<p>Originally, I thought the U of C would be a great place for pre-law. However, I have seen some discouraging topics lately, mostly in the form of people claiming that it gave them a disadvantage when applying to top law schools. Is it truly a great place for pre-law if one wishes to get into top law schools, or would attending an Ivy be a better way to go?</p>
<p>Strictly, law school admissions will be tougher for the average Chicago student, as GPA’s are depressed about .1 or .2 versus other schools. On the other hand, it has been posited that the Chicago education will be a) given a ‘boost’ by the admit officers (unlikely to be very significant), or b) provide an advantage in other ways (LSAT-applicable skills, essays, etc.).</p>
<p>In any case, it’s a gamble because Chicago sadly isn’t very open with its professional school admissions data. Take a look at this thread [<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-chicago/936860-honors-graduate-174-lsat-shut-out-top-law-schools.html][/url”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-chicago/936860-honors-graduate-174-lsat-shut-out-top-law-schools.html][/url</a>].</p>
<p>I think what’s most damaging to Chicago students is the stigma against professional schools. So many students here look down upon other students who have plans for professional schools, arguing that they don’t care about learning or just want to make money. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we just have a lot lower percentage of students applying to professional schools than the percentage at peer colleges.</p>
<p>I’m considering pre-law (i’m currently pre-frosh, so it’s a long time away), and the reason I’m not too concerned is that even if the scuttlebutt is true, all it means is that UofC students have a disadvantage but also an advantage.</p>
<p>Disadvantage: Harder to get into top law schools relative to its peers (HYPSM, Brown, Dartmouth, etc).</p>
<p>Advantage: When finally in law school, UofC students perform better than expected because of their undergraduate preparation/coursework/etc. If you want to do BigLaw, AFAIK, they expect you to be in the top 20% or top 10% of your class.</p>
<p>Remember: These are general, blanket statements about a school’s student body; in the end, I’d imagine that whether or not you get into a good law school and do well in it depends much more on you, the individual, than the school you went to.</p>
<p>Look, if you know that you want to go to law school and aptly make the decisions to pursue that track, you’ll be more than fine. You won’t see kids go to Princeton and major in physics trying to make it to law school and as such, it is also a bad idea at the U of C. Be mindful of your GPA no matter what your adviser or anyone else tells you - this takes some diligence, such as reading course evaluations for every possible section of a course, carefully planning your classes, etc etc, but you can still get a great GPA without sacrificing the U of C experience, which is priceless IMO.</p>
<p>Well, statistically speaking no. And if you’re pretty much all set on going to law school, I don’t see why you should risk your chances by coming here. (Unless, of course, you really want to have the UChicago experience.)</p>