<p>I am currently a junior and i am contemplating going to law school and i wondered which undergrad would give me the greatest chance of getting into law school, like political interships during the summer and such. My list is:
Gtown
University of Texas
UPenn
Duke
Harvard</p>
<p>Any feedback would be appreciated thanks! :)</p>
<p>Doesn't matter. HLS is a numbers game.</p>
<p>PS: Oh, except Duke. Duke rules all.</p>
<p>It will not likely be a significant factor, but I would probably choose UT purely for law school. Getting a 3.9+ would likely be the easiest there, meaning you'd only need a 172 LSAT or so. That same 172 with a 3.75 at Duke, UPenn or GT would be auto-dinged, and probably at Harvard too, depending on the actual homegrown bias.</p>
<p>On the other hand, choosing an UG based purely on law school is the height of stupidity. Few people are sure of their final career when they enter college, and even if you do end up in law, those 4 years matter in themselves.</p>
<p>damn, I thought someone on Law school numbers had to have gotten into Harvard with 172/3.75, but no. not one.</p>
<p>Considering that that's my gpa, I need to aim much much higher than I thought for the LSAT.</p>
<p>Except that I don't think the variation in GPA always moves as we might expect it to. Some kids respond very strongly to their environment and will probably end up at about the same percentile no matter what. It's probably true that a student of equivalent intelligence who works equivalently hard will have the highest GPA at the lowest-ranked school, but many school cultures can make that very difficult.</p>
<p>(1) Which top law school? If you are aiming for Harvard Law, Harvard College is the answer. If you are aiming for Georgetown, G'town is your answer. Ditto for all the others--Duke UG for Duke Law, etc. Most LSs, especially private LSs, give a slight advantage to UGs from the same university. The problem is that before you start college, you have no idea whether you will be in the "zone" for admissions. If you don't have the numbers for Harvard LS, e.g., you have a 160 LSAT, having attended its UG will not help. </p>
<p>(2) "Political internships during the summer and such" matter very little in terms of LS admissions. </p>
<p>(3) Wait until you have acceptances in hand from the colleges before making your choice. It isn't personal since you haven't even posted your "stats," but the likelihood someone will be accepted by all those colleges is pretty small. </p>
<p>(4) Best advice is to go to the college to which you are admitted which you think you will enjoy the most. LOTS of people who think they want to be attorneys when they are in high school change their minds. Even if you do go to LS, you are likely to get the best grades at the school you enjoy most. It's hard to do well academically when you are unhappy.</p>
<p>(5) One additional caveat--you may need to take cost into consideration. It's harder to get both need-based and merit-based $ for LS than college. There are good loan forgiveness programs if you are aiming at public service. If you aren't you may want to consider how much UG debt you will accrue in choosing among UG schools.</p>
<p>Go the school that would offer you the most alternative/ enjoyment options. Don't plan your undergraduate college choice based on which law school you want to go to. Harvard would be most likely to offer you plenty of career alternatives to law, but so would all of the other schools (Harvard would offer the most, however.)</p>
<p>Thanks for all the advice, taking that into consideration I will probably go to UT, it is in texas and I may get a merit scholarship, and their law school is amazing as well. Thanks everybody!</p>
<p>I think that all of the schools that you listed are excellent, very highly regarded schools, and if you are successful at any of them (all other things being equal), you should have no trouble getting into a fine law school.</p>
<p>I agree with sallyawp. Pick a college that feels right for you. Work hard for four years. Then, if you still feel you want to go to law school, your decision about where to apply will depend both upon your grades and LSAT score, and where you think you'd like to practice law.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Except that I don't think the variation in GPA always moves as we might expect it to. Some kids respond very strongly to their environment and will probably end up at about the same percentile no matter what. It's probably true that a student of equivalent intelligence who works equivalently hard will have the highest GPA at the lowest-ranked school, but many school cultures can make that very difficult.
[/quote]
In IQ dominated fields (Engineering, Math, Hard Science) school selection (ie: IQ of the competition) has a very large impact on GPA.</p>
<p>Go to any of the above and totally and utterly kick ass there.</p>
<p>I second what was said above!:)</p>
<p>If going to HLS is your only concern, either go to HYP or some decent school where you can get the highest GPA possible.</p>
<p>GO to the one with the highest grade inflation...</p>
<p>National</a> Trends in Grade Inflation, American Colleges and Universities</p>
<p>Highest Grade Inflation:</p>
<ol>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Duke</li>
<li><p>Penn</p></li>
<li><p>Texas (by a large gap)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Looks like Texas grades the toughest-Harvard the easiest.</p>
<p>They're not adjusting for baseline student characteristics. Harvard may give out the highest grades, but that doesn't mean it would give out the highest grade to a given student working a given amount of time.</p>
<p>In fact:<a href="Negative%20numbers%20are%20grade%20deflated%20and%20positive%20numbers%20are%20inflated.">quote</a>
MIT -2.646136
Penn -1.486136
Johns Hopkins -1.246136
Princeton University -0.966136
Univ. of Chicago -0.966136
Harvard University -0.926136
Williams College -0.886136
Yale -0.766136
Cornell -0.686136
Duke University -0.686136
Stanford -0.646136
UC - Berkeley -0.646136
...
Univ. of Texas -0.286136
[/quote]
<p>Why is everyone so intent on getting into Harvard Law? Chances are 99.9999% asking this question on a message board are not going to get in anyway. If you're not smart enough, you're not smart enough. Wake up and smell reality.</p>
<p>I'm not hung up on Harvard Law. I used to be, but not anymore. The OP asked how do you get into Harvard Law, people here answered the OP. That's all.</p>