<p>Yes, GPA and LSAT are the most important law school admissions criteria. But it is certainly not true that a 3.8 from West Central State University (formerly West Central Teacher’s College, etc.) is the same as a 3.8 from Harvard. BEFORE the law school admissions committee looks at where you stand on their grid, your GPA is handicapped based on your school. See the article below that was widely circulated a few years ago.</p>
<p>Adjusting for Grade Inflation
As an example of adjustments for grade inflation, the L.A. Times (Grading the Grades: All A’s Are Not Created Equal, 7/16/97) reported on how UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law re-formulated the G.P.A.'s (Grade Point Average) of student applicants. Under the Boalt formula, each college is ranked according to how its students perform on the standardized law board exam, the LSAT, and how common a certain G.P.A. is at that school.
Students from schools ranked 79 and above have points added to their G.P.A.'s. Those from schools ranked 72 to 78.9 get no adjustment. Those whose school ranked 71.9 and below have their G.P.A.'s lowered a bit.
Below is the table of colleges and their rankings. Schools which get an upward adjustment to grades are in red print. Those which get a downward adjustment are in bold blue print. Schools which get no adjustment are in black italic.
Is this fair? The point adjustment formula is one point of contention in a complaint filed recently by civil rights group and now being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education. These groups allege that the University of California’s admission policies are discrimatory because added weight is given to grades from elite Eastern colleges, such as top-ranked Swathmore. But grades from most Cal State campuses and from predominantly black schools, such as Howard University, are devalued.
Is this fair? What about fairness to the students who attend harder schools? Should their G.P.A.'s be weighted equally with students who get A’s and B’s for effort rather than learning. How can Cal State campuses be considered as good as other schools when their students are so ill-prepared that more than half of them need remediation in math and English? Can a year of remediation make up for what these students should have had in the 12 years prior to their enrollment in college?
CollegeRankCollegeRankCollegeRankCollegeRankCollegeRank
American71.0Cal Poly SLO74.5Howard57.5Oregon73.0Texas78.0
Amherst84.5Carleton88.0Illinois78.0Pacific69.5Trinity U.77.5
Arizona71.0Catholic U.69.5Indiana72.5Pennsylvania83.0Tufts83.5
Arizona St.69.5Chicago87.0Iowa73.5Penn State74.0UC Berkeley78.5
Barnard80.5CCNY59.0J. Hopkins87.5Pepperdine67.0UC Davis75.5
Bates85.5Clrmt. McK.82.5Kansas70.0Pomona85.0UC Irvine73.0
Boston College77.0Colby81.5Loyola Mary.71.0Princeton86.0UCLA75.5
Boston University74.5Colgate88.0Maryland71.0Purdue73.5UC Riverside68.5
Bowdoin83.5Colorado75.0Massachusetts74.0Reed84.5UC S. Diego78.5
Brandeis82.0Columbia80.5Miami68.0Rice83.0UC S. Barbara77.0
BYU73.0Cornell86.5Michigan81.5Rochester79.0USC70.0
Brown80.0Dartmouth87.0Michigan St.75.0St. Mary’s61.5Utah68.5
Bryn Mawr83.0Denver63.5Middlebury86.0San Diego68.0Virginia85.0
CS Chico68.5Duke88.5Mills71.5San Francisco57.5Washington76.5
CS Fresno62.5Emory79.5Minnesota73.0Santa Clara76.0Wisconsin77.0
CS Fullerton63.0Florida76.5MIT85.5Smith80.0Vanderbilt84.5
CS Hayward63.0Fordham70.5New Mexico68.0SMU73.5Vassar83.5
CS Long Beach63.0Georgetown80.0NYU72.0Stanford80.5Wash. U.81.0
CS LA58.5Geo. Wash.75.5N. Carolina79.5SUNY Albany73.5Wellesley80.0
CS Northridge67.0Hamilton83.0Northwestern82.0SUNY Bing78.0Wesleyan87.0
CS Sacramento65.0Harvard86.5Notre Dame81.5SUNY Buff72.0Whitman C.79.5
CS San Diego69.5Haverford85.0Oberlin83.0SUNY Stony72.0Wm & Mary84.5
CS San Fran.66.0Hawaii64.5Ohio State73.0Swarthmore89.5Williams89.0
CS San Jose63.0Hofstra69.0Oklahoma69.5Syracuse70.0Yale82.5</p>