A telling anecdote, in response to all the posts that say things such as ‘the tiebreaker often is the rigor of the undergraduate program’ or that the tiebreaker is the prestige of the undergraduate’ uni, or that the tiebreaker is the school they know better, and therefore UVA, with it’s 7% is the best bet:
Virginia resident, Jefferson scholar at UVa (very big deal full tuition scholarship), summer internships in prestigious DC law firms, double major in French Lit and Physics, ended up graduating with some form of distinction (forget which level): put on the wait list for UVa law school. Got a call in the early summer to say that the adcomm had gone to the wait list to choose somebody to fill an open space. GPA had been just a hair below their cut off for the first round, but now that they were looking more closely, they noticed the physics major (they hadn’t the first time), and the internships, and they would like to offer the place.
In other words, they pretty much acknowledged that they had barely read the app- the cut was driven by numbers, even for an internal candidate who was an acknowledged star within the institution, with serious academic rigor and strong, relevant (and paid) summer work experience.
Imo, picking an undergrad place b/c it might possibly increase the chances of getting into a top law school by a few % is not helpful for at least two reasons: other factors are much more likely to be what makes the difference (eg, the ability to get the needed GPA), and the reality that (as impossible as it may seem at the moment) your D may yet choose a different path: there are a lot of changes between 17 and 22.
So, my advice is for your D NOT to choose an undergrad place based on how much it will help her chances for law school, and instead to choose an affordable place where she feels she can bloom- academically, intellectually, socially. [MIT’s advice](Applying Sideways | MIT Admissions), written about ‘how to get into MIT’ is still the best, and can be extended to the college-grad school jump as well: