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That's how med school admissions work.
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No, it isn't, not necessarily. There's a legitimate question whether enough allowance gets made for the local grading standard, but I'm certain that there is some allowance.</p>
<p>When my daughter was deciding where to go to college, a friend (who at the time was a full-time faculty member at a well-regarded medical school) was surprised she was hesitating at all, and told her, "Don't you realize that when you apply to graduate school the University of Chicago really MEANS something?"</p>
<p>This reference, no longer googleable but still in archives, gives no reference for its information. So I asked UofC sources recently, and was told they did not provide this information. </p>
<p>So think what you want, but be aware of the importance of tracking sources to their "roots"</p>
<p>"According to the pre-med advisers at Chicago, pre-med students should aim for Dean's List, which is a 3.25. Students who meet that GPA and prepare well for medical school admissions almost always get into med school, according to one of their publications."</p>
<p>Is the same policy used for law school admissions?</p>
<p>I don't know much about this, so anyone can feel free to correct me. My sister is pre-med, and I considered it briefly (I consider everything briefly :)), so I read a little about it. Law school admissions in general tends to be easier than med school admissions because there are tons and tons of law school and a pretty limited number of med schools. Basically, if you do even marginally well at the U of C and apply to law schools intelligently, you'll get into law school somewhere. If you're getting a 3.3 and do comparably on your LSAT and apply to law schools intelligently, you're going to get into a very good law school. If you're getting a 3.8, do comparably on your LSAT, and apply to law schools intelligently, you're looking at some of the top law schools in the country. If you're looking to work in a big city firm, then your law school name matters a lot. If your goal is something different, where you go doesn't matter as much. My parents are both lawyers. Looking at the top two senior partners in their firm, one went to a top law school (the U of C, actually) and the other went to a third tier school, where he graduated with honors. They're both very successful and respected lawyers.</p>
<p>If they are, it's not by much. Chicago undergraduates are well-represented at the law school, considering the size of the undergraduate student body, but not out-of-proportion.</p>
<p>If I remember correctly from law school data I once saw (who knows where I saw it or how I could find it again), the schools sending the highest number of students to law school here were Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, followed by UIUC, Columbia, Dartmouth, Chicago, etc.</p>
<p>Threedays, this is from the U of C pre-law info online about GPA (emphasis is my own):
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Law schools do not stipulate minimum applicant (undergraduate) grade point averages, although they do provide statistics sufficient for candidates to evaluate their competitiveness. GPA is used in conjunction with the LSAT score to compute an index number which each institution uses in a different fashion.</p>
<p>GPA is computed by the LSDAS from all undergraduate transcripts. This figure may differ from the one reported on the University of Chicago transcript because of scaling, or (in some cases) if the applicant studied abroad. The LSDAS reports GPA distribution for all applicants by undergraduate institution. This permits the law schools to evaluate GPA in the context of the institution from which it is earned. For this reason, applicants from the University of Chicago should not be as concerned about differences in grading between different undergraduate institutions.
<p>okay thanks for the info guys! I'm so excited that I was admitted to Chicago because the students (small sample I know but still lol) seem really nice and willing to help prospies.</p>
<p>im a bit torn now...i know its possible that i go into the medical field after undergrad, and i thought coming to chicago would give me a step up in the admissions game. my logic was, chicago is a top school, and as such shouldnt it have an excellent placement rate at top medical schools? either way, ill probably end up there but it seems as though ill hjave to work my butt off for that 3.5.</p>
<p>
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Basically, if you do even marginally well at the U of C and apply to law schools intelligently, you'll get into law school somewhere. If you're getting a 3.3 and do comparably on your LSAT and apply to law schools intelligently, you're going to get into a very good law school.
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</p>
<p>I highly doubt this. Law school admissions are based almost solely on two numbers (i.e. GPA & LSAT). 3.3 is nowhere near the cutoff for a "very good law school." </p>
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This permits the law schools to evaluate GPA in the context of the institution from which it is earned. For this reason, applicants from the University of Chicago should not be as concerned about differences in grading between different undergraduate institutions.
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</p>
<p>Although this may be true, at the end of the day, law schools turn in the avg. GPA of the incoming class to USNWR, and too many low GPA students hurt them in the rankings.</p>
<p>We may differ on our definitions of "very good." My whole family are lawyers, including both parents, siblings, and numerous members of my extended family. One thing I've learned from seeing them as well as family friends (one thing that comes from a family of lawyers is knowing lots and lots of other lawyers) is that there are lots of good law schools that can produce great lawyers. So, by "very good" I don't necessarily mean Yale or Michigan, though students looking to work in a top city firm may use a different standard.</p>
<p>EDIT: I was curious, so I looked up law school rankings and picked out a few schools to check their GPA ranges. Northeastern (#85) has a middle 50% range of 3.1-3.6. Tulane (#47) is 3.3-3.7. I looked at many others, which are about the same. Keep in mind that the U of C is widely recognized as a more rigorous undergraduate institution than many, and I do trust that this is taken into account, as the U of C law advisers state. I wouldn't be surprised if GPAs under the 25% mark from U of C students are given valid consideration as well. There are many state flagships around these same rankings that should also be considered.</p>
<p>UChicago does quite well in law school admissions. Partly because law schools love Chicago grads. The rigor of the education is really good preparation for studying law (and probably the LSAT). Chicago students tend to do pretty well on the LSAT, too. Law schools (at least the top ones) consider the GPA in context. They get your grades in the context of a report that lists the GPA distribution of the college as a whole. The report also lists the LSAT distribution for the college, to give them more info about what type of students are getting what types of grades. Chicago's report suggests a rigorous grading system, compared to LSAT performance. That tells law schools that if you did well at Chicago, you really accomplished something. There are some schools for which a good GPA is not quite so meaningful.</p>
<p>So it might be easier to get a 3.8 at XYZ University without massive effort, but it wouldn't be as compelling as the same grades from Chicago, because the students putting in the massive effort would be getting even better grades.</p>
<p>And keep in mind that no college is sending huge numbers of graduates to super-elite law schools. Yale Law School has 180ish spots per class. Last year they accepted students from 70 different colleges.</p>
<p>Cesare, you are obviously a smart, pretty sophisticated guy. But if you think elite law school admissions are based on a simple function of GPA and LSAT, you are sadly mistaken. And if you think any of the top-10-or-so law schools give a rat's butt how they are ranked in USNWR, you are sadly mistaken in that, too. The law school prestige hierarchy is practically written in stone anyway, at least at the upper levels.</p>
<p>That doesn't mean that you can skate into Harvard Law School with low college grades. But actual accomplishments, not just grades, are key. And, increasingly, at top levels your graduate work is as important as your undergraduate work. (If you want a metric that will correspond almost exactly with law school prestige, look at what percentage of entering 1Ls have a graduate degree of one sort or another, with extra weighting for completed PhD's. Which Oxbridge college you got your M.A. from may matter, too.)</p>
<p>You might better say to Cesare that so many other factors contribute to rankings, and that law school applicants are a bit more sophisticated than potential undergrads that they are not as obsessed about rankings, especially arbitrary ones like USNWR. FWIW, they count average GPA as 10% of the overall score used for rankings, behind LSAT scores at 12.5%. So even here, U Chicago students, with their high LSAT scores, probably are a net plus.</p>