<p>Percentage of admitted students varies by a lot of things that aren't related to school quality. Law school admissions tends towards more self-selection than undergrad; some law schools encourage large amounts of applications with fee waivers; and yield often depends on factors like affordability.</p>
<p>As for the Ivy league discussion...</p>
<ol>
<li>In terms of getting admission to prestigious(ivy) law schools, does graduating from an equally prestigious college help? If it does, then how important is it in the admissions?</li>
</ol>
<p>Really depends far too much on what schools you are talking about (both undergrad and law) to answer. Unfortunately, the debate often sinks to Harvard v. Mediocre State University... perhaps a more specific question would result in a good answer.</p>
<ol>
<li>Is it better to do 'average' at a competitive/prestigious(ivy) school or 'above average-not excellent' at a big state school or a small unknown LAC?</li>
</ol>
<p>Again, depends far too much on the schools. What law schools are you aiming for? Some will prefer the harder undergraduate education; some will prefer the higher GPA. Also, what about the Williams, Swathmore, Amherst, etc group?</p>
<ol>
<li>I have heard that it's impossible to attend a law school of the University where you attended the college.(ex) A Cornell undergrad has a very slim chance of getting into Cornell Law.</li>
</ol>
<p>That's complete b.s.. </p>
<p>Cornell Law has 200 students per class. Cornell undergraduate has thousands of students graduate annually. Also, Cornell is a lousy example because there are so many undergrad schools there - does it really take its hospitality grads seriously for the law school? Does it take its engineering grads, who have a 2.5 GPA, seriously?</p>
<p>NYU is also the school that people throw out to try to "prove" that point... but again, bad choice of schools. NYU Law is one of the most highly respected law schools in the country; however, it's undergrad, while solid, is not the same caliber.</p>
<p>Some school actively encourage their students to apply to law schools - some even have 3-3 programmes (bachelor's and JD in six years, not seven). Others accept into their classes a fair number of their own undergrads (perhaps 5-10% of the incoming class). </p>
<p>Harvard Law seems to love its own undergrads - each class of 550 has approximately 80 Harvard College grads. </p>
<p>Some of the reason for the myth is that some schools might be swamped with applications from their own undergrads and want their law schools to have some diversity.</p>
<p>Impossible, no.</p>
<ol>
<li>In reality and the career market, do the prestige and the reputation of one's law school matter?? If they do, how so?</li>
</ol>
<p>I won't get into the difficulty of defining "prestige and the reputation" of a law school... however, if you've done any preliminary law school research, you would find that reputation matters a great deal. Pay, percentage of graduates employed upon graduation, percentage of students in judicial clerkships, and percentages of students with law firm jobs decreases (generally) as you go down the rankings. Generally, a more prestigous school will open more doors.</p>
<p>This assumes all other things being equal - everything from geography to the effort you put into law school to journal membership.</p>
<p>Be aware, however, of the strong regional biases in schools. A graduate of my school (in the South) had some trouble applying to jobs in a mountain (i.e. western part of the country) state - the response he got from employers was, "Why did you go to that fancy school? What, [fill in with state] U wasn't good enough for you?" </p>
<ol>
<li>Do you think certain college and law school education affect one's success in law career greatly?? In other words, do the lawyers of ivy or other great private institution degrees tend to be more competant and respected??</li>
</ol>
<p>More competent - hard to say. More respected - at least initially, most likely. It also depends on what areas you are in - for example, my law school has a stronger reputation among judges than in private practice.</p>
<p>By the way, did you watch the Harriet Miers debacle? That should answer your question more than anything we can write (although, please realize that DC/NYC snobbiness differs from the rest of the country).</p>