Top tier law school for Electrical Engineering graduate student

Graduate School Law School
1

<p>Hi Everyone,</p>

<p>I’m a current Electrical Engineering graduate student, and although I thoroughly enjoy the work I’m doing in grad school now (and the prospects I have after I graduate), the thought of law school after my master’s degree has piqued my interest. </p>

<p>I recently had a discussion with another EE graduate that went on to patent law, and he mentioned that EE is one of the most sought after majors in the field, since not many engineers are interested in such a pursuit. I’ve always been interested in law as a profession, and I come from a family of lawyers, so the thought of attending one of the top tier law schools is very enticing.</p>

<p>I haven’t yet taken the LSATs, so I’m not sure how I’ll do on that, but I generally perform pretty well on standardized tests so I’m not too worried. I’ve also listed my GRE scores for when I applied to EE grad school below if that will serve as any indication.</p>

<p>I’m mainly interested in knowing my chances in getting into one of the top law schools (HYP, berkley, etc.), and if I should be considering such pursuit in the first place. Right now, I think I’ll just apply for the heck of it and if I don’t get in, then oh well.</p>

<p>Also, does the master’s degree help me or hurt me? I noticed most of the applicants were undergrads, and most of the GPA/LSAT calculations factored in undergrad GPA.</p>

<p>My stats are:</p>

<p>Grad GPA: 3.87-3.9
Several publications
GRE Math: 800
GRE Verbal: 600
Several EE industry internships
Ugrad GPA: 3.52</p>

2

<p>Harvard, Yale, and Berkeley are out (along with Stanford); your GPA’s too low. You stand zero chance at Princeton Law for other reasons.</p>

<p>Any other school is still theoretically in play, depending on the LSAT.</p>

3

<p>Is my ugrad GPA taken into account instead of my grad? I would think with a 3.9 (possibly 3.9+) GPA in EE, I would stand a decent chance.</p>

<p>Thanks for the response!</p>

<p>EDIT - Ah, that would teach me to do some research before I post. Oops! :)</p>

4

<p>Yeah, it’s UGPA that matters.</p>

5

<p>Your LSDAS GPA is your undergraduate GPA, which is what law schools use. Your grades in graduate school won’t help you that much because LSAC doesn’t include them when it computes your GPA.</p>

6

<p>Ah I see. That makes sense then.</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

7

<p>Isn’t post-college education a boost for law school admission? I never understood why law schools care so much about GPA. It really motivates students to pick easy majors to get into law schools at the expense of choosing what they really want to study…</p>

8

<p>A little. The emphasis on GPA is partly explained by the fact that rankings use it. The emphasis on GPA is counterbalanced by the emphasis on the LSAT. There are exactly four law schools in the country out of hundreds that are out of range now. All the others still are, including several which are considered better than Berkeley.</p>

9

<p>Fortunately, patent law is an area in which the prestige of the law school is not as key as in other practice areas. The strength of your undergrad and grad school can trump the law school. A graduate degree for patent law is a real plus, and in many cases, a necessity.</p>

10

<p>To the OP: graduate programs tend, generally, to be very grade-inflated, which is why law schools don’t bother themselves with any metrics from those programs. Having a master’s is a minor plus factor. A PhD would matter a lot more, although obviously that takes considerable time and investment.</p>

11

<p>600 Verbal doesn’t bode especially well for the LSAT (for the schools you are looking at)…</p>