“At seven of the top 10 law schools, the median GPA among accepted students in 2017 was above a 3.8.” …
But applicants need to remember that GPA is roughly half of the admissions decision, with LSAT being the other half.
I’m curious to see this discussion. It looks like it has gotten a bit easier to gain admission to the tippy-tops (HYS) than 20-30 years ago, in marked contrast to elite undergraduate admissions trends. Slightly higher admit percentages, lowish yield for H (~60%) and S (~40%), and seemingly comparable or maybe lower entering stats at all 3 despite significant grade inflation in UGPA over the intervening period. Yale’s entering class is also significantly larger than it used to be.
Tech and finance have siphoned off a huge percentage of the most capable undergraduate students, and the recent first year salary arms races in BigLaw would seem to confirm.
Could be one of the better times in the last 30 years to apply. Of course, the prospects for legal work outside BigLaw…
Law school applicant rates have been dropping, and you can see that in who law schools are admitting. Even at Harvard, the median GPA is “only” a 3.7-pretty good, but still not what you’d expect of the Ivies.
^^huh? Methinks HSL is a 3.86 median, with a 75th of 3.96… It’s bottom quartile is 3.76.
https://hls.harvard.edu/dept/jdadmissions/apply-to-harvard-law-school/hls-profile-and-facts/
Interesting article. Thank you for posting the link. Unusual, however, in that cost of attendance was not mentioned in the article.
Actually presented an uneven discussion regarding GPAs as Anna Ivey pointed out that lower GPAs from more difficult majors (such as chemistry) and/or from more challenging undergraduate schools will get some leeway.
@SatchelSF : Your post makes sense regarding those who decide to pursue tech or finance careers over the practice of law.
P.S. As an aside, I recently advised one student to postpone graduation for a semester in order to raise her 3.88 GPA up to at least a 3.90 in order to be more competitive for law school admissions & for law school merit money.
Also, about 5 or 6 years ago, Indiana bucked the trend of law schools buying high LSAT scores & awarded/offered dozens of merit awards to applicants with high GPAs.
Costs at the tippy-tops are up ~3x from early 90s while starting salaries in BigLaw are up ~2x. At the very top lockstep NYC firms, that ~2x continues throughout the associate period, although anecdotally I have heard that there is a greater “up or out” atmosphere than there used to be. No doubt there is still the incentive, however, for firms to string along the “almost but not quite” group in years 4 through 7 or 8…
$275K+ is a lot of money for 3 years of law school, and you’re not going to get any merit at HYS. People really have to be sure it’s something they want to do.
^ Interesting. Been out of Big Law for 20 years, but still keep in touch with my former partners and my college and law school classmates still in it. “Up or out " was pretty much a way of life after year 6 during my time in. The pressure on a law firm though is that senior associates are usually the most economic to a law firm in terms of productivity (yielding the most billable and collectible hours relative to compensation). I think many law firms have expanded senior counsel status and/or added"non-equity” partners to retain productive associates, especially in the worker bee category vs the “rainmaker” or prospective rainmaker category.
I do think we let a lot of associates slide Y 1-3 in the day, hoping they were just slower developers. Based on conversations with friends still in, I am pretty sure the culling starts earlier and deeper these days because associate salaries are so high and clients are less willing to pay for unproductive junior associate hours.