What undergrad schools lead to Law school?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I'm a senior and I'm finishing up all my applications to colleges, but I want maybe one or two more. I really want to go to a good law school, so does anyone have any ideas of a good undergrad school (In the North East to Midatlantic) that might give me a good name for a law school?</p>

<p>Stats- 4.304 GPA
2140 SAT (i'm taking it again one more time so it should go up)
more extracurriculars than you cane shake a stick at, and plenty of leadership/community service</p>

<p>I'm applying to Cornell, Princeton, and UPenn as reach schools, and Villanova and Lehigh as matches. Anyone else have any ideas of schools like Lehigh that have a good name though aren't exactly ivy?</p>

2

<p>it doesn't matter where you go to undergrad for law school. just have a good gpa and a good lsat and you'll be competitive.</p>

3

<p>^^ totally agreed.</p>

<p>Major whatever you like but have good GPAs and high LSAT.</p>

<p>FWIW, some popular majors are:</p>

<p>English
History
Politics
Sociology
.
.</p>

<p>Don't forget to play many rounds of sokudo puzzle :)</p>

4

<br>


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<p>If you have Cornell, Princeton, and Penn you might as well add Dartmouth since its so similar to these. Colleges are WAY too selective to limit such a similar choice.</p>

<p>There is a HUGE drop between your matches and reaches. Your matches are actually more like safeties. REAL matches would be places like Emory (high match), Colgate, Middlebury (High Match/ Slight reach), Tufts (high match).</p>

5

<p>
[quote]
Don't forget to play many rounds of sokudo puzzle

[/quote]
</p>

<p>You mean "sudoku," right? :p</p>

<hr>

<p>Any top 25 research uni. or top LAC will be a good choice. The higher you go, the higher the correlation between success with admissions to top law schools, but that doesn't mean that higher ranked schools are an automatic hook.</p>

6

<p>I wouldn't be surprised if that correlation is because generally smarter people go to better schools - and therefore do better on the LSATs.</p>

<p>Any school you want to go to will be fine - don't get pidgeon holed into "top X schools"</p>

7

<p>jags861,</p>

<p>Yes, of course there is the chance for confounding the variables, but keep a few things in mind: Top schools are going to usually offer better resources, more challenging coursework, better LoRs, and more opportunities to do things that really say "wow" on an application. Hooks are very important, and top schools help people get ahold of those.</p>

8

<p>Harvard Law School: Admission Profile
Undergraduate Institutions for Fall 2006 Matriculants</p>

<p>
[quote]

