<p>Why do law schools want to know what high school you went to and which years?</p>
<p>I don’t know why they ask, but I do know that the answer won’t hurt you even if you did very badly in high school.</p>
<p>Which high school: because it’s an indirect (and admittedly, somewhat inaccurate) way of finding out other stuff about you–did you grow up in the US or abroad? are you from a rich area or a poor one? what’s your religon (did you attend the Flatbush Yeshiva or St. Vincent’s Academy)? is there anything unusual about you (were you homeschooled in rural Alaska? did you attend the Professional Children’s school while performing on Broadway?)</p>
<p>What years: probably to see whether you took time off between that and college, and to get a sense of your age.</p>
<p>but I agree with Hanna–none of it really matters, so long as you’re honest.</p>
<p>(1) It’s an informal way to check on geographic diversity. Harvard Law might get an app from Iowa. The person could be working for a prez political campaign in Iowa and not really be from Iowa at all. If folks thought moving to Alabama would boost their chances of getting into YHS, some would probably do it. In some ways, where you went to high school is a better measure of where you are really “from.” </p>
<p>(2) In some cases, people did not do well first year in college because they really did have inadequate prep. So, if you had a low gpa as a frosh and you went to high school on a Native American reservation a law school admissions officer is probably go to be more forgiving of that weak frosh year than if you went to Exeter.</p>
<p>Thank you, I was wondering about this and really never thought if it in those perspectives.</p>