undergrad education

Graduate School Law School
1

<p>No, I am not asking what to major in.</p>

<p>My question: do the top law schools particularly care where you go to college during your undergrad years? I'm thinking economically here. Law school is very expensive, and if I went to a state school to get my bachelor's, it would cut back on total student debt. Especially considering that I would be going to UNC-Chapel Hill, which, being in state, is a great deal in terms of bang for your buck. Would going the public route be a disadvantage to me? I know for the most part all a law school cares about is the GPA, but if I managed to pull off something ridiculous like a 3.8 at UNC, would it look less impressive than a Harvard 3.8?</p>

2

<p>To answer your last question: yes.</p>

3

<p>Not so fast, there are many excellent state schools: UCB, Mich, WI, just to name a few where top grades mean something even to top law schools. I would rather live with the difference between a top state vs. private school, than the difference between a top state school and fair to middling private school. Just my opinion.</p>

4

<p>I think you'd also prefer to live with the state school tuition & therefore ultimate debt load.</p>

5

<p>Certainly. I'd love to go to Georgetown or U of Chicago, but unless I were to get some pretty large financial aid packages, I think it would be insanity to pay so much more when there's a quality public school in state.</p>

6

<p>Sounds like you have sorted this out for yourself, mgls.</p>

7

<p>So long it's agreed that a public school wouldn't be a detriment to getting accepted to good law schools, it appears that I have. Thank you all for your input.</p>

8

<p>mgls, there are no guarantees in life. But, if your weigh the options, and the balance comes out in favor of a state school because either the debt load is too great otherwise, or the upside of carrying all of that debt is not great enough, then you can come to a dcision that works for you. But no one can make that decision for you, you will have to go through the weighing process yourself.</p>

9

<p>My two cents: UNC is an excellent school. If you do well there, you can get into most law programmes. (Generally, my advice to ALL high school students is to ignore Harvard and Yale Law. The chances of getting into those, having done decently on the LSATs, are about one in a thousand. 150,000 people take the LSAT every year, and HLS has a 550 person 1L class, and Yale 180. Generally, the people taking the LSAT are pretty bright to begin with.) </p>

<p>Certainly, there are advantages to a name school - but, unless I'm mistaken, the name is more of a tie-breaker in law school admissions instead of a huge factor. You're not talking about East Boise State v. UChicago - you're talking about a very solid school v. Georgetown or UChicago. </p>

<p>Something else to consider is that many Georgetown grads don't go on to top law schools. It might be easier to stand out at UNC, getting great grades (the all-important GPA) and recommendations from professors. As such, it's not very likely that going to a better school than UNC will give you a big advantage when applying to law school. </p>

<p>Furthermore, if you've read some of the threads, law schools give out very little financial aid. My school is "cheap" at $40k/year. City schools run around $53k/year - so expect about $60k/year by the time you apply. There is something to be said for keeping your debt load down. Many young lawyers' lives are dominated by their debt - they have to work insane hours to pay off huge loans. It's like taking out enough money for a mortgage - but you don't have a place to live and aren't building up home equity. </p>

<p>Finally - generally, the quality of the law school you go to will make a huge difference in your career. If you have limited funds, put them towards l.s., not undergrad.</p>

<p>Just my thought on that. There is very little reason to take on huge debt undergrad if you plan on going to professional school.</p>

10

<p>"would it look less impressive than a Harvard 3.8?"</p>

<p>Maybe Harvard is not the best example; 3.8 is not that hard to come by there! ;)</p>

<p>(says a bitter Harvard rival!)</p>

11

<p>Sakky and I have been debating this issue (more or less) to death over on the "Harvard Law School" thread. I recommend you check it out. </p>

<p>While my point on the thread is that you can get into HLS from anywhere, Sakky has convinced me that law school generally would be a safer bet from an Ivy. There appears to heavy grade inflation, particularly at Harvard, so if I had the chance to go there (or most other Ivies), I would, regardless of cost. There are simply too many benefits to attending Harvard, Dartmouth, etc., to turn it down for pure financial reasons. (Strong alumni network, life-long cachet, etc.) </p>

<p>Of course, attending an Ivy is no guarantee of admission to HLS or anywhere else -- but it will give you a very good shot at attending a top school, I would think. Your grades should be decent, given the inflation, and decent grades, along with a good LSAT and your undergrad pedigree, will probably get you in the door. (A good LSAT is a prerequiste regardless, obviously.) As Sakky has noted, while it may be easier to excel at UNC, it also might be easier to screw up in a few classes, leading to a lower overall GPA, and a less presitious undergrad on the application.</p>

<p>However, I would not extend this analogy to schools like Georgtown, or even Chicago. I don't believe those schools have the same kind of grade inflation, and I also don't think they carry as much weight on the application as Harvard, etc. Rather, I think they're viewed more comparably to schools like UNC, which is of course an excellent university either way. </p>

<p>Therefore, if it's a choice between Harvard (Yale, Princeton, etc.) and UNC, I would take Harvard. If it's a choice between Gtown and UNC, and I wanted to save $$, I would take UNC.</p>

12

<p>All Ivies except Cornell - the one Ivy that seems to actually suffer from grade-DEflation</p>

13

<p>yeah, I got the sense it was no cakewalk at Cornell.</p>

14

<p>A 3.8 from Harvard, coupled with a high LSAT score, would probably get you in just about anywhere. A 3.8 from UNC, coupled with an equally high LSAT score, should put you solidly in the running for the top 14 schools, and safely in everywhere else.</p>