Recently heard about one school's early admission program (UT maybe). They let honors undergradss in w/out even taking the LSAT. Apparently this boosts their average GPA. Then, they can take in the best LSATs w/out worrying as much about those kids' grades. Their avg GPA stays up to snuff since it's artificially high due to the early admissions but their overall LSAT score is up a few points.

That's UM IIRC. I think NW wanted to do the same thing.

Other methods of boosting numbers include:

1) Part time program(this is now reported)
2) Spring admission class with unreported stats
3) Accepting transfers

So I just read this thread and the other 'ask eyedea about law school etc' thread and I have some questions: (sophomore at UNLV btw. 3.0 gpa but rising)

1. Is the standard major for law political science? I'm changing majors from marketing and am unsure about whether I want to major in poli sci or criminal justice. Is there a huge preference?

2. I'm half Mexican half Iranian. How do I play the URM card?

3. UNLV law school = TTT?

Thanks alot by the way. I imagine this thread will help alot in the future.

The best major for a law student is not what you think. Don't worry about the standard majors. As a political science and psychology major in undergrad, I can tell you that going that route is a huge mistake. The people that do the best always seem to be people with accounting degrees, especially in the business-law line of classes, though not limited to those.

If you want to make big bucks after law school, you can choose a hard science such as chemistry or engineering. They will give you options, such as patent law.

Don't go into political science or criminal justice because you think it will raise your chances of getting into law school, because they certainly won't. The only thing law schools care about is your gpa and LSAT score. You won't learn anything in poli sci or criminal justice that will really help you out in law school either.

I found out 4 years too late that that is a GREAT reason to major in psych and not in chemistry. Everyone knows what the hard majors are but that doesn't mean beans in the admissions game.

Yeah, year after year I pick up the rankings and am forced to realize that my decision to go to BC instead of Indiana-Bloomington was a terrible mistake.

Even worse are the Cooley rankings with us at 39.

Thankfully Princeton Review says we are Top 5 for Career Prospects!


Unless you go to like Yale through Penn, then there are way too many factors for # rankings.

"Official" confirmed rankings released on TLS today by Ken (super reliable source).

Of course the school I decided to attend takes a huge drop, and the schools I decided to pass up take huge leaps over it. But that's ok. Rankings fluctuate every year. Who knows where they will be 3 years from now?

And after t-20ish it doesn't even matter because you're going to a regional school -- it doesn't matter if your school is 40 or 65, so no worries.

btw, here are the new law school rankings


1. Yale
2. Harvard
3. Stanford
4. Columbia
5. NYU
6. Berkeley
6. Chicago
8. Penn
9. Michigan
10. Duke
10. Northwestern
10. UVA
13. Cornell
14. GULC
15. UCLA
16. Texas
17. Vanderbilt
18. USC
19. WUSTL
20. BU
20. Emory
20. Minnesota
23. Indiana - Bloomington
23. Illinois
23. Notre Dame
26. BC
26. Iowa
28. William and Mary
28. GWU
30. Fordham
30. Alabama
30. UNC
30. U of Washington
30. Washington and Lee
35. OSU
35. Davis
35. Georgia
35. Wisconsin-Madison
39. Hastings
40. Wake Forest
41. BYU
41. GMU
43. Arizona
43. Maryland
45. American
45. Tulane
45. UC Boulder
45. Utah
49. SMU
49. Cardozo
51. U of Florida
52. Florida State
52. U of Cincinnati
52. UConn
55. Arizona State
55. Case Western
55. Pepperdine
55. Kentucky
59. Tennessee
59. Houston
61. Brooklyn
61. Lewis & Clark
61. San Diego
61. Villanova
65. Baylor
65. Georgia State
65. Penn State
65. Temple
65. U of Kansas
65. U of Missouri
71. Loyola LA
71. Miami
71. Oklahoma
71. Pitt
75. Louisiana State
75. UNLV
77. Chicago-Kent
77. Rutgers Camden
77. Seattle
77. Seton Hall
77. Denver
77. New Mexico
77. Oregon
77. Richmond
85. Santa Clara
85. SUNY-Buff
87. DePaul
87. Indiana-Indianapolis
87. Loyola Chicago
87. Marquette
87. Rutgers Newark
87. St. John's
87. South Carolina
94. Catholic
94. Northeastern
94. St Louis
94. Arkansas Fayetteville
98. Louisville
98. USF
100. Gonzaga
100. Hofstra
100. UMaine

Well I'd say T-30ish instead of T-20ish, but yes I agree.

I'd say even 20 might be too low. You think Iowa places to California or Miami?
HYS>T14>regional schools>TTT, with TTTs being interspersed with the regional schools after like 70 or so.

I know you're exaggerating with "terrified" but are there really people who sit there constantly refreshing usnews.com on the day the rankings come out, pissing their pants if their school drops a few places? I get the feeling there are, and it's really mind-boggling.

Even within the T14 though, I mean if you know you wan't to be in Boston, and can get into Duke, you're going to be much better off taking money at BC/BU.


mia,

when i was looking for the 2010 rankings after Fly posted, I found a website called toplawschools or something and one dude's girlfriend found it early on some newstand there was like 200 people going "omg omg omg" as he put up a photo of the cover and stuff.

I am super suprised about this. BC should get you access to the Boston law market and maybe the NYC? Not so of Indiana.

For myself the best reason to go to IU would be cost of living or lack thereof.

But, I got rejected from Utah today , so these options just aren't a factor.

Well, I was talking more about the administration, but absolutely there are people in the student body who do that. Have you met the sort of person who goes to law school? That's not even the weirdest thing those kids do.

Oh, I'm sure I went to school with people like that, but A) I went to one of the TTTiest of the TTTs, so most people weren't hung up on whether they were a step above or below Cleveland State or Howard, and B) I made it a point not to associate with people like that anyway.

We're probably worse than most given the narrow gap between UF and FSU for "best law school in Florida" and that beyond some flight capital stuff in Miami we don't get a ton of people from out of state law schools coming down here to do construction ligation in Tampa.

TLS. You've never been there?

top-law-schools.com

also that operasoprano person tracking down the rankings thread was very lol. gotta kinda know the full backstory to get the full lolz.

My law school just dropped to TT status. I blame this all on FlyWF.

FlyWf,

Tell me about Florida law schools. I'm an undergraduate at UM and thinking about staying in state for law school.

What do you think of FSU vs. UF vs. UMiami for job prospects in the MIA? And what's this you say about there being no BigLaw in Florida? Much appreciated.

GodJr- Word on el street is that you guys are going to radically reduce your incoming class size to boost your 1L numbers and reseparate from us, while our plan is to get bigger so we can subsidize the rest of our ****hole university.

quick- GodJr goes to UF, fwiw.

FSU is the best academic school, generally does the best on bar passage rates and such, but we've got almost no alumni base in Miami. We place better to like Atlanta, DC, and Mobile than we do to SoFla. If you really want to work in Miami, you're better off going to UM.

There's no Big Law in that you aren't going to get a job at a Vault 10 firm going anywhere in Florida, simply because there aren't Vault 10 firms in Florida. The biggest firm in Florida is Holland and Knight, and they are absolutely bleeding money.

So, where does TTT start on that list? 70? 100?

15, obv

.

would you say the same is true in nyc w/ fordham vs. say, georgetown?