Hello everyone! I am currently a student at Queens College, part of the CUNY (City University of New York) system. I was just wondering, do I have a chance at getting into a top law school if I were to apply from the CUNY system? If so, wouldnt my GPA (and LSAT Score) have to be higher than the average accepted student at those schools? In other words, would it need to be near perfect? Should I transfer to another schools instead that may be more competitive but that has a higher acceptance rate to top law schools? Anyone have experience applying to top law schools as a CUNY student?!
The name of the school you went to doesn’t matter. They care about your LSAC calculated GPA and your LSAT score. Just get the highest GPA that you can. Also, “ivy league law” isn’t a thing. Law schools are divided into tiers, with the top 14 being being the first tier and the most desirable schools since they have more of a national reach. NYU and Uchicago are ranked higher than UPenn and Cornell, for instance. Law schools need to be thought about in a different way than undergrad. You should be aiming for the top 14, not an ivy league law school, that distinction is pretty meaningless.
Also, go to top-law-schools.com if you want the most information about this. Their forums are pretty helpful and they have tools on there to know what sort of LSAT score you would need with your GPA to get into certain schools.
Thanks for your response. In terms of GPA, I hope you are right that it does not matter where you went to school, but I’ve yet to find anyone in my system that went on to a top 14 Law School. It could just be because I am only a sophomore but I think I probably would have heard of it if it were true. But there is still a good possibility you are correct. In terms of there not being “Ivy League Law Schools”, I did some research and found that there is such a thing. Here is a link for proof: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ivy_League_law_schools . You are still correct about the top 14 ,however. I guess the 5 Ivy Law Schools are just better for international recognition. Just wondering, are you speaking from experience? Did you go to a top law school or know anyone that did from an average undergrad? Or are you in a completely different field?
I’m applying to law schools. It’s definitely correct that the name of your school makes little to no difference. Go to the forums on top law schools and they will tell you the same thing. You can also go to the class profiles for schools like Yale and Harvard and see that there are many schools represented, some of which I have never even heard of. If there are no people from your school that got into a top 14 it’s probably more of a self selection problem. Ivy league undergrads are more likely to get in to top law schools more due to the fact that they’re just better at standardized tests, ergo they score higher on the LSAT. It has nothing to do with the name on their diploma. Also, I’m aware that they are still Ivy league law schools, my point was that no one in the field uses that distinction. It’s top 14, top 6, or top 3. Within each of those there are ivy league schools, but the fact that they’re in that athletic conference makes zero difference. You need to think about law school in terms of employment. Cornell places fewer of its students into big law and clerkships than UVA. You need to think about law school in a different way than undergrad.
I thought it was strange that no one from a CUNY had been accepted to a top law school so I just looked at the class profile for Harvard and found a CUNY within 5 seconds lol, so it’s definitely not impossible from your college. Just do the best you can in school and study hard for the LSAT.
Yeah, I’ve seen CUNY represented on the Harvard lists and on Columbia lists. Echoing others further: you are competing against others for admissions so there’s no cut-off for scores per se. You need to score high enough to beat the others, right? Everyone’s competing. So top schools you’re going to need top grades and LSAT scores.
Late response my apologies…but thanks again! I appreciate all the help.