It is probably a good time to shift the conversation from extinct mascots to the related topic of law school admissions.
When evaluating undergraduate programs…
One cannot perform a “per capita” calculation by just taking the number of students from a particular undergraduate school that are enrolled at a particular law school (or set of law schools) and divide that by the total number of students at the undergraduate school and come up with a meaningful number. This is because the number of students that apply to law school in general varies strongly by major, so the mix of majors at the school impacts the total number of students applying.
As an example, if we compare the most popular majors for law school between Amherst and Tufts we get:
…Amherst…Tufts
Law…13…0
Poly Sci…27…56
English…39…56
History…29…34
%of Grads…25%…10.6%
So a simple per capita calculation comparison is going to be heavily biased in favor of a school (like Amherst) with a high percantage of typical “pre law majors”. This is the same flaw in reasoning as comparing the average starting salaries of two schools without considering the mix of majors. Likewise for simple per capita Phd calculations.
One cannot just take a single ranking of law schools and assume that the number of students enrolled from a particular undergraduate school indicates some level of goodness. This is because the level of desireablity of a particular law school to a particular applicant can be a function of the law school’s perceived strength in a particular area of law, its geographic location relative to where the applicant would like to live after graduation as well as its cost relative to other options.
One cannot infer the probability of any particular candidate getting into any particular law school based on a per capita admission calculation for a particular undergraduate school. This is “lemming logic” and we all know what happens to lemmings. One would really need to know not only the number of applicants, but all the applicant’s attributes (GPA/difficulty of coursework, LSAT and related extra-curriculars) to try to determine if a particular school has an advantage.
I was able to find some data for Tufts that includes the number of applications/acceptances/enrollments per law school along with average GPAs and LSATs for the applicants. A quick analysis of seems to indicate that the most popular law schools for Tufts undergrads are the top rated schools for international law (makes sense given Tufts’ international focus), schools located in the cities of Boston, New York, and DC and schools that have special joint JD programs with some of Tufts’ grad schools. NYU, Harvard, and GTown are really popular, but Yale is not. BC, BU and Harvard have joint degree programs and cross enrollment with Tufts. Fordham in NYC and GWU and American in DC are also popular. Some midwestern and southern T14 law schools have high acceptance rates, but zero yield (i.e. no accepted Tufts students chose to enroll).
Here are the related links:
http://students.tufts.edu/sites/default/files/AASLawSchoolMatriculants2013.2014.pdf
https://www.ilrg.com/rankings/law/1/asc/Accept
https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/international-law-rankings