| Topic Name: |
A different kind of undergrad degree |
| Message Name: |
it's largely about LSAT |
| Date Posted: |
09/23/2001 |
| In Reply To: |
Generally, it seems that people on this board are pretty vague about their school, major, etc. I'm well aware of the aggregate statistics and am wondering if those out there with a more detailed perspective (e.g. admissions committee members, layers, etc.) can assist me.
My Profile:
- Communication Studies major at Northwestern University.
*Lots of emphasis on argumentation, advocacy, and deliberation.
- 3.8 GPA
- Practice LSATs in the 167-173 range.
Perceived Advantages:
- Fairly good school.
- Fairly good GPA
- Fairly good shot at the LSAT.
Perceived Disadvantages:
- People shudder and/or laugh when they hear titles of majors with "communication" anywhere in them.
- The School of Speech at NU is considering changing its name to "School of Communication Arts and Performance," or so the rumor goes.
- Northwestern University is the #1 feeder school to NU Law, so they are more strict when reviewing NU applicants (ad com member told me).
Schools I'm considering most heavily are (in no particular order)-
* Northwestern University
* Michigan
* NYU
* UT-Austin
* UVA
* Georgetown
* UCLA
* Berkeley
* USC
* Duke
I left off Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, and Chicago because (a) the general sense I get is that the people at those schools are cold, back stabbing bastards and (b) I don't want to live in the NYC area.
I'd like to go to a school that has small class sizes, a good mix of the theoretical and the practical. The places I'd like most to live in are: Chicago, Texas, Westcoast, or anywhere with a more laid back atmosphere.
I've picked what seems like broad range of schools, but what do you think my chances are (collectively or individually) for getting into those schools?
Thanks for your time and sorry for the long post.
-mobiusz |
| Message: |
The reality is that with a 3.8 from NW and a high LSAT, you're probably in each of your school choices. I can't recount for you the current "back stabbing bastards" stats, but if you can get into HYS, Chicago, Columbia, NYU or Michigan,you pretty much go. The hiring boost is that great, and you don't have to live in NY, SF or
MI, for example--these schools have great national placement. With a high LSAT, you're golden, with a low LSAT, you've got to revise your expectations. It's really as simple as that.
Once you get out of the LSAT/GPA formula part of the admissions process, your NW degree will boost you a bit, and you're unlikely to get any boost from communications, which is not considered as hard a course of study to get good grades in (although, as an aside, any major that works on your writing skills is apt to be a great preparation for law school/law practice). Spend no time worrying about "people shudder or laugh at communication", "my speech school may become speech and drama (I hope this is not rude, but absolutely nobody cares other than the profs in the department), or that NW reviews its grads more closely (if true, odd that NW would be so parochial, but it can happen). Spend all your time on LSAT prep. Test scores mean literally nothing.
Sad as it may seem, how high in the law school food chain you go now depends mostly on your LSAT, with a slight addition of whether you can write a brief admission essay.
Rest assured that if you can do well on the LSAT, you'll get into a top school, and if you don't, you'll have to have some fortune to go as high as you want to go.
Good fortune, high scores, live long and prosper, or whatever is the right "good luck" exhortation!
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