Abilene Christian University 1
Alma College 1
Albertson College of Idaho 1
American University 4
American University in Cairo 1
Amherst College 19
Andrews University 1
Arizona State University 2
Austin College 1
Ball State University 1
Barnard College 5
Barry University 1
Baruch College 1
Bates College 1
Baylor University 1
Bentley College 1
Bethel College 1
Boston College 5
Boston University 4
Bowdoin College 3
Brandeis University 11
Brigham Young University 29
Brown University 48
Bryn Mawr College 1
California Institute of Technology 2
California State University - Long Beach 1
California State University - Los Angeles 1
Calvin College 1
Cambridge College 1
Canisius College 1
Carleton College 4
Carleton University 1
Carnegie Mellon University 7
Case Western Reserve University 6
City College - CUNY 2
Claremont McKenna College 3
Colgate University 1
College of the Holy Cross 1
College of William & Mary 3
Columbia University 46
Cooper Union 2
Cornell University 45
Covenant College 1
Creighton University 1
Dartmouth College 35
Davidson College 2
De Paul University 1
Denison University 1
Doane College 1
Drake University 1
Drew University 2
Drexel University 1
Duke University 41
East Tennessee University 1
Emory University 14
Ewha Women's University 1
Fayetteville State University 1
Florida A&M University 4
Florida International University 1
Florida State University 1
Fordham University 1
Furman University 2
George Mason University 1
George Washington University 10
Georgetown University 32
Georgia Institute of Technology 2
Goshen College 1
Grinnell College 2
Grove City College 1
Hamilton College 1
Hampton University 4
Harvard University 241
Haverford College 2
Hillsdale College 3
Hope University 1
Houghton College 1
Howard University 7
Hunter College - CUNY 1
Illinois State University 2
Indiana University 5
International University Bremen 1
Iona College 1
Iowa State University 3
Ithaca College 1
Jackson State University 1
Johns Hopkins University 3
Kalamazoo College 1
Kenyon College 1
Knox College 1
Korea University 1
Lake Forest College 1
Lamar University 1
Lee University 1
Lehigh University 1
Lewis & Clark College 1
Linfield College 1
Loyola University - New Orleans 1
Loyola University - Chicago 1
Luther College 1
Manchester College 1
Marquette University 2
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 13
McGill University 3
McMaster University 1
Miami University 2
Michigan State University 3
Middlebury College 6
Mills College 1
Minnesota State University 1
Morehouse College 4
Ner Israel Rabbinical College 1
New Jersey Institute of Technology 1
New York University 20
Niagara University 1
North Carolina State University 1
Northeastern State University 1
Northwest College 1
Northwestern College 1
Northwestern University 20
Oberlin College 3
Occidental College 1
Ohio State University 4
Ohio University 1
Oklahoma State University 1
Oxford University 2
Pennsylvania State University 6
Pomona College 9
Princeton University 54
Purdue University 3
Queens College 1
Reed College 1
Renmin University Of China 1
Rensselaer Polytech Institute 1
Rice University 18
Rochester Institute of Technology 2
Rutgers - State Univer. of New Jersey 2
Saint John Fisher College 1
Saint John's College - Annapolis 1
Saint John's College - New Mexico 1
Saint John's University 1
Saint Mary's College of Maryland 1
San Francisco State University 1
Santa Clara University 2
Seoul National University 5
Seton Hall University 1
Smith College 4
Southeast Missouri State University 1
Southern Methodist University 1
Southern Oregon University 1
Southwestern University 1
Spelman College 2
Stanford University 79
SUNY Binghamton 2
SUNY Stony Brook 2
SUNY Geneseo 1
Swarthmore College 10
Syracuse University 1
Temple University 1
Texas A&M University 3
Texas Christian University 1
Touro College 1
Truman State University 2
Tufts University 8
Tulane University 3
United States Military Academy 2
University of Akron 1
University of Alabama 2
University of Alberta 1
University of Arizona 3
University of Arkansas 2
University of British Columbia 1
University of California - Berkeley 48
University of California - Davis 6
University of California - Irvine 2
University of California - Los Angeles 39
University of California - Riverside 1
University of California - San Diego 6
University of California - Santa Barbara 2
University of Central Arkansas 2
University of Chicago 13
University of Colorado - Boulder 7
University of Colorado - Denver 1
University of Connecticut 2
University of Dayton 1
University of Florida 13
University of Georgia 5
University of Illinois 7
University of Iowa 3
University of Kansas 3
University of Kentucky 1
University of Lethbridge 1
University of Ljubljana 1
University of Maryland 13
University of Miami 2
University of Michigan 23
University of Minnesota 6
University of Mississippi 2
University of Missouri 1
University of Nebraska 1
University of North Carolina 13
University of North Dakota 1
University of North Texas 1
University of Notre Dame 20
University of Oklahoma 2
University of Oregon 1
University of Pennsylvania 57
University of Pittsburgh 4
University of Puget Sound 1
University of Rhode Island 1
University of Richmond 1
University of Rochester 1
University of San Diego 1
University of San Francisco 1
University of Saskatchewan 1
University of South Carolina 2
University of South Florida 1
University of Southern California 13
University of Southern Mississippi 1
University of Sydney 1
University of Tennessee 1
University of Texas - Austin 27
University of Texas - Dallas 1
University of Texas - El Paso 1
University of Texas - Tyler 1
University of Toronto 7
University of Tulsa 1
University of Utah 1
University of Vermont 1
University of Virginia 19
University of Washington 9
University of Waterloo 1
University of Western Ontario 2
University of Windsor 1
University of Wisconsin 4
Utah State University 1
Virginia Commonwealth University 1
Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State Universtity 2
Vanderbilt University 13
Vassar College 2
Wake Forest University 1
Washington and Lee University 4
Washington University 10
Wellesley College 4
Wesleyan College 1
Wesleyan University 5
Western Michigan University 1
Western Connecticut State University 1<br>
Wheaton College 2
Whitman College 2
Wichita State University 2
Williams College 17
Yale University 113
Yeshiva University 2
York University 2

[/quote]
</p>

9

<p>KEep in mind the size of these schools. Example: Williams at 17 vs. Northwestern 20, but Williams is 1/2-1/3 the size of Northwestern A&S.</p>

10

<p>Yes, but Slipper, you should also take into account regional loyalties. Chicago, Michigan and NU have top 10 Law schools, and NU grads outnumber Williams grads almost 7:1 at those three Law programs. I don't have detailed information on Nothwestern, but I do have detailed information on Michigan. Last year, the following numbers got into and enrolled into the following Law schools:
Cal 5 dmitted, 0 enrolled (0% yield)
Columbia 23 admitted, 7 enrolled (30% yield)
Cornell 23 admitted, 4 enrolled (17% yield)
Duke 21 admitted, 2 enrolled (10% yield)
Georgetown 52 admitted, 7 enrolled (13% yield)
NYU Law 30 admitted, 6 enrolled (20% yield)
Penn 11 admitted, 2 enrolled (18% yield)
Stanford 9 admitted, 3 enrolled (33%% yield)
UVa 20 admitted, 5 enrolled (25% yield)</p>

<p>In contrast:
Chicago 18 admitted, 7 enrolled (40% yield)
Michigan 107 admitted, 65 enrolled (61% yield)
Northwestern 29 admitted, 13 enrolled (45% yield)</p>

<p>I consider all of those schools to be peers and yet clearly, Michigan students decide to enroll into the Midwestern elites at a much higher rate than they do into their Easter, Southern and Western counterparts. </p>

<p>Of course, the yield rates into Harvard and Yale are very high:
Harvard: 16 admitted, 13 enrolled (81% yield)
Yale: 4 admitted, 3 enrolled (75% yield)</p>

