Do Admission Committees Favor Undergrad Alum Applicants?

grant

Sorry if this has been discussed before - I tried searching 7Sage and Reddit to no avail.

All else equal, do AdComs favor applicants who are undergrad alumni of the university to which they are applying? For example if someone went to Northwestern for undergrad and is right in the 50% for LSAT and GPA at Pritzker (or slightly lower), are their chances better than an applicant with equal marks who did not attend Northwestern for undergrad?

Selene Steelman

Each law school may have a different policy as to how many candidates from the undergraduate institution they will take. While law school admissions may have a better understanding of the quality of candidate they get from the corresponding undergraduate program, I would not assume that the candidate's chances are much greater during the review process or that the law school is under pressure to keep undergrad alumni in the university family by admitting them over similarly qualified candidates from other schools. It may be important to the law school that their incoming class shows institutional diversity (regionally, nationally, internationally).

Chipster Study

One thing I did hear at a law school fair from an ad director is that particular school usually took any faculty who worked there. As for undergrads, I think it can't hurt you. You made the decision to live in that city and come onto campus once. All about yield protection...