Which school will give me a better pre-law foundation?

Graduate School Law School
1

<p>I am quite ignorant about what law-schools want from undergrads besides LSATs+GPA = IMPORTANT.</p>

<p>Since I am leaning more toward attending a TOP law school someday over a business school (which is my current undergrad focus/major, Finance)...
I want to know more about what a Law Schools see in their candidate's undergrad choice.</p>

<p>My current situation lies something like this:</p>

<p>1) I can attend McCombs School of Business at UT, with my background/stats and hopefull an excellent GPA I should be able to transfer into the Business Honors Program there as a sophomore, for the purpose of my decision lets operate under the assumption I will get into the BHP. Now the BHP not only provides top-notch opportunities in Wall Street Finance, but its also reported that students in the BHP usually graduate with extremely high GPAs, partially due to selectiveness for the program, and partially due to the fact that BHP classes just tend to hand out more A's to their students.</p>

<p>This would give me a strong foundation in a secondary interest (Business Finance) and also set me up for a good law school (assuming I do well on LSAT's, once again lets operate under the assumption that I will).</p>

<p>However UT doesn't have a stellar reputation for its academics and I feel that I will leave with a narrow undergrad education that may leave me weak in other areas... UT is also my cheapest option.</p>

<p>2) NYU Stern School of Business, despite the 15k scholarship, this is still my most expensive option. I hear that while finance and Int'l Business (I would love to experience Int'l Business someday) are well worth pursuing there, the business school is still only ranked marginally higher than McCombs on most listings and the "NYC Advantage" is largely cancelled out by the recruiting my wall street firms that goes on at the BHP in McCombs... surely its a better business school, but that's not what I'm looking at here:</p>

<p>The finance classes at Stern do have a reputation for being highly competitive and the grade curving that goes on there can be DEVASTATING to your GPA if you slip up in a few finance classes, while I hear that Law School do compensate for tougher school's GPAs... I doubt they are going to compensate much just because I chose a competitive major there.</p>

<p>I did some reading on there pre-law program there, and while it seemed knowledgable and offered perhaps a few more pre-law opportunities (a pre-law consultant just for Sternies!)... it didn't offer me much that I couldn't accomplish myself at UT, considering the EXTREME ($30,000+) cost difference between NYU and UT, and the much more marginal benefits of attending NYU, mixed with potential harms for my GPA, it doesn't seem worth it.</p>

<p>3) Option 3 is a much more uncertain one, Im currently waitlisted at Rice... but regardless of what my "chances" are for getting into Rice this summer or as a transfer student, I want to pose this third option.</p>

<p>Should I attempt to pursue Rice to reverse my waitlisting, or transfer in after a year at UT, or perhaps even transfer into another top school like Penn? </p>

<p>I mean, Rice does have a reputation for an excellent undergrad focus... and would give me a more well-rounded education that would serve me better in law school than a narrow degree like Business Finance. But would the extra costs be worth it?</p>

<p>Im just worried that Rice is filled with competitive and ambitious students like myself, and that while I doubt my GPA would go down too much at Rice, I still feel like I would be sacrificing a GPA advantage that I might gain at UT... for my potential future in law, what could Rice offer me that might compensate for the addition $$$ and GPA deflation that I would get after going there, would the GPA deflation be cancelled out by law school's GPA reparation for more competitive/academic schools?</p>

<p>Im worried particularly about this because if I want to get off the waitlist, besides presenting my new debate awards and some other achievement, I feel like telling them, "Rice is my first choice, and if accepted I will enroll" is one of the most important things you can tell a University that has you on their waitlist... but if UT is still a better deal for getting into a top law school, I don't feel like I could do this.</p>

2

<p>If you do UT you'd probably end up with less debt and a better GPA. What I don't understand is why you're talking about wall street but wanting to get a legal degree.</p>

3

<p>Well if there was such a thing as a real law major for an UG I woud put those schools at the top, alas such a thing doesn't exist.</p>

<p>So since I can't major in law, what interest comes next? </p>

<p>Since your major is largely irrelevent for law schools, so thus my interest in law has NO impact on my major.... Finance!</p>

<p>I have kept and interest in finance and iBanking, but my ambition for a future law career has superceded my interest in business. But should I happen to fall in love with Finance as an undergrad (unlikely) or should I decide law just isn't for me (not likely either, but I want to keep my options open), I can still have a path open for me.</p>

<p>Finance to me is just a second option, but I'd rather have a strong second option in Finance at the BHP (or potentially Stern) than just take a somewhat-interesting major at UT or Rice that is far more likely to be distasteful to my interests and has little career growth potential.</p>

<p>Finance is a second option, but still a consideration at the schools I am applying to, just don't forget that the purpose of this thread is to evaluate what is a better pre-law foundation: I would throw out a business focus in a split-second if it meant giving me a significant advantage in pre-law preparations.</p>