<p>Other than tip top GPAs and SAT scores…
what kind of ‘special’ things are necessary/helpful?</p>
<p>it would be nice if you can intern or shadow an attorney at his or her law office. that way you can see first hand what a lawyer does. you’d be surprised that the majority of it is just paper work.</p>
<p>I don’t know if you typo-ed or not, but you need a high LSAT not a high SAT.</p>
<p>After LSAT (#1) and GPA (#2), your letters of reference and soft factors will come into play. It’s up to you what you do to appear interesting and committed to the admissions reviewers, but you should remember as you go through college that you will want to ask 3 Professors for letters of reference. When my DS was applying to law school, he was amazed at how many fellow students were really struggling over coming up with the letters of reference. (Especially at the big schools, many students go through their college years without developing relationships with their professors. </p>
<p>You will also need to submit a personal statement as part of your application package. By sophomore year of college, it’s a good idea to start thinking about that statement and possibly taking a look at some of the books of successful personal statements that have been published.</p>
<p>Good GPA + LSAT is at least 95% of the equation</p>
<p>Excelling at one specific thing can be a bonus as well. Say you become the US National Shoe Tying champion. That can be a good “soft.”</p>
<p>Be black…</p>
<p>Logic course to master the logic section of the LSAT’s. My D just started law school.</p>
<p>lol transfers its kinda true</p>
<p>I think only a good GPA and LSAT are really necessary.</p>
<p>If you are dead set on law, go to an easy school where it will be easier to make a good GPA and then you will have more time to study for the LSAT.</p>
<p>^But, IMO, too many people, at least on CC, equate “a school where it will be easier to make a good GPA” with a public school. In fact, many public schools have much stricter curves/grading policies and are less leniant about deadlines; you swim or sink. The elite privates (Princeton being the notable exception) are generally the ones with grade inflation.</p>
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<p>This is an unsupported but widely made claim. Yes, the top private schools have relatively high average GPA’s, but they also have incoming students who are the strongest in the country.</p>
<p>^ Well, obviously, but the point is made because one thinks the courses of these elite institutions should be more rigorous and less riddled with A’s.</p>
<p>^ Not necessarily. </p>
<p>The students at elite schools have done A work all their lives, and they don’t stop once they get to college. Why shouldn’t they be rewarded with A grades for A work?</p>
<p>^ I don’t necessarily agree with this, but some say there should be a scale. Like, only a third of the class can get A’s, for example. Grade inflation is well documented at the elites regardless. It’s simple supply and demand. Students are willing to pay tuition for top grades, and the schools provide them. Professors feel the pressure of not giving out good grades due to fear of bad student reviews and so forth.</p>
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<p>This is no longer correct.</p>
<p>Boston1993,</p>
<p>How is it well-documented that it is easier to get good grades at elite private colleges than at other schools? Show me this proof. I remember reading a study that suggested that the schools that CCers call grade inflators (e.g., Harvard, Yale) are actually among the most deflated in the country when the average GPA’s are compared to standardized test scores on graduate admissions tests.</p>
<p>Do a search. This issue has been discussed ad nauseum on this forum. </p>
<p>Somehow, students who go to less selective schools think that the grading system should be the same at every college. So, if a 3.8 puts them in the top 15% of their college class, they think Harvard is more grade inflated if at Harvard 30% of the class has grades of 3.8% or higher. (See post #14 for an illustration of this idea.) </p>
<p>To the extent that LSs take grade inflation/deflation into account, they get a “handle” on it by comparing the median LSDAS calculated gpa v. the median LSAT of a given school. So, at X large public --I have a real school in mind–the median gpa is “only” a 3.14. However, the median LSAT is a 149. </p>
<p>Now, contrast that with Ivy U, where the median LSDAS gpa is a 3.4 and the median LSAT is a 163. </p>
<p>The way LSs measure grade-inflation, the first school is MORE grade inflated than the second. </p>
<p>The LSDAS report also tells the LSs where your gpa is in the distribution. So if you have a 3.0 and that puts you in the bottom 25% of the class, LSs will know that. </p>
<p>You can get into a top LS from any college in the US. Nobody is denying that. There are smart kids who work hard at every college. People choose colleges for all sorts of reasons. </p>
<p>The theory is though that in the “aggregate” there SHOULD be a correlation between the quality of the student body and the grade distribution. If students at College C took an average of 6 AP tests and scored an average of 4.8 on them, had high gpas, and median SAT scores of 1550, it does not mean that it is grade inflated if the median gpa there is higher than at College S where students took an average of 4 APs and scored an average of 3.3 on them, had lower grades and median SATs of 1050.</p>
<p>Here’s one of the more detailed threads dealing with this issue.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/law-school/266240-question-about-top-law-schools.html?highlight=grade+inflation[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/law-school/266240-question-about-top-law-schools.html?highlight=grade+inflation</a></p>
<p>Of course, the data in the thread is out of date. Median LSATs and LSDAS calculated gpas have changed in the last 4 years. However, you can use Mike’s analysis with the #s from your own college–ask your pre-law adviser for them–to determine whether LSs will consider your college’s gpa’s grade inflated/deflated.</p>
<p>
[Harvard[/url</a>]
[url=<a href=“http://www.gradeinflation.com/yale.html]Yale”>http://www.gradeinflation.com/yale.html]Yale</a> University](<a href=“http://www.gradeinflation.com/Harvard.html]Harvard[/url”>Harvard)
Let’s take Harvard and Yale for example. Harvard’s average gpa has jumped from 2.55 in 1950 to 3.45 in 2005. Yale’s average gpa has jumped from 2.56 in 1963 to 3.51 in 2008. The average SAT score of Harvard kids has only increased by 24 point since 1966, so it’s hard to say that the 0.9 point increase in gpa is due to the quality of students.
See more here: [National</a> Trends in Grade Inflation, American Colleges and Universities](<a href=“http://www.gradeinflation.com/]National”>http://www.gradeinflation.com/)</p>
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Never heard of that study before.</p>
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<p>That is not a response to my question.</p>