<p>But then again, those are the two most popular Law schools among Law school applicants.</p>

<p>To the OP, as the numbers above indicate, with 140 Michigan students enrolling into top 10 Law schools annually, Michigan is definitely a great place to go for your undergraduate studies if Law school is your ultimate goal.</p>

11

<p>You can go to any college you decide to attend, do well, and theoretically get into any law school you want. Unfortunately, the truth of the matter is that at the top law schools in the country, students who attended top 20 undergraduate schools are disproportionately represented. Furthermore, if your plans after law school include working in a highly competitive field or for a competitive employer (i.e. ADA jobs, big law firms, patent law), the quality your undergraduate school and law school will most definitely be a factor in hiring decisions.</p>

12

<p>I would echo slipper's point about a wide gap between your reaches and Villanova/Lehigh. You may also want to consider Wesleyan, Bucknell, Colby, Hamilton as additional middle-ground schools to the ones slipper mentioned.</p>

13

<p>looking thru the connecticut college facebook the other day, i was amazed at how many recent grads are at top law schools (just off the top of my head: michigan, nyu, georgetown, bu, bc, usc, william and mary, cornell, uva, etc etc etc).</p>

14

<p>It depends on one's goals. If one deigns to enter "Big Law" - that is - the world of elite law firms, which in turn is a ticket to in-house jobs or AUSA type government positions, then their odds are far better if they get in a so-called Tier 1 law school. And one's odds of getting in a Tier 1 school are far, far better at a top school than at regional state univ. One need only look at the Harvard Stats above. Top schools send forty or more, whereas a graduate of, let's say, Florida State may have to be the valedictorian with high SAT's to get in Harvard. Now, it may take slightly less to get into a lower Tier 1, but not much. Since lawyers are so ridiculously picky about credentials, the law is one area where, like it or not, it typically pays to be a credential hog. If one can afford it, go to the most competitive college you can, if Big Law is the objective. Lest anyone think I am overstating the case, a law school grad from, lets say, an 80th or so ranked school stands little chance of even getting an interview from Big Law, unless they were the Law Review editor or valedictorian.</p>

15

<p>Alexandre, you can;t honestly believe people are picking Michigan or Northwestern over Harvard and Yale law. I read once that Yale Law's Yield was over 90%. The big state school students aren't enrolling at the best law schools in the country- blame that on weaker student bodies, a weaker reputation, or grade deflation. The point is that going to the Ivies+top LACs is a distinct advantage over the other schools; the stats are too loud to simply try and say they're going somewhere else.</p>

16

<p>Alexandre, you can;t honestly believe people are picking Michigan or Northwestern over Harvard and Yale law. I read once that Yale Law's Yield was over 90%. The big state school students aren't enrolling at the best law schools in the country- blame that on weaker student bodies, a weaker reputation, or grade deflation. The point is that going to the Ivies+top LACs is a distinct advantage over the other schools; the stats are too loud to simply try and say they're going somewhere else.</p>

17

<p>Although there is no doubt that the most elite colleges send a much higher proportion of their grads to top law schools, it is not clear that this is because of better education at these colleges. It need not be that the law schools favor Harvard grads. It could be that the students who got into Ivy colleges did so by getting high grades and test scores. The next time they were evaluated on grades and test scores- law school admission- they again were at the top. These data do not say that a given student, with his/her own high school grades and test scores, is any better off going to Harvard vs Michigan is the goal is admission to HLS.</p>

18

<p>2006-2007 Harvard Law School #s Ranked Per Capita:</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=2996241#post2996241%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=2996241#post2996241&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

19

<p>No Slipper, that is not what I said. I clearly said that Harvard and Yale are the only exceptions to the rule. Very few Michigan and Northwestern students turn down Harvard or Yale in favor of another law school. I showed the numbers in the post above. Last year, 13 out of 16 students admitted into Harvard Law from Michigan chose to go for it. And 3 out of 4 (probably the three who turned down Harvard Law) who got into Yale Law from Michigan chose to go for it.</p>

<p>What I was saying is that in all other cases, regional preferences prevail, but I clearly stated that Harvard and Yale law schools are not subject to those regional preferences. However, with the exception of Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Yale, few universities sends more than 15 of their students to Harvard Law or more than 5 of their students to Yale Law each year. One must look at what other elite Law schools students from colleges end up enrolling at.</p>

20

<p>The point though, Alexandre, is of those colleges with many alums at the top two law schools, the non-HYPS Ivies (plus Duke) and top 2 LACs dominate the list when the size of their student bodies is factored in. Even eliminating engineers and areas like nursing, the difference is astounding. Cal does barely better than Brown and its more than three times the size (non engineering), Dartmouth handily defeats Michigan (35 vs. 23) and the student body is less than 1/4 the size (actually its 1/6 the size but I'm eliminating engineers and all other such areas).</p>

<p>Every one of these lists confirms that Dartmouth, Duke, Brown, Columbia, Penn, and Duke are the best schools following HYPS when it comes to placement at the TOP professional schools.</p>