Law school admission stats suggest that “T14” law school admission is largely a function of LSAT score, undergrad GPA, and demographics (mostly URM status). Undergrad school name is not particularly important.
For example, in another thread, I looked up self-reported scattergrams for Chicago at University of Chicago Law School - Admissions Graph | Law School Numbers . When you exclude URMs, international, and non-traditional, there is a clear correlation with stats and decisions. At the time of the thread, acceptances were generally 3.8+ GPA and 170+ LSAT or 3.9+ GPA and 167+ LSAT. Rejections were generally <= 170 LSAT, particularly with lower GPA. Waitlists are typically borderline. These generalizations hold true regardless of name of undergrad college. Other T15 law schools I checked at the time formed a similar pattern. The outlier exceptions occurred at both highly selective undergrad colleges and less selective undergrad colleges. There didn’t appear to be a clear correlation with undergrad college name, after controlling for stats.
Consistent with this selective law schools, have matriculating students from a wide range of undergrad colleges – selective colleges, not selective colleges, big colleges, small colleges, public colleges, private colleges, … variation among almost any dimension you can think of. Of course, students attending highly selective undergrad colleges show disproportionately high rates of admission to highly selective law schools. These same undergrad colleges are also the ones where students are likely to have the LSAT/GPA stats necessary for admission. Most students at Yale/Harvard/… might have necessary stats, while extremely few would have necessary stats at non-selective open admission colleges. There are also widely varying rates of students who choose to apply to law school, as well as varying rates of students who choose T14 prestige over a big scholarship or full ride at a non T14.
For a good estimation of how college name may influence admission, it is important to control for both stats of applicants and % of students interested/applying. The ABA publishes some information about stats. One example list is at https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/legal_education_and_admissions_to_the_bar/council_reports_and_resolutions/May2018CouncilOpenSession/18_may_2015_2017_top_240_feeder_schools_for_aba_applicants.authcheckdam.pdf . This list includes number of applicants, mean LSAT, and mean GPA. Only top 240 colleges with most applicants are included, so Williams, MIT, and similar are not listed. Among this group, the undergrad colleges with highest mean LSAT score in 2015-2017 are below. All stats are the median among these 3 years:
Undergrad Colleges Whose ABA Applicants Have Highest Mean LSAT Score
- Yale Undergrads: 12% of students apply, LSAT = 167.8, GPA = 3.73
- Harvard Undergrads: 11% of students apply, LSAT = 167.4, GPA = 3.69
- Princeton Undergrads: 10% of students apply, LSAT = 167.1, GPA = 3.53
- Chicago Undergrads: 9% of students apply, LSAT = 166.0, GPA = 3.59
- Dartmouth Undergrads: 10% of students apply, LSAT = 165.9, GPA = 3.66
- Columbia Undergrads: 11% of students apply, LSAT = 165.8, GPA = 3.70
- Stanford Undergrads: 6% of students apply, LSAT = 165.7, GPA = 3.71
- Penn Undergrads: 6% of students apply, LSAT = 164.6, GPA = 3.63
- Duke Undergrads: 9% of students apply, LSAT = 164.4, GPA = 3.61
- Brown Undergrads: 7% of students apply, LSAT = 164.3, GPA = 3.75
- Amherst: 13% of students apply, LSAT = 164.1, GPA 3.63
- Georgetown: 14% of students apply, LSAT = 163.9, GPA = 3.63
Looking at the list above, one would expect that Yale would have the largest % of students matriculating to T14 law schools by a good margin. Yale undergrad have the highest average LSAT scores, a larger portion applying than any other of the top 10 highest LSAT score colleges, and are second only to Brown in undergrad GPA. After a good sized gap gap below Yale, Ivy+ colleges without a strong tech/engineering presence are also expected to do well (Harvard/Princeton should do well, but Stanford/Penn should be lower). Some non-Ivy+ colleges with a relatively large portion applying are also expected to do well, particularly Amherst and Georgetown. This is exactly the type of pattern we see in the list from original post. It appears to be largely a measure of what portion of students apply and their stats, rather than a list of which colleges best prepare students for law school.