Top Law Schools

Hi. I'm from Asia (but I carry an American passport as I was born in the US) and I'm planning to attend law school in the US.
I have an a double undergraduate degree majors in business and accountancy. My GPA is 1.09 (summa cum laude).
My LSAT score is 172. I prefer to stay in the West Coast or South as I hate cold weather.

atitz wrote:Hi. I'm from Asia (but I carry an American passport as I was born in the US) and I'm planning to attend law school in the US.
I have an a double undergraduate degree majors in business and accountancy. <b>My GPA is 1.09 (summa cum laude).</b>
My LSAT score is 172. I prefer to stay in the West Coast or South as I hate cold weather.

I'm just making a guess here, but I'm assuming that your GPA is using a different scale than the 4. scale that American schools use (since you were summa cum laude). You have a pretty sweet LSAT, so I'm pretty sure you won't have problems getting into the schools you'd want. Off the top of my head, I'd suggest Stanford, UCLA, and UC Berkley as viable schools to apply to (for the West Coast). There's Also Texas-Austin. Those are all probably the highest ranking schools in the West and South.

Good luck!

You will have the lowest GPA ever accepted in the t14! You will do just fine. Go to lsac.org and get an account and have your transcript sent there. They will convert your grades to a 4.0 scale and then we will be able to diagnose your situation better. All the top schools are nationally mobile but there are certain schools that will probably do exceptionally well in certain areas (Berkeley over say Duke for the west coast).

Thank you all for the encouraging replies.

My GPA conversion is something like 3.98 (on a scale of 4.00 being the highest and 1.00 being the lowest.)

I will certainly look into Stanford and Berkeley.



Additional question: Assuming I decide to practice law in the East Coast, say in New York or Boston, would a law degree from Stanford or Berkeley an advantage or disadvantage?

You will get into Harvard, Stanford and most likely Yale. I will probably work for you one day.

Doritos, I know you're just kidding. But seriously, I'm not super smart. I'm just studious.

Someone I know who graduated from my university got into Yale 3 years ago. (He was the first ever and the last that I know of who got into Yale Law.) He encourages me to attend Yale, but when I asked what his stats are, I felt insecure. He's also a summa cum laude, but his LSAT was 178. Both his parents are practicing attorney so he knows the law since he was a baby. I'm not aiming for Yale or Harvard. I'd be glad to be accepted at either Stanford or Berkeley. One of my concerns/worries are, a law degree from either school might not be well-respected in the East Coast.

atitz wrote:Hi. I'm from Asia (but I carry an American passport as I was born in the US) and I'm planning to attend law school in the US.
I have an a double undergraduate degree majors in business and accountancy. My GPA is 1.09 (summa cum laude).
My LSAT score is 172. I prefer to stay in the West Coast or South as I hate cold weather.

As a UT-Austin grad student ... trust me, if you visit Austin, you will be hooked ... so to speak. [Insert Hook 'Em Horns smiley here.]

My obvious bias aside, if you can find a T15 school with a better quality of life & cost of living than Austin, TX, let me know about it.

FunkyJD wrote:

atitz wrote:Hi. I'm from Asia (but I carry an American passport as I was born in the US) and I'm planning to attend law school in the US.
I have an a double undergraduate degree majors in business and accountancy. My GPA is 1.09 (summa cum laude).
My LSAT score is 172. I prefer to stay in the West Coast or South as I hate cold weather.

As a UT-Austin grad student ... trust me, if you visit Austin, you will be hooked ... so to speak. [Insert Hook 'Em Horns smiley here.]

My obvious bias aside, if you can find a T15 school with a better quality of life & cost of living than Austin, TX, let me know about it.

Thanks for your post, FunkyJD.

How is Texas-Austin law school viewed outside of Texas?

atitz wrote:

FunkyJD wrote:

atitz wrote:Hi. I'm from Asia (but I carry an American passport as I was born in the US) and I'm planning to attend law school in the US.
I have an a double undergraduate degree majors in business and accountancy. My GPA is 1.09 (summa cum laude).
My LSAT score is 172. I prefer to stay in the West Coast or South as I hate cold weather.

As a UT-Austin grad student ... trust me, if you visit Austin, you will be hooked ... so to speak. [Insert Hook 'Em Horns smiley here.]

My obvious bias aside, if you can find a T15 school with a better quality of life & cost of living than Austin, TX, let me know about it.

Thanks for your post, FunkyJD.

How is Texas-Austin law school viewed outside of Texas?

It doesn't really travel outside of Texas/the South. You are better off going to a T-14 if you want to work on the West Coast or the East Coast.

Stanford looks good on the East Coast because it's one of the big 3 schools. If you want to work on the East Coast, you are better off going to Columbia, Chicago, NYU, Penn, Michigan, UVA, Duke than Berkeley.

atitz wrote:Doritos, I know you're just kidding. But seriously, I'm not super smart. I'm just studious.

Someone I know who graduated from my university got into Yale 3 years ago. (He was the first ever and the last that I know of who got into Yale Law.) He encourages me to attend Yale, but when I asked what his stats are, I felt insecure. He's also a summa cum laude, but his LSAT was 178. Both his parents are practicing attorney so he knows the law since he was a baby. I'm not aiming for Yale or Harvard. I'd be glad to be accepted at either Stanford or Berkeley. One of my concerns/worries are, a law degree from either school might not be well-respected in the East Coast.

I was not kidding about the schools you can get into. You have a 3.98 and a 172. 3.98 is 75th percentile for Yale and 172 is around their median. You aren't an auto admit (no one is at Yale...) but you have a darn good shot. Write a good Personal statement and send the adcomms a fruit basket and I think you're in. There just aren't that many humans who have numbers much better than yours so be confident with that. I would be shocked if Harvard or Stanford rejected you. If you want to go for free you are a great candidate for Darrow or another full tuition scholarship at a lower T10 (Michigan, Virginia, Penn, etc.). For realz my man, you are in great shape to get into a great school.

