The journey to law school from this point (high school junior)

Graduate School Law School
1

<p>Hey,</p>

<p>Before I start with my questions I should probably explain to you do whole background behind this post. Basically, my ultimate goal is to enter Law School after College. I have read several books on law school and about what responsibilities Lawyers have, I am not just one of those who run in here screaming for tips about how to get into Harvard because they want to make "big bucks". I am not naive, the law field is one of the most competitive and hardest to get into and yes it does have potential to pay well but that is only after years of hard studying and work and only if you're at the top of your class. Right now im a junior at high school in Washington State, I moved back to the States from Europe (my family decided to stay because they have jobs there). Because of the harsh grading system in Europe and the way my grades were translated I currently have a 3.2 GPA even though my average GPA here in the states is 3.6 (not amazing, I know but it's good considering that English is not my primary language). This morning I got my SAT scores back and I scored a 1910 with 600 in Math (75%), 650 in Reading (90%), 660 in Writing (91%). I am going to take it again because I hadn't really studied at all for it so I will most likely increase my score on my next try. Anyhoo, even though I'm taking two AP classes this year and 4 next year I feel like my chances of getting into a school like University of Washington or Boston University are very slim to none, especially with the way the economy is going and thousands of positions being cut statewide in the University systems here in Washington. I am not naive, as you can see, I do my research thoroughly and carefully when it comes to looking at colleges. </p>

<p>Anyway, here comes the main point of my post, I feel like that even though I am very serious about my goal to get into a Top 20 Law School after college, I would like to enjoy my 4-6 years of obtaining a bachelors degree(s). I have read in several posts on here that law schools prefer to see 4.0 GPAs and high LSAT scores from smaller schools over not as high GPAs from prestigious UG schools such as Berkeley for example. Now, if this is true (since its more of a rumor) I am then thinking about whether I should even try and apply to a more prestigious college in the first place because I am pretty sure that it will be harder for me to get a high GPA there than lets say two of my other alternates, Central Washington University and Washington State University. I am not a slacker but I am very involved in sports and I would like to at least partially continue pursuing that passion while I'm in college and I think it would be harder for me to do that plus get a high GPA if I get in a more rigorous school than a school like Central Washington University. If you look here Undergraduate</a> Colleges you can see that there are many small, not prestigious at all colleges represented (even if it is only by one person).</p>

<p>Basically, my question is, do you think I would be doing the right thing if I'd allow myself to apply to less demanding UG schools in order to pursue my passion in sports since I would be saving time and money or do you think that if I really want to go to a top 20 law school at one point that is not a good idea? I know that it is important to be prepared for the LSAT but that's why my 2nd major might be in Philosophy (main major will be either in Marketing or something along those lines).</p>

<p>Trust me, I am always about going the more prestigious route, but at least once in life I'd like to take it easy for a bit, but I would not want to do that at the expense of my dream of going to a great law school.</p>

<p>Any input is welcome and appreciated.</p>

<p>Thanks for your time (:</p>

<p>P.S. I did read this post: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/law-school/488741-prestige-undergrad-vs-gpa.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/law-school/488741-prestige-undergrad-vs-gpa.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>That's what inspired me to make this post</p>

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<p>Here’s a short answer to your long post: the “rumor” you mention is true. The schools prefer higher GPAs and will not take into account the prestige of your undergrad institution to a great extent. A 4.0 from State U, all other factors being equal, will probably be selected over a Harvard grad with a 3.9. A 3.9 from State U and a 3.9 from Harvard is a different story, as the law school might choose to use the Ivy League credential as a tie-breaker. The degree itself will make a difference–law schools understand that science-oriented degrees generally have lower GPAs, and will be deferential. A 3.9 with a Mathematics BS versus a 3.9 with a Political Science degree will probably result in the Math grad being selected. </p>

<p>Here’s a little bit of advice then. Go to your state school and minimize the money you are going to spend on your undergraduate education. Get scholarships. Do whatever you can to come out with AS LITTLE undergraduate loans as you can, because you will probably be taking on close to $150,000 of law school debt, and as you say, there’s no guarantee of making big bucks.</p>

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<p>Thank you so much for your answer!</p>

<p>And I was actually thinking about making sure that I come out with as little loans as possible because of the huge debt I’ll accumulate in Law School.</p>

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<p>this isn’t really related cause i know nothing about law school, but if you put in just 40 hours studying for the SAT, you should be able to bump up your scores by at least 100 points, which in turn should give you a very good chance of getting into University of Washington or Boston University. Those schools are a lot better than Central Washington University, and it won’t take a lot of effort (just a decent amount of SAT studying) to get good enough scores to likely get into Washington University. I think you should study harder for the SAT and try to get into the better school.</p>

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<p>“Here’s a short answer to your long post: the “rumor” you mention is true. The schools prefer higher GPAs and will not take into account the prestige of your undergrad institution to a great extent. A 4.0 from State U, all other factors being equal, will probably be selected over a Harvard grad with a 3.9.”</p>

<p>This isn’t a very logical situation. I doubt many schools have to choose between a 3.9 from Harvard and a 4.0 from somewhere else. Last year, 6 kids with GPA’s above 3.9 applied to Harvard Law School who had previously graduated from Harvard College. 5/6 were accepted. The one kid who was denied had an LSAT of 164. If you have a 3.9 from Harvard and have above a 170, you’re pretty dang set at anywhere except Yale and maybe Stanford.</p>

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<p>WR: That’s exactly right. Two statistically equivalent (or near-equivalent) applicants will probably both get accepted or both get rejected. The proportion of cases in which tiebreaking factors will enter the situation is miniscule.</p>