) are more holistic, where EC’s count. Boalt is holistic is its own way (high GPA, overcome adversity…)</p>
<p>All others are numbers-based, with demonstrated interest a plus for Penn, Virginia, Michigan, Duke…</p>
<p>In college admissions, you pretty much need GPA, ECs, and SATs to get in, or some good combination of the three. In law school, it is almost entirely GPA and LSAT. Some schools will give you wiggle room on one of those if the other is high; some schools (but not all) will give you a break on your GPA if you were a STEM major; some ask for your SAT scores to see if your standardised test scores overpredict or underpredict your scholastic performance. </p>
<p>If you have some very exceptional ECs or work experience, it can tip the scales, but it’s a thumb on the scale, not a criteria for admission in its own right. And unlike in UG admissions, they won’t balance off a weak GPA or LSAT.</p>
<p>It’s about 90% LSAT and GPA; 80% for people in special categories.</p>
<p>So, you’ll get a bit of a boost if you are a URM , especially an African-American male. You’ll get a bit of a boost if you’ve done Teach for America or Peace Corps or served in the armed forces. You’ll get a bit of a boost if you have a compelling “story,” e.g., you’ve spent 8 years working as a union organizer and now want to go to law school or (one real case I know) an abused spouse with 3 kids who went to CC and a top college after escaping an abusive marriage to an alcoholic husband and initiating programs to help women in similar situations. At some schools, Division 1 star varsity athletes get cut a bit of slack on the GPA–not LSAT. </p>
<p>It does hurt you if you’ve got weak LORs and/or a weak personal statement. It’s not so much that good ones get you in as that bad ones can keep you out.</p>
<p>Aren’t there a lot of people who can achieve top GPAs and LSAT scores? All they need is to work really hard. I can’t imagine how law schools will have enough space for all those high-scorers, just like Harvard College doesn’t have enough space for 2400s and? 4.0 GPA</p>
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<p>Either-or, but not both. </p>
<p>The mean LSAT score from under-graduates of Harvard, Yale and Stanford is <170. Thus, their mean undergrad has no chance at their law schools, without a HUGE hook.</p>
<p>The Atlantic has some interesting numbers. The number of people with high LSATs scores applying to law school has dropper more than the number of people with lower scores applying. But look at the actual numbers. Now, there are some caveats, because, of course, not everyone who takes the LSAT applies to law school immediately. So, there may be some high scorers from prior years applying. Still, of those who took the test in 2012, only 659 scored in the 175-180 range. [The</a> Wrong People Have Stopped Applying to Law School - Jordan Weissmann - The Atlantic](<a href=“The Wrong People Have Stopped Applying to Law School - The Atlantic”>The Wrong People Have Stopped Applying to Law School - The Atlantic)</p>
<p>Does law school care about internship or what you do on campus as a leader at all?</p>
<p>they don’t care what you do, you just have to do something outside of the classroom in your four years.</p>
<p>No you don’t. I know people at my T14 that stayed home and played video games. Maybe a pretty EC would help you way out on the margins, but certainly not more than a point on the LSAT or a hundredth on your GPA.</p>
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If it’s exceptional, it might tip the scales in your favour, but it’s really NOT like undergrad admissions, at all. They do not care if you co-founded a campus club, were the President of the Young Democrats, or did mock trial. </p>
<p>If you did something on the national level, law schools might weigh it in your favour, but you will still need the stats to get in.</p>
<p>so law schools don’t require experience? Like working with non-profits over the summer and such?</p>
<p>^^Nope…</p>
<p>I’ll join the chorus-it’s the numbers that matter.</p>
<p>Definemyself: asking the same question multiple times will not give you a different real-world result. </p>
<p>My suggestion is that you take the LSAT and see how you score. Then count the number of students at your school who have leadership positions in extracurricular activities and multiply by the number of similar or better colleges in the nation. You will quickly see that having a high GPA and a high LSAT is a much more rare combination than having good grades, a good LSAT score, and ECs.</p>