<p>“The purpose of having human beings is to realize that Electrical Engineers work harder than liberal arts majors, and then adjust the admissions according to the applicants’ long term potential.” </p>
<p>I doubt you’ll find anyone who would second that view.</p>
<p>They’re looking to put together a class of people who’ve demonstrated the willingness to work hard enough to succeed in law school and in the legal profession. They’re looking for a group of people with a diverse set of academic and other experiences that will facilitate interesting classroom discussion on a variety of topics; such groups which will typically include a few engineers. Adcoms are looking for people with the high tolerance for ambiguity that’s required for the study and practice of law (which might tip the balance against some graduates of engineering school).</p>
<p>Once we all stop viewing adcoms as surrogates for St. Peter, a lot of the sting goes out of the experience of being rejected. They’re putting together a class of future lawyers, not rating the merits of their applicants as a human beings.</p>
<p>I work for a company that employs hundreds of people with Ph.D.'s in electrical engineering. I have immense respect for what they can do. Their minds function brilliantly in areas where mine does not. If you’ll permit me to eschew false modesty for a moment, I’ll admit that experience has lead me to conclude that the converse of that statement may be true as well.</p>
<p>Not every lawyer is extraverted, but a sizable majority of them are. Engineers do not have that reputation. (There’s a joke I’ve heard that I offer not to hurt anyone’s feelings, but to illustrate the reputation: An extraverted engineer is one who stares at <em>your</em> shoes when he talks to you.)</p>