<p>Does an Ivy League undergraduate degree (or lack thereof) affect your chances at law school? Right now I am between CMU and Cornell for my undergrad, and I am having a very difficult time deciding because I want to double major in biology and theatre (or, in the case of CMU, major in bio and minor in drama) on a pre-law track. CMU far outstrips Cornell in terms of theatre, but Cornell is supposed to be better for bio. I have also seen statistics about percentage of applicants accepted into Yale Law, and Cornell ranks higher on that as well; however, I have to wonder how much of that is attributed to the school itself or to the fact that Cornell is harder to get into, meaning that those applicants are more likely to have higher LSAT scores, better writing skills, etc. My mother believes that if an applicant from CMU is very similar to one from Cornell, the admissions officers will always pick the one from Cornell because the Ivy League is perceived to be better regardless of whether or not it actually is. I have serious doubts that this is true -- can anyone confirm?</p>
<p>I don’t think most admissions officers will care that if you’re on a sports team in undergrad you’ll be playing against teams in the University Athletic Association instead of the Ivy League.</p>
<p>Wait, where did sports come from? Did I mess something up in my original post? I’m asking about whether law schools will prefer an Ivy League grad over a grad of somewhere with comparable education, especially a place that has better programs in the specific areas that I want to study (like theatre).</p>
<p>I can’t verify this, but to me it makes absolutely no sense to assume law school admissions officers automatically favor an ivy over a non-ivy. What about a Penn applicant vs a Chicago applicant? Harvard vs Stanford? Dartmouth vs Rice? Brown vs Amherst? On and on…</p>
<p>Ivy schools have tons of smart prelaw students applying to ivy and other top law schools. I was on the admissions committee at an ivy professional school ( not law) and there was not an ivy pile and a non-ivy pile.</p>
<p>Of course there would be more Cornell grads at Yale Law…Cornell is much bigger than CMU and, furthermore, has a higher proportion of prelaws, I would presume. Avg SATs at Cornell vs CMU are fairly similar…I wouldn’t think avg LSATs would be drastically different. Two points in CMU’s favor for you— CMU Drama dept is world class, and at CMU you would be part of a much smaller prelaw cohort than at Cornell.</p>
<p>Any way you look at it, you have a nice choice to make and can’t go wrong.</p>
<p>The Pre-Law track at Cornell will be much better than the one at Carnegie Mellon. As a Math/Philosophy/CS major very involved in law clubs/LSAT prep classes here, the law scene is virtually nonexistent.</p>
<p>I think law schools would look more favorably upon Cornell.</p>
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Nah. adcoms in law know better than that, IMO. They’d look at LSAT and GPA more than what school you’re from. Though being from CMU won’t hurt, I don’t think being of the Cornell name would help. Rather, you would get a better pre-law track at Cornell and THAT’S why adcom would favor Cornell – not because of brand name, but because of its better program. Its placement record/track implies this.</p>
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<p>The Ivy League is an athletic conference. Asking this question is like asking if recruiters prefer a Big 10 or Pac 12 applicant.</p>
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This analogy makes no sense. Yes, the Ivy League is technically an athletic conference, but it’s more known for being a darn good group of schools rather than another athletic conference.</p>
<p>However, I don’t think phrasing the question as “Ivy League education” was necessarily most descriptive.</p>
<p>For example, HYP outweigh Cornell when it comes to prelaw prestige.</p>
<p>So rather, the question would have been better off as “Cornell vs CMU” rather than “Ivy League vs CMU.”</p>
<p>The Ivy League is an athletic conference. What is your opinion of Rutgers? Rutgers is a very good university but is not considered on par with the other Ivy League universities. What everyone has to remember is when the Ivy League was formed Rutgers was invited to join but declined.</p>