engineering -> a top law school

Graduate School Law School
1

<p>Hi-
I’ve been accepted to Penn State’s engineering department, and plan to double major in nuclear engineering and philosophy. Would PSU’s reputation as a party school (“we cannot rank Penn State because we feel it is unfair to compare amateurs to professionals…”) hurt my chances at admission at places like Columbia, Yale or Harvard? </p>

<p>Oh, and just to be proactive, I’m just majoring in engineering because I have a knack for for science and math, and my family is dominated by engineers; I want to go to law school because I love reading about law & legal philosophy and cannot imagine a job I’d enjoy more. :)</p>

2

<p>well then you should become a patent lawyer… combines both fields of engineering and law</p>

3

<p>The top kids at Penn State probably do quite well, as is the case with most schools. Check out the statistics they have available on their website, or at other websites that list such things. Both subjects grade fairly harshly, and are quite difficult, so be prepared for hard work.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.psu.edu/dus/prelaw/fa03lawschool.pdf[/url]”>http://www.psu.edu/dus/prelaw/fa03lawschool.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

4

<p>Out of curiousity, I read the Penn State data. Feel free to check my math. 754 students applied. 407 ended up registering in a law school. Of those, 22 went to a top 14 law school. </p>

<p>#s were for the schools usually seen as the very best: Yale–none accepted, none enrolled; Harvard–6 accepted, 6 enrolled; Stanford–1 accepted, 1 enrolled. </p>

<p>Next group (in no particular order): Columbia–2 accepted, 0 enrolled; Chicago 4 accepted, 1 enrolled, NYU–3 accepted, 0 enrolled. (That MAY mean that all the students accepted at Columbia or NYU were also accepted at Harvard or Stanford.) </p>

<p>Next group (in no particular order): Cornell 4/2; Duke 2/1; Georgetown 12/4; Northwestern 3/1; UVa 1/0; UPenn 11/5; Boalt (UCal-Berkeley) 4/1; UMich 4/0.</p>

<p>If I’ve added correctly, that means that a total of 22 students ended up at a top 14 law school. </p>

<p>So, obviously, you can do it. However, you better buckle down right from the start because you’re going to need a very high gpa to do it and in engineering, those are tough to come by!</p>

5

<p>How high do you think you need to keep the gpa for a top law school?</p>

6

<p>That Penn State is known as a “party school” is irrelevant. It’s not going to affect how adcoms view your GPA. How high your GPA needs to be is going to depend on what your LSAT is.</p>

7

<p>Hey-
Thanks for the responses. I’m glad that PSU’s reputation won’t be a factor in admission. Now I just have to time my LSAT prep correctly and avoid any stumbling blocks, grade-wise. :slight_smile:
Thanks again, -c</p>