<p>Why are the average GPAs for law school so high? I'm comparing to top MBA schools, and the law school GPAs are on average .4-.5 higher, why is this?</p>
<p>From what I've been reading, MBA programs consider grades less and work experience more. MBA Programs thrive on conversations btwn ppl who have work related experience. Grades, although important, are secondary in an MBA program then they are in a JD program. Work experience is considered more. As a result MBA programs accept kids with lower grades but with much more work experience</p>
<p>Good work experience makes up for quite a bit of GPA deficiency in MBA admissions.</p>
<p>Plus, most MBA admits these days have a few years of work experience anyway.</p>
<p>Does Law school admissions take into account your undergraduate program? For example, if I did a Doctorate of Pharmacy or an double engineering major and earned a 3.5-3.6 in either, would that be equivalent to some liberal arts major with a 4.0?</p>
<p>No, it would not be equal. The law school can't put an asterisk in USNews explaining that it admitted a bunch of 3.5s, but they were all engineers. They care about your GPA as calculated by LSDAS -- period. There's some slack cut depending on where you went to undergrad, but little for your major.</p>
<p>There is high demand for law school and thus the high GPA is created.</p>
<p>
[quote]
No, it would not be equal. The law school can't put an asterisk in USNews explaining that it admitted a bunch of 3.5s, but they were all engineers. They care about your GPA as calculated by LSDAS -- period. There's some slack cut depending on where you went to undergrad, but little for your major.
[/quote]
So essentially, law schools are looking for the smartest person out of a pool of dumb people.
You have the greatest chance of getting into a better law school if your schedule was "soft"?</p>
<p>Is that GPA undergrad or professional? Would they make a distinction? For example, if I had a 3.5GPA for a PharmD which is a professional degree, would they count that as "undergrad"?</p>
<p>No. The GPA they use is the cumulative average of all the grades you got before your first bachelor's. I don't know how many more times this has to come up on this board.</p>
<p>Hmm...that does seem like a problem because Rutgers Pharmacy does not issue a Bachelor's. It only gives you a Doctorate of Pharmacy (PharmD) at the end of 6 years. So which grades would count in that case?</p>
<p>First Degree Completed</p>
<p>So basically what it boils down to is that the smartest of the dumb people have a higher chance of getting into law school.</p>
<p>I mean think about it. How much easier would it be to get a 4.0GPA in a liberal arts major compared to a 4.0GPA in a professional school? It is possible that the person in the professional school could be just as qualified or even more so than the liberal arts major yet not be qualifed to get into law school.</p>
<p>"Dont hate the player, hate the game" -- this is what this scenario falls into Polo. </p>
<p>Besides, I look at this rule as something a lawyer needs to do when he works-- find a loophole and exploit it-- that will inevitably get you to the top</p>
<p>Polo: Welcome to my life. I used to be an engineer at an excellent school. Try explaining that one to a bunch of law schools who don't want to admit you because of their precious rankings. </p>
<p>I did get a lot of waitlists and encouragement to transfer. Transfers, by the way, don't count in USNews. Neither do night students. Consider that transferring might be your best option - or going to night school.</p>
<p>Perhaps that is the reason why patent law is among the most profitable fields in law because it is highly unusual for someone to be an engineer with a 3.5+GPA as well as a lawyer. The candidate pool for that must be extremely slim. An inkling of the pie.</p>
<p>Anyways, in the end I believe the game always corrects itself. Once law schools realize that rankings are so skewed and it defeats its purpose, they will "possibly" change.</p>
<p>Hopefully if I finish with a 3.5GPA with a PharmD, I think I have a pretty good chance of getting into any school's Master's of Chemical Engineering program. If I eventually get an MBA from a top 5 school, I'll probably be more successful and live a more comfortable life than I would have been if I was a lawyer. The irony would be that I was rejected from a field that is so "selective" yet produced individuals that had lower incomes and more hours of work.</p>
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<p>Anyways, in the end I believe the game always corrects itself. Once law schools realize that rankings are so skewed and it defeats its purpose, they will "possibly" change</p>
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<p>Bwah! Sorry, this is a common rookie mistake. People acting rationally in the aggregate is something that happens in undergraduate economics textbooks. Rankings are the life's blood of law schools, so they do what it takes to get as close to the top as possible. Law firms are lazy and would rather use law school name as a proxy for excellence than actually investigate which applicants are smartest. The fact that this leads to all kinds of paradoxical results and inefficiencies just doesn't matter. If it hasn't changed in the last 20 years, it isn't going to change unless something external shakes the system up (e.g., a new rankings system that gains more clout than USNews, elimination of the LSAT whatever).</p>
<p>Would someone who has a PharmD even be eligible for law school? I think the ABA requires a bachelor's degree to enroll.</p>
<p>I believe someone said they meant "First Degree" Completed.</p>
<p>But it is extremely rare that anyone would have a cumulative GPA of 4.0 while going through the 6 year PharmD track. I'm sure law school would "like" to admit you, but again, they overrate numbers in their admissions process.</p>
<p>There is no incentive for any single law school to ditch the rankings and figure out how to admit the students who are going to be the best lawyers. In fact, such a move would work against them -rankings being important to attracting new talent. </p>
<p>I believe that US News only started ranking law schools about 16-17 years ago. I wonder how, long term, it will play out to change the legal profession - a profession that, IMO, doesn't need any more help in being completely weird.</p>
<p>will a pharmD and JD degree allow me to do patent law?
even though, if i go to the school, i wont be getting a bs?
and aries-do you regret going to your undergrad school?</p>
<p>If I could do it all over again, I would apply ED to my alma mater and save the hassle of filling out other applications. No regrets.</p>
<p>I don't blame my undergrad - I got a fantastic education - the university did exactly what it was supposed to do. I do, however, look askance at law schools that do not consider difficulty of course load and various grading scales when they make admissions decisions.</p>
<p>You can practice patent law with an undergrad degree in musical therapy for children. YOu just can't prosecute patents with that degree. Pharm is not on the 'immediately approved" list.</p>