<p>I’m a recent graduate who strongly disagrees with this article. I think the University’s rigor is a huge asset in law school applications. The article would like an “LSAT prep” course. I would argue that the Core is essentially that. Except for the logic games, the LSAT consists mostly of close reading and finding errors/interpreting in logical arguments. That’s pretty much what you do in Core HUM/SOC/CIV classes, as well as most humanities and social sciences classes outside the Core. The comparison between the MCAT and the LSAT is faulty. The LSAT is not a content-based test. If you haven’t learned to think critically and read closely in four years at UChicago, I’m not sure what an LSAT-prep class is going to change about that. The logic games do require specific preparation, but a $35 book can do that.</p>
<p>With respect to grades, the LSAC grade report lists the grade distribution across the university, divided into .2 increments. Thus, an admissions officer knows that a 3.8 at UChicago puts a person in the top 8%, whereas at some other schools, it does not (a panel of admissions reps from T10 schools basically said that there are some schools from which they can’t be certain that a high GPA is really remarkable. From UChicago, they know what they are getting). The grade report also lists the LSAT distribution at schools, and from when I applied to law school 2 years ago, the numbers listed meant that quite a few UChicago students were getting very, very strong LSAT scores. If anything, the grade situation at UChicago helps applicants to top schools, because the admissions officers can be fairly certain that a good GPA is a substantial accomplishment.</p>
<p>Why won’t the University release it’s stats? I’m guessing they aren’t amazing. But not because lots of applicants are failing to get in to law school, but rather that fewer of the top students at UChicago are applying to Law School. With more students seeking other graduate degrees (i.e. PhD.'s), there are fewer top students applying to law school from UChicago. With fewer top students applying, the number getting admitted to Top law schools will be low. You have to be an outstanding student at any college to get into a Top 10 law school. Except for schools that feed into themselves quite heavily (i.e. Harvard –> Harvard Law), no university gets a large number of students in to any one law school (except its own). Most Top 10 law schools, except Harvard, matriculate fewer than 200 students per year.</p>
<p>Anecdotally, I know of no one who wanted to go to law school and did not get in to a very impressive list of schools. Just from personal acquaintances on campus over four years, I know admitted students or current students from UChicago now in law school at Yale (2), Harvard (3), Stanford (3), Columbia (1), NYU (1), Penn (1) and UChicago (10ish). All but one were admitted straight from undergrad. So that’s 20+ students admitted to Top 10 schools from among my personal acquaintances on campus.</p>
<p>And nobody is sending 40+ students to Harvard and Yale law schools except Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. But nobody is sending 20+ students a year to UChicago Law except UChicago. And nobody is sending huge numbers of students to Stanford Law School except Stanford and sometimes UC Berkeley. Even at the Top 10 level, law school can be quite regional (note from the linked stats that only ONE Yale undergraduate matriculated at UChicago Law, even though it’s a Top 7 law school).</p>
<p>So while there are some who complain about the pre-law services, my experience was great and I know many students who had very successful law school application cycles. The pre-law office can’t get you in to law school. Your GPA, LSAT, and other factors get to you into law school. (The personal statement becomes pretty important at schools where there are far fewer spots than GPA/LSAT-qualified applicants; and I found the pre-law advisor’s feedback on my personal statement to be quite helpful) I also know many, many top students from UChicago who chose paths other than law (for example only a very small handful of Student Marshals in my year applied to law school, and that group constitutes roughly the top 5% of the class; a couple applied to medical schools, but the majority went to academic graduate school).</p>