<p>I've been told that Carleton offers a 3-3 law program with Columbia. Does anyone have any information as to how selective it is? Additionally, how does the program work--does one get both degrees, the bachelor's and juris doctor, at the end of the six years, or at the end of the three years at each institution?</p>
<p>Any other information about the program would be greatly appreciated. I'm trying to decide between Carleton and Dartmouth still, and the deadline for reply to both is fast approaching. Since I don't really want to spend much time on my undergraduate degree, this could mean the difference between going to one or the other.</p>
<p>Good question. I didn’t know of anyone who actually did this while I was at Carleton, so I can tell you that it’s not something students commonly take advantage of. Far and away the best person you could contact about this is Jenny Wahl (jwahl at carleton.edu). She’s a professor in the economics department and the current pre-law advisor.</p>
<p>A couple of my friends did this. (They were Carleton students/graduated now) I believe you don’t get the bachelor degree right away; you still need to pursue some kind of undergraduate studies at Columbia continuously while you are going to the law school. </p>
<p>3-3 program in general is supposed to be pretty selective - I mean Columbia is T5 law school, and you get to go there after having spent only 3 years at undergraduate. It’s a good deal. But I also hear that students at Carleton want to spend as much time there as they can because they love the school so much! For this reason, they don’t feel compelled to graduate early or anything, so my guess is that it’s not fiercely competitive at Carl…</p>
<p>Columbia has this program with a number of schools, but very few people are ever admitted to it. I didn’t know of anyone in my class at Carleton or my law school class at Columbia who was in the 3+3 program. No more than one or two people (if any) from each class will be able to go this route. But there’s really no reason to rush through undergrad anyway.</p>
<p>The thing is - if you are smart enough to get into Columbia Law only after 3 years of college, which is to say your credentials are near perfect, why not wait one year and go to Harvard or Yale which are clearly better schools?
is what I’ve been hearing a lot regarding this 3+3 program between Columbia and LAC’s.</p>
<p>I can’t speak to what law schools Carls attend, but I did a search from the class of 2000 and found 26 attorneys (~5% of the class)
They majored in a wide variety of departments:
geo/env and tech studies
2 polysci/env
psych/french
econ
poly sci/e.asian
4 poly sci
phil/env
math/educ
5 econ
dance/english
bio/poly sci
soc-anthro
2 psych
bio
english
history</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for the often thoughtful, thorough replies. I think I may end up just waiting a year, as starbucks suggests. Though Columbia is but a sliver less prestigious than the schools you named–I think it’s ranked third or fourth on US News. Now, to pivot to another issue: the deadline for a reply (1 May) is fast approaching, and I’m still unsure as to whether I should go ahead and reply to Dartmouth or to Carleton. I realize, considering the setting, that there will be somewhat of a bias, but could you please provide me with an honest assessment of which of these two schools would best position me to go on to a Yale- or a Harvard-caliber law school?</p>
<p>Which, in essence, is the bigger feeder? Or does that statistic (or title) even matter in this context?</p>
<p>I’ll leave someone else to give you the stats, but you’re probably right that the “data” may not really matter. Both are great schools and, knowing you want to go to law school, you’ll have opportunities at both to aim yourself that direction. In the meantime, you want to be somewhere you really like for the next 4 years and you’re looking at schools with pretty different social styles. My impression is that Dartmouth is more known for parties (greek life) and outdoorsy activities; also D1 athletics. Carleton is more nerdy and laid-back. Where will you have a great time and make great friends?</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter at all. What law schools you’ll get into will be determined in large part by a test you won’t take for another three years. There’s really no need to think about law school at all right now.</p>