I am currently a freshman at Indiana University Bloomington which has a good law school but as an undergrad school is just a state school not top 50 or anything special. I would love to attend NYU law school and so I want to do all that I can to prepare myself I’m just not quite sure where to start. Most of the threads or information I could find was from a couple years back (2011-2013) and so I was wondering if anyone had any more up to date tips. I am currently a criminal justice major because it is a super interesting field to me but I’ve heard law schools don’t like cjus majors. If I double majored in a more reading/writing heavy major such as philosophy or journalism would that help my odds? Also I tend to do very well on standardized tests (98th or 99th percentile for my SAT) so if I do exceptionally well on my LSAT (175+) could that make up for my cjus major? Another question I had is if as cjus major I would need a 4.0 to make it seem impressive. IU has very challenging classes and I’m not sure if my 3.8 in cjus will cut it for a T14 law school. Any input on academic courses, scores, how schools are viewed, and/or impressive extracurriculars I could take part in to make me a good candidate for a T14 would be greatly appreciated.
Two numbers comprise ~95% of T14 admissions: GPA & LSAT.
Major can be a plus factor, or a negative factor (Crim Just or Journalism), but that is only on the margin. So, yeah, a 3.8 won’t be viewed as favorably as a 3.8 in a traditional liberal arts major. OTOH, a 3.8 CrimJust will beat a 3.6 Philosophy major for most law schools.
EC’s mostly only matter at Yale, which can pick and choose the best of the best. Otherwise, get involved in something of interest, and it may turn into a passion.
It is a little early to being focusing in on a particular Law School. I attended NYU Law’s admitted students day with my daughter last spring. She was admitted to both Columbia and NYU and we visited both schools in the same day. Both schools are highly rated by Columbia is more about big law while NYU seems to have at least some focus on public interest legal careers. It is true that “criminal justice” is perceived as a bit of a trade school vs. more serious majors but as noted by bluebayou the primary focus law schools will have when looking at your transcript is your GPA not your major. If you think you would benefit by including an English or other minor fine but don’t add the minor just to have it on your transcript. Right, wrong, or indifferent what applicants to law school seem to do is to blanket the T14 with applications while adding some other law schools interesting due to either merit money or where they are located. Your options are going to be dictated by your undergraduate GPA coming into senior year and your LSAT score. 3.8 is a solid GPA so keep up the good work. I would not extrapolate from your percentile score on the ACT/SAT to how you might perform on an LSAT test. The subset of those applying to law school each year (60K give or take applicants) is probably quite a bit stronger than the 1M to 2M taking ACT/SAT every year. A 175 LSAT is off the charts brilliant (99.6 percentile) and not something anyone should ever count on. To get some idea on admissions chances you can go onto Law School Numbers and look at the admissions cycles of other recent applicants. If you score 160 on the LSAT you will definitely have options. If you score over 170 on the LSAT you will have a much broader range of options some of which include merit money. If you scored 175 on the LSAT with a GPA still at 3.8 you would get into Harvard Law maybe/maybe not Stanford and Yale but you would have an awful lot of options
The major really doesn’t matter as long as you have top grades and you score well in the LSAT. I usually recommend studying something employable. If you decide against law school, it’s going to be hard finding a job with a criminal justice degree. I have a cousin who went to Baylor Law after getting a degree in electrical engineering. It’s not uncommon to see degrees in business, accounting, engineering, or computer science.
CJ majors are not disliked by law schools. The main problem with CJ majors is that it is arguably the least challenging major offered by universities & that lack of academic rigor and analytical thinking is often, very often, reflected in one’s LSAT score.
When examined by major, CJ majors score the lowest on the LSAT .
Truthfully, the best prep for law school is a challenging major which requires a lot of analytical reasoning & writing. Additionally, prepping for the LSAT through an established LSAT prep course company can be very helpful.
I agree with the advice not to focus on a particular law school now. Law school is a means to an end, and people tend to “romanticize” their undergrad years more than their law school years.
I don’t know what about NYU (or any particular law school) is specifically appealing. Law schools are job factories.
Just study hard and get a lot of As and an LSAT score preferably above 170. Take a practice LSAT and study, study and study for the LSAT. I took a Kaplan test prep class years ago (in the 1990s) and it was a huge help, and I studied for the LSAT for a few months.