....

Apply to HYSCCN for sure. Apply to UVirginia, UMich and Berkley if you want.

You will get into 1 or more of the above unless you make a profound error on your application.

Wow! I'm really glad that I registered on this forum. I get pumped up by all your comments. Thanks a lot guys.
I would look into Harvard and Yale -- the sound of attending in either one of those top 2 schools is huge for me. But I'll just be realistic with my chances since I'm international, and I really, really love to be in California, though Texas and Florida are in my considerations as well. Stanford is my dream school, and Berkeley would certainly be not a bad alternative for me, and it's a huge name in my country too. I'm not going to say bad things about UCLA and USC but I am not attracted to either school, so I might take 3 or 4 schools in the South since I'm limiting my application to 6 schools only. I'm considering Duke now, so I still have 3 more schools to pick. I might reserve one of that for Harvard. Michigan was originally in my list but I don't think I can stand the weather in Ann Arbor.


And, by the way, I'm a he (and straight)


Thanks a lot guys and Happy New Year to everyone!

OP, you should definitely apply to everything T6. You will almost certainly get into at least 4, perhaps 5 of them (Yale is a crapshoot for people with 4.0/180). You say you want to be in California, Texas, or Florida, and that's fine. But, if you get into either Yale or Harvard, you should suck it up and do three years in the northeast. With a degree from either of those schools, you will be able to go more or less anywhere you want. That kind of flexibility is more than worth the three years in a less than favorable climate.

macattaq wrote:OP, you should definitely apply to everything T6. You will almost certainly get into at least 4, perhaps 5 of them (Yale is a crapshoot for people with 4.0/180). You say you want to be in California, Texas, or Florida, and that's fine. But, if you get into either Yale or Harvard, you should suck it up and do three years in the northeast. With a degree from either of those schools, you will be able to go more or less anywhere you want. That kind of flexibility is more than worth the three years in a less than favorable climate.

Thanks for your post, maam. Would you be kind to explain what T6 is? If that represents the top 6 law schools in America, can you enumerate what those schools are? Thanks.

atitz wrote:Would you be kind to explain what T6 is? If that represents the top 6 law schools in America, can you enumerate what those schools are?

Yes, T6 = the top 6 schools.
1) Yale 2) Harvard 3) Stanford 4) Columbia 5) NYU 6) Berkeley

T6 = Top 6

which based on USNWR Rankings are:

Yale
Harvard
Stanford
Columbia
New York
(Gets hazy here between Berkeley and Chicago)

SolarWind wrote:T6 = Top 6

which based on USNWR Rankings are:

Yale
Harvard
Stanford
Columbia
New York
(Gets hazy here between Berkeley and Chicago)

+1
I totally forgot to add Chicago.

atitz wrote:Wow! I'm really glad that I registered on this forum. I get pumped up by all your comments. Thanks a lot guys.
I would look into Harvard and Yale -- the sound of attending in either one of those top 2 schools is huge for me. But I'll just be realistic with my chances since I'm international, and I really, really love to be in California, though Texas and Florida are in my considerations as well. Stanford is my dream school, and Berkeley would certainly be not a bad alternative for me, and it's a huge name in my country too. I'm not going to say bad things about UCLA and USC but I am not attracted to either school, so I might take 3 or 4 schools in the South since I'm limiting my application to 6 schools only. I'm considering Duke now, so I still have 3 more schools to pick. I might reserve one of that for Harvard. Michigan was originally in my list but I don't think I can stand the weather in Ann Arbor.


And, by the way, I'm a he (and straight)


Thanks a lot guys and Happy New Year to everyone!

Lucky you. Stanford cares more about GPA than LSAT in comparison to either H or Y and is in the same class as those two. Berkley is also known for its greater emphasis on GPA.

Sauer Grapes wrote:Even though her GPA translates to a 3.98 on a 4.0 scale, will she have a LSDAS GPA as a foreign student?

I'm curious about this as well. I'm from the US but went to undergrad in the UK. I guess I'll just have to wait until June to send my transcript over the LSDAS and see what happens.

I would recommend apply to Cooley School of Law. Many people from other countries don't know about it because it's 'legal secret weapon' so to speak that we keep quiet amongst our countrymates here. I even think your numbers might - might - be good enough for you to get you in. If you were to be one of the few to get to come all this way to get a Cooley degree, you would really be a rare breed...

atitz wrote:

macattaq wrote:OP, you should definitely apply to everything T6. You will almost certainly get into at least 4, perhaps 5 of them (Yale is a crapshoot for people with 4.0/180). You say you want to be in California, Texas, or Florida, and that's fine. But, if you get into either Yale or Harvard, you should suck it up and do three years in the northeast. With a degree from either of those schools, you will be able to go more or less anywhere you want. That kind of flexibility is more than worth the three years in a less than favorable climate.

Thanks for your post, maam. Would you be kind to explain what T6 is? If that represents the top 6 law schools in America, can you enumerate what those schools are? Thanks.

I love how polite foreigners are it always makes me smile. and ruleser...how dare you give away the secret weapon...

ruleser wrote:I would recommend apply to Cooley School of Law. Many people from other countries don't know about it because it's 'legal secret weapon' so to speak that we keep quiet amongst our countrymates here. I even think your numbers might - might - be good enough for you to get you in. If you were to be one of the few to get to come all this way to get a Cooley degree, you would really be a rare breed...

Just horrible... Lol.

You hate cold? Have fun at Stanford.

Haha 1.09 gpa I was like wtffff for a while.