almostfamous wrote:
Hi 77,
Great post by you above. Thanks! The numbers site is very useful.
I hear it all the time that the acceptance to a law school is a "numbers game" and that if your GPA and LSAT is good, you'll be in.
However, in the lawnumbers site, there are many folks who have 170 = LSAT, 3.7+ GPA AND were rejected by Stanford etc. I also see other trends: folks with a lower (in 160s) LSAT, 3.4:ish GPA and accepted to Stanford, Yale etc.
Law school application does not include resume or interview, so it must be down to your personal statement that divides your fate?
It seems that acceptance to law schools, after all, is not a numbers game? Could anyone shed light on this? What else - beside the numbers - are important?
Thanks!
It depends on the admissions process. At Yale, the dean accepts about 40-60 exceptional applicants without having to go through the traditional process. The remaining applicants are reviewed by 3 faculty members who rank each applicant on a scale from 1-4. IF an applicant accumulates a total score of 12 (4 from each faculty member) then they are admitted. If an applicant gets a total score of 11, then they are waitlisted. Every one else is rejected. At the end, Yale ends up with about a 5-6% acceptance rate and over 90% yield rate. It is the most competitive law school to gain admission to in the world. Numbers play a role, especially GPA, but Yale really looks for the wow factor (Rhodes Scholar, Started own million-dollar company, Military combat experience, best-selling author, etc). I would say Yale prefers people with high LSATs, yes, but moreso with high Undergraduate GPAs. If you have anything under a 3.8, Yale is probably going to say no regardless of LSAT. Yale is also the only school that publishes a grid so you can see exactly how many people with the LSAT/GPA combo got in within the last few years. Yale is also the only school which doesn't do affirmative action in the traditional sense. Faculty readers do not have to take the race or gender of the applicant into account when making decisions. Most of the URMs at Yale have stellar GPA and LSAT combos (3.8+/168+).
Harvard is a pure numbers game for some and more holistic for others. If you have a 3.9/175, you'll get into Harvard Law. But if you have a 172/3.7 then you'll need to have other things going for you. A 3.9/175 is not an autoadmit at Yale and many of those combos are rejected. Harvard is one of the largest law schools in the world, however, and has a much larger class than Yale.
Stanford is very selective, but it is not a pure numbers game. Like Yale, they prefer students who stand out. Like Yale, they may forgive a relatively low LSAT, but the GPA almost always needs to be stellar.
Again, getting into Yale/Harvard/Stanford is difficult because they don't have to pick and choose between a good GPA/LSAT applicant. They admit students with the complete package.
As you move down the top 14 law schools, you'll notice people having splits. Like say a 3.5GPA\175 LSAT. That'll get you into a lot of good schools. As will a 3.9/169. So you just have to apply broadly and early if you're a "splitter" and you'll probably get into a well regarded school. For people with good, but not great combos 3.4/163, then you guys are looking at top 25-50 schools.