Undergraduate College and GPA

jessica.13urton

Do schools take into account what school you went to for undergraduate when looking at your GPA. i.e. a 3.1 at Harvard vs a 3.8 at UGA? Is the LSAC calculator universally applicable?

Leah M B

I think it's a little of both. For the most part, from what I understand, most law schools don't really factor in your undergrad's rigor. But I have read that some of the top schools will consider it more (more like, HYS does not see 4.0 at a school no one has heard of the same as a 4.0 at an ivy undergrad). I think some adcoms will sometimes also consider if you had a very difficult major like engineering. But generally, the vast majority of schools won't look into it too deeply. It's more like a soft. It might be a tie breaker between you and another applicant with similar numbers, but not much of a consideration.

Paul Caint

I agree with @"Leah M B" - it can be a deciding factor between two candidates, but I think Law Schools are so ranking-obsessed that they won't sacrifice GPA for a candidate who comes from a more elite school, since the "eliteness" of law students undergrad isn't a measure US News and World Report uses to create their rankings.

Which yeah, kinda sucks for those of us coming from more "elite" schools, but c'est la vie

Seeking Perfection

I think @"Paul Caint" sort of expresses this, but what undergraduate you came from is a soft. Softs can never really make up for the harder factors since they can't directly affect the school's ranking. Now admissions offices might prefer to have students from "better" undergraduate institutions either because they think such students are smarter or because they think they are likely to be better connected, wealthier, and have a better chance at getting a job, but they can't know for sure that they will ever get an employment boost(and consequently a ratings boost) by accepting more students from elite schools. It's the same as with work experience except that work experience is correlated more strongly with ability to get a job.

Admissions offices know however they get an immediate rankings boost from picking someone with a higher GPA or LSAT score.