I am thinking of applying for a JD at Harvard Law School and would like to know if I have a chance and what I could do in order to enhance my profile.
Profile:
Engineering undergraduate degree in Germany, top 5%
Currently engineering graduate student at top US school
1 semester undergraduate teaching assistant, 1 yr undergraduate research assistant, 6 months DAX30 technical internship, all in Germany
volunteer in two organizations in Germany, but not leadership positions
several scholarships during undergraduate studies
What I am concerned about are letters of recommendation. German professors write rather generic LOR (they were part of my application for engineering programs at top US schools, but idk if they would be enough for HLS), so I will probably have to ask professors at my current school. The problem is that my program is not that research oriented, but rather team project and coursework focused. Therefore, personal interaction with professors or advisors is not that intense.
German grade is 1.5 (=Magna cum laude I think). My university does not provide any conversion into 4.0 scale.
For my Master‘s applications to US schools I received many times the advice to include class rank, since most schools are not familiar with the German grading system.
Yes that is true. We have had a lecture about that in a course during my graduate studies. I think that would be helpful for my personal statement.
But the real reason why I consider to apply is another one:
I showed an interest in physics and math at high school and had the wish to apply this kind of knowledge to solve real-world problems, that‘s why I chose an engineering field for undergrad. First four semesters were okay, meaning there were many courses I was interested in. But I still did not feel that passion many of my classmates had, in spite of good grades. I hoped that it would come after specialization or graduate studies, but that simply never happened (my motivation even deteriorated). It is an interesting field, sure, but nothing for me.
I just want to try out a new path. Another thing I consider is management consulting, but it‘s also hard to get into. Just wanna keep options open.
HLS won’t need to since LSAC does that for them. And its LSAC that it the final say on transcript conversion. It is the LSAC GPA that gets reported to USNews for ranking purposes, so its the only one that matters. That being said, some international schools do not have grades, which only increases the pressure of the LSAT.
I agree with the comment by @BelmontVA that an engineering background will be very valuable in the area of patent law. I have been impressed by the amount of technical knowledge that patent lawyers have.
Yup, really. For US law schools other than Harvard, Yale and Stanford, admissions comes down to two numbers which represent ~95% of the decision: GPA+LSAT.
For HYS, those two are probably ~85-90% of the decision; in other words, they are so selective as to be able to consider other factors, ONCE you meat the numbers threshold.
You can spin any kind of story about leadership, that’s no problem. You really need to figure out if you can get mid-170 LSAT, on a test that necessarily favors first-language English.
You may have an advantage over US engineers applying in that engineering GPA tends to be really low, which makes it harder for engineering graduates to get into top law schools. Not sure how your grades will be interpreted.
As discussed, you need the LSAT score. I would look at T14 rather than just Harvard. You need to apply to multiple schools.
Also, if you are going to practice law with a US law degree, it pretty much has to be in the US, so you need to be able to live in the US permanently and legally. Also, the law varies by state and more by country. US law is relatively close to British and Canadian law, but totally different from German law, which I relieve is based on Napoleonic and Roman law.
A relative of mine had a boss who was a lawyer who had to leave Austria in the 1930s, He was in his 40s and it was too much to learn a completely different kind of law, so he had a job which used his knowledge of business and negotiation and research skills.
