What's a Better Choice if I Want to go to a top Law School?

<p>^ Yes, I was upset when they took the numbers down...</p>

<p>it probably wasn't a good idea for applicants since when people see only 1 person from their school, they think that they have no chance.</p>

<p>Is there anymore lists like this from other schools?</p>

<p>You're right. You have to look at the individual sites, but I haven't seen any (except maybe UVA?)</p>

<p>link to the uva list plz</p>

<p>There is such a thing as google... </p>

<p>Class</a> of 2010 Profile</p>

<p>Keep in mind since UVA is a state school, it has different admissions criteria than normal "top" law schools.</p>

<p>I tried but I couldn't find it, that's why I asked.</p>

<p>wow onl one Canadian school at UVA :( only 1 with 1 student</p>

<p>posted by jonri (post # 98)</p>

<p>
[quote]
I think it matters at Yale. If you read through this, you'll find the number of YLS students from various undergraduate institutions (p158):</p>

<p><a href="http://www.law.yale.edu/documents/pdf/public_affairs/07_08_law_bulletin.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.law.yale.edu/documents/pdf/public_affairs/07_08_law_bulletin.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>You'll see that (in all 3 years and perhaps LLM, not sure from wording) there were 13 students from Brown, 16 from Dartmouth and...12 from Williams...which has a heck of a lot fewer people per class. </p>

<p>For '07-'08 school year, there were 79 from Harvard, 78 from Yale (which has roughly 250-300 fewer students per class than Harvard), 37 from Princeton, 31 from Stanford (I'd expect many Stanford students to opt to stay on the West Coast), 12 from Williams, 9 from Amherst, 5 from Swat. Haverford 1, UMichigan 8, Emory 5, NYU 5, Middlebury 3, Bates 1, Boston College 3, Wesleyan 7, etc.</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/law-school/488741-prestige-undergrad-vs-gpa-7.html?highlight=harvard+princeton#post1060767375%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/law-school/488741-prestige-undergrad-vs-gpa-7.html?highlight=harvard+princeton#post1060767375&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>

[/quote]
</p>

<p>^ This is only useful to a certain extent, unfortunately, since yale is... well... yale.</p>

<p>Yes, it's true that admission into LS is most about 2 numbers: GPA and LSAT. However, as noted in this thread, on each administration of the LSAT, the median LSAT and gpa of each person who took the LSAT from each undergraduate institution is calculated. I don't know exactly how much data is included, but when LSDAS does its calculation, it gives each LS an idea of where your gpa compares compared to the other people from the SAME college who took it--NOT all the students at your college, just test takers. It also tells each law school the median LSAT of that same group. So, why you may not know it yourself, LSs will know if your gpa is in the bottom half of those who sent in their transcripts from the college you attend because they want to go to law school. </p>

<p>Now, there are those who say that this information doesn't matter. I don't believe that. </p>

<p>I think there's a reason that LSDAS calculates the other numbers. The quick way of judging "grade inflation"--just a ROUGH idea--is to compare the median gpa and median LSAT. Drop the 1 in the LSAT, and you have a 20 to 80 range. Divide by 20. In theory, if there were a school where the median LSAT was 120, the median gpa should be 1, a D. In theory, if there were a school where it was 180, it should be an A or 4.0. So, lets say that at X u the median LSAT is 149. IN THEORY, the median gpa of those test takers should be 2.45. In reality, there is a large state U with that median LSAT in a recent year, in which the median gpa was actually 3.1. Now lets make up some numbers for Old Ivy. The median LSAT is 163. That means that in THEORY, the median gpa should be
3.15. It's 'actually' 3.4. Now the folks at large state U will complain that Old Ivy has grade inflation because the median gpa is a 3.4. It does. They like to tell themselves that their school is less grade-inflated because the median gpa is "only" 3.1 vs. the 3.4 at Old Ivy. Personally, I don't believe that. </p>

<p>I think there's a reason LSDAS bothers to figure out the median gpa earned by the test takers at each school and how you rank---there's more of a breakdown, so they'll have more info--and what the median LSAT is for EVERY undergraduate college applicants attended. If you think it's irrelevant, you're free to believe that. I don't.</p>

<p>if you know you want to go to law school and there is no chance that you will change your mind over the next four years, go to the small school. remember, though, that you will really need to do very well. </p>

<p>if you think that you might want to do something other than law, something that only requires a four-year degree, go to the more prestigious school. even if you do end of going to law school after that, you will have kept your options open and can afford to get a slightly lower gpa.</p>