<p>I read that Yale College pre-law grads have a better shot at entering Yale’s Law School. So, my question is, if your in the pre-law program for a certain school, are you in a better position, or do you have a better chance for that school’s law school? </p>
<p>Isn’t it better if you do your undergrad and postgrad at different universities? Or do you have a better chance at getting to your undergrads law school, if your in it’s pre-law program?</p>
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<p>Both effects are very, very small if they exist at all.</p>
<p>As a hypothetical, though, let’s pretend that both effects exist and are pretty strong. (As is the case in some fields.) They actually aren’t contradictory – if anything they make perfect sense. Because College A –> Law A is easier, then AA grads would be less preferable than College B–> Law A grads, on the theory that the AA grads had an easier time gaining entry and were probably less qualified as undergrads.</p>
<p>There is no official pre-law at Yale, and very few pre-law-esque courses. We have a con-law course that many future law school people take, and if memory serves there are 2 or 3 other sort of relevant courses ( I think political philosophy is popular among law school types).</p>
<p>From what I’ve heard, you really won’t do yourself much good doing lots of law-related courses in undergrad. You’ll be better served by doing some sort of major that makes you stand out from the crowd.</p>
<p>It is slightly easier to get into Yale Law from Yale. It’s not that it’s a policy. It’s more that admissions decisions are made by faculty. The YLS faculty knows the faculty of A&S. Indeed, there are a couple of profs who teach both UG and law school courses. When you read a good LOR from someone you know well it has more of an impact that a letter from someone you don’t know from Adam. </p>
<p>Going to any college in the hope of getting into its law school is foolish. Nobody knows what gpa or LSAT you’ll end up with. Lets say you go to Yale and get a 3.6 and a 169 LSAT. You’re probably not getting into YLS. At that point, if you could go back in time you’d probably aim for UG at one of the schools ranked 7-14. </p>
<p>But at some of those law schools you won’t get much, if any, boost from going to the affilated UG. Yale’s system of having faculty read the files is unusual. Admissions officers may know UG faculty but not to the same extent or in the same way that YLS faculty members know Yale A&S faculty.</p>
<p>I’ve not done a study on this but it has been my observation over the years that any particular law school will have have more students who did their undergraduate work at the same institution than it will have students from any other single undergraduate school. But that does not mean that it is easier to get admitted if you went to the same school, because that law school also probably received more applications from undergraduates of the same institution than from any other single undergraduate school.</p>