<p>a lot of people are telling me its harder to go to law school from ucsd because public schools give lower grades than privates, thus making it more difficult for me to get into law school than someone from USD</p>
<p>is that true?</p>
<p>also is it hard to go to law as an economics major?</p>
<p>To both questions: NO. It’s all about GPA and MCAT-and if you’ve got good numbers from UCSD in GPA and do well with your MCAT score, you’ll be competitive. There’s no advantage to USD for law school admissions.
Regarding economics: that’s as good a major as any for law school-and it may supply a bit of a “plan B” if you decide that you don’t want to go to law school.
But for law school admissions, most of it is about the numbers.</p>
<p>Its about GPA and LSAT. MCAT is for med school. No one in law school admissions cares about your undergrad name. However, if you go to a school (as I did) that prides itself on not bowing to “grade inflation,” and thereby likes to keep everyone’s grades lower, yes that can hurt you. Schools only care about the GPA number, not the philosophy behind it. If UCSD is such a school, that should be a concern. That said, I went to a UC and made it into law school just fine, so I wouldn’t worry about it being some overriding factor. </p>
<p>No one cares what major you are outside of a select few situations. If you want IP you need the science undergrad. If you want tax some accounting will look good. If you want corporate some sort of business or finance will look good. These are things employers will look at, not law schools. Law schools don’t care.</p>
<p>Sorry about wrong graduate school exam-juggling too many apps! Anyway, agree with Demo’s advice-it really is mostly a numbers contest.</p>
<p>ok thanks. if im not mistaken lsac does A+ as 4.3 right? i would hope so because i got a couple this quarter </p>
<p>also, do u have any ideas on how to get into boalt/ucla in adition to high gpa/lsat?</p>
<p>No. There is no in addition to high GPA/LSAT. Are you trying to practice in CA?</p>
<p>UC just loves good life stories, particularly from those that have overcome adversity.</p>
<p>yeah i want to practice in CA</p>
<p>bluebayou i might have some thx</p>
<p>Bluebayou, please show me any data supporting the theory that admissions to UC law schools are in any way affected by “good life stories.” Some good data may be found here:</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“Recently Updated J.D. Profiles | Law School Numbers”>Recently Updated J.D. Profiles | Law School Numbers]Berkeley[/url</a>]
[url=<a href=“Recently Updated J.D. Profiles | Law School Numbers”>Recently Updated J.D. Profiles | Law School Numbers]Davis[/url</a>]
[url=<a href=“Recently Updated J.D. Profiles | Law School Numbers”>Recently Updated J.D. Profiles | Law School Numbers]Hastings[/url</a>]
[url=<a href=“Recently Updated J.D. Profiles | Law School Numbers”>Recently Updated J.D. Profiles | Law School Numbers]UCLA[/url</a>]</p>
<p>Those bands seem pretty clear to me. Note: I did not include UCI because it is too new for there to be any good data on it. However, since they play the same USNEWS game everyone else does you can expect to see a similar chart.</p>
<p>@Chemistrywarrior: I presume you are in undergrad still? If so, what year? Depending on what kind of law you want to practice and where in CA you wish to be, you can start building valuable connections now.</p>
<p>i am a freshman just finished fall quarter, did pretty well actually</p>
<p>how do i go about getting the connections?</p>
<p>and btw those links are a bit fishy…4.18 gpa? that means half A’s and half A+'s with not even a b+ or A-? who the hell does that? haha</p>
<p>It’s total GPA, so they can get ** as long as they even it out with some A+s (which LSAC grades at a 4.33). As to connections, it depends again on what kind of work you want to do. If you’re interested in PD/DA work, you can try to intern at those places. I have several friends who did that. You can also look into local firms doing particular kinds of work if you know you have specific areas of interest. Another good way to spend a summer is doing something that will give you a nice story to tell. That won’t help you much for law school admission, but it may very well help when it comes to the job search.</p>
<p>yeah i get that you can get a 4.3 for A+ (thankfully i got 2 this quarter) but i dont see how someone could get half A+'s and half A’sin college…it seems too hard.</p>
<p>dont connections only matter if u dont go to a t14 school? i was under the impression that if u graduate from a top law school, people come to you…sorry if i was wrong im still a noobie</p>
<p>Connections always matter, even at a T14. They may matter more or less depending on what sort of work you want. If you are interested in BigLaw, then yes, firms come to the top schools (more than just the T14, but it gets a bit complicated). However, even at the top schools they’re still only recruiting out of the top of the class. At my T14 it seems like the top 1/3 of the class did well, above median had a shot, and below median did not. You have a 2/3 chance not to be in the top third. If you whiff OCI (where the big firms come), those connections will be very valuable. I have a friend who was a paralegal at a big firm before going to law school. They told her she could come back to them for employment when she was done. That’s a job secured through connections, not OCI, and it meant she didn’t need to do OCI at all. </p>
<p>If you’re not interested in big firms though, then connections can matter a lot. The legal market in CA is very saturated. Not only does CA have an absurd number of law schools, a lot of people going out of state to better schools intend to come back. That means there are a lot of Grade A resumes going through the door at every PD/DA. Knowing a person and having them put your resume on the top can go in a long way.</p>
<p>Now, as a freshman you have at least 5 years before you have to search for a legal job. There’s always the possibility that the legal market will rebound into another boom. But I doubt it, and you shouldn’t plan on it.</p>
<p>@demo</p>
<p>what law school are you in?</p>
<p>also what was ur undergrad gpa, college, and lsat if u dont mind me asking?</p>
<p>any tips? and as of now i dont know the type of law i want to go into yet, tho i am leaning toward big law</p>
<p>I am at a lower T14, but other than that I prefer to keep my information confidential. BigLaw is not a type of law, it is a type of employment. Within that BigLaw practice encompasses a tremendous number of fields from Labor & Employment to Capital Markets to Bankruptcy. My advice is to look around. Do some research, see what looks interesting. You don’t have to decide now, but you can try and get some experience to better inform yourself for when you do have to decide.</p>
<p>ok i understand about the confidential but can you tell me any of these?
undergrad gpa, undergrad name, lsat?</p>
<p>and yeah ^^^ that just proves i dont know much about law/employment right now im just trying to get the grades</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>how do you know that such admittances don’t include good life stories, particularly at Boalt (with that low T14 lsat)? Heck, Boalt was holistic before it became fashionable. And of course, Irvine was giving out those full rides to folks with a great story to tell. :)</p>
<p>But the short answer is, that holistic admissions is part of UC’s mission. Just ask any Regent or politician (who fund a significant part of UC). </p>
<p>And part of holistic admissions is a good story.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that gpa+lsat is not important, but at UC, LSAT is a little less important than other top schools. And since lsat is less important, life stories can seal the deal, and become a much larger factor for hooked candidates/non-trads.</p>
<p>Irvine was giving out those full rides to everyone in their opening class regardless of their “good life stories.” That’s because they wanted to start out high in the US News rankings and so wrote off first year tuition to entice higher LSAT/GPA students to gamble on them. Same reason they gave half rides to the entire second class. Boalt claims to be holistic, but then so does everyone else. The hard data doesn’t support that theory, but it does support the theory that Boalt cares a bit more about GPA than most other similarly ranked schools. </p>
<p>I went to a UC for undergrad and I didn’t buy that “holistic” nonsense back then either. I can’t believe your sources for information are “regents” and “politicians” rather than admissions data. I am genuinely incredulous. Your claim that “at UC, LSAT is a little less important … and life stories can seal the deal” is pure speculation based on the political grand-standing of those with direct financial interests. I, however, have lots of real data on real students showing the “good life stories” those students have is “hi, look at my GPA and LSAT!”</p>
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</p>
<p>that is impossible, unless you sit on an admissions committee and read the essays. Is that the case? :rolleyes:</p>
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<p>Speculation, yes, based on 30+ years of observations. Go back and look at Boalt’s history, starting in the early 70’s…</p>
<p>And I fully admit that I have no “data” either. Just a set of eyes, and as someone who HAS been involved with UC admissions at least on the undergrad level.</p>
<p>But see, the beauty of de-emphasizing LSAT makes it easy to look to the essay for applicants that the UCs want. High gpa’s just aren’t that hard to come by, since there are 3000+ four year colleges, and thousands more jucos. By lessening the lsat importance, Boalt and the other UCs can pick and choose among the high gpa’s; differentiating factors can be socio-economic (as told by a life story), overcoming adversity, and the like.</p>
<p>Regardless, we’ll just have to disagree. No need to be “incredulous” because you have zero data to support your position, again, unless you read essays on an Admissions Committee for a living.</p>