jojodevka

Out of curiosity, how does Smith do in placing students into top law schools? According to the Yale Law School website, there are no Smithies in the class of 2010, but what about the rest of the T14 schools? Where do Smithies usually go?

SmithieandProud

No idea. I know all of my friends are aiming for T14 or T5 law schools, but a lot will depend on how they do on the LSATs next year.

The pre-law advisor is named Alice Hearst, she works in the gov department and she's really awesome (I had her for Constitutional Law, the class that convinced me I didn't want to study law, but that had nothing to do with her or her teaching). You could maybe email her and ask, though she might be slow getting back to you. ahearst@email.smith.edu

stacy

There are several Smithies at top law schools: I personally know people who've been admitted to or are currently students at Harvard, Michigan, NYU, Georgetown, Penn, and Columbia. The Career Development Office might also have statistics on what schools people have gone to in recent years, though they might not know about everyone--particularly those who took time off in between college and law school. Overall I think Smith has a good reputation among law school admissions officers (the dean of admissions at one T14 went to Bryn Mawr and LOVES 7 sisters grads).

Speaking as a Smith alum and a current student at a T14 law school, I think it's somewhat misleading to worry about how a college does at "placing" people into top law schools (it's somewhat different for PhD programs and other graduate school). For law school, if you get a high enough GPA and LSAT score, you can get in pretty much anywhere. The LSAT is pretty self-directed and your score has little to do with what college you went to. GPA is also pretty self-directed except if your school has a strict curve or a lot of grade deflation (Smith has neither).

What Smith does offer is a chance to get involved in a lot of different activities and get to know professors well enough that they can write you good recommendations (one of mine was from the college president!). Those things matter relatively little in the law school application process, but if you're in the middle 50% of LSAT and GPA they might be enough to tip the balance.

jojodevka

Thanks, Smithie and Stacy. I'll definitely look into talking with Alice Hearst.

Stacy, do you happen to know which school the Bryn Mawr grad is the admissions dean at? And also, you don't have to answer, of course, but where do you go?

stacy

She is the dean at Michigan.