Hello,
I have been accepted to McGill, University College London, and King’s College London. I would prefer to attend King’s College London but I am willing to attend another school if it would better help me for law school. I was wondering if anyone had an idea of which would serve as a better precursor to law school in America. If anyone also had any input or advice as an international undergrad applying to American law schools. I would be looking to hopefully attend a T14 law school.
On a different subject, I have also noticed that T14 law schools tend to have very few international students, is this because international students tend not to apply or because these law schools don’t like accepting them? In other words, would I be at a disadvantage as an international student? I have American citizenship if that helps.
Thanks so much!
The primary question would be why are you seeking a US JD? And it would depend on where you wanted to practice law. The low admission rate to US JD programs would be due to the fact that, primarily, non-US applicants do not apply much, they apply to study law in their home jurisdictions.
McGill, UCL, and KCL are all perfectly fine. Do well in marks, and then do well in your LSATs or GREs, and you should be fine.
It’s not worthwhile for international students to apply to law school in the US because they won’t be allowed to practice in the US without work authorization. Taking that US law degree home is of questionable value in their home countries because the US legal system is different than their home country. International applicants can’t secure funding for their U.S. degrees in the US.
However, as an American citizen, you are not international. You will be a domestic applicant with an international degree. LSAC will evaluate a McGill degree similarly to a US degree. You will be evaluated based on GPA (and LSAT score). McGill’s average GPA is much lower than comparable US institutions, so it will be harder to get a competitive score than it would from a comparable US institution. A transcript from a non-US, non-Canadian institution will be evaluated on a superior/above average/average/below average scale.
This website lays out many of the issues: https://7sage.com/everything-international-applicants-should-know-when-applying-to-american-law-school/
US law schools mostly care about GPA+LSAT, and they give no bonus points to attending a Canadian undergrad with lower marks. I know nothing about the grading scales in the UK, but have heard that CA scores are much lower than in the US. Attend the college with the highest average GPA’s, and do well yourself, to maximize your chances for a T14.