Psychology major for prospective law school student

ariesathena
Thu, 28 Oct 2004 17:16:27 +0000

Aaackkk… I’ll try to answer, but I’m not an expert on specifics.

Most law schools do straight GPA, with some measure of how you performed relative to everyone else in your class who applies to law school. Generally, schools develop an index: your GPA times a certain number plus your LSAT times a certain number. Some will subsitute class rank. They then put all the apps in order, and pretty much read from the top down and the bottom up (admitting and rejecting, respectively). I know that Penn does a slightly different twist: they take your class rank, your LSAT, and the average LSAT of the kids applying from your school, and use a formula to give you an index number. This obviously benefits people who go to better schools.

That said, to answer your question, it really depends on the school. Unless you are talking Harvard, Yale, or Stanford, a 3.5 is a great GPA and fine for law school. It won’t help you out at Columbia, but it won’t hurt you.

Regarding whether there is a benefit to undergrads from that school: it really depends on the school. I know that for NYU, there is no benefit at all - the law school is in a different league from undergrad. For Emory, I think there is a huge benefit to having gone there undergrad.