Anonymous wrote:Where’s the aggregated data which shows me the Top 20 undergrads where kids come from to attend law school at the following:

Stanford
Yale
UChicago
Harvard
Duke
Penn
Columbia
UVA
NYU
Northwestern

Well, you know which school is the #1 feeder to each of those law schools...the undergrad institution.

This is an interesting list. Some unusual suspects

Top Feeder Rankings (adjusted for undergraduate enrollment)

1 Yale University
2 Amherst College
3 Harvard University
4 Princeton University
5 Stanford University
6 Dartmouth College
7 Williams College
8 Duke University
9 Columbia University
10 Georgetown University
11 Swarthmore College
12 Haverford College
13 Brown University
14 Pomona College
15 St. John's College
16 University of Pennsylvania
17 Claremont McKenna College
18 Wesleyan University
19 Wellesley College
20 Northwestern University
21 Cornell University
22 University of Chicago Law School
23 Brandeis University
24 Carleton College
25 University of California, Berkeley
26 Vassar College
27 University of Notre Dame
28 Colgate University
29 University of Virginia
30 Washington and Lee University

https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/top-feeders-law-school

Where’s the aggregated data which shows me the Top 20 undergrads where kids come from to attend law school at the following:

Stanford
Yale
UChicago
Harvard
Duke
Penn
Columbia
UVA
NYU
Northwestern

Anonymous wrote:This list doesn't answer your question yet shows that Harvard accepts students from a wide range of schools.

"The following is a list of the 147 undergraduate institutions represented by the 1L class in the J.D. program at HLS for the 2023–2024 school year."

https://hls.harvard.edu/jdadmissions/apply-to-harvard-law-school/jdapplicants/hls-profile-and-facts/undergraduate-institutions/

This suggests they take from the top of the class at a wide range of schools. As Malcolm Gladwell says, better to be in the top of your class at any school than at the bottom at a top 10.

This is a selection from one part of the list:

DePaul University

DePauw University

Drake University

Duke University

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Emory University

Florida International University

Fordham University

George Washington University

Georgetown University

Georgia Institute of Technology

Georgia State University

Gettysburg College

Gonzaga University

Gordon College

Except that each incoming Harvard Law class is about 561. Which means 310 slots are going primarily to Harvard (about 26%), Stanford, Princeton and Yale.

This list doesn't answer your question yet shows that Harvard accepts students from a wide range of schools.

"The following is a list of the 147 undergraduate institutions represented by the 1L class in the J.D. program at HLS for the 2023–2024 school year."

https://hls.harvard.edu/jdadmissions/apply-to-harvard-law-school/jdapplicants/hls-profile-and-facts/undergraduate-institutions/

This suggests they take from the top of the class at a wide range of schools. As Malcolm Gladwell says, better to be in the top of your class at any school than at the bottom at a top 10.

This is a selection from one part of the list:

DePaul University

DePauw University

Drake University

Duke University

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Emory University

Florida International University

Fordham University

George Washington University

Georgetown University

Georgia Institute of Technology

Georgia State University

Gettysburg College

Gonzaga University

Gordon College

If your kid is taking out massive six figure loans for law school in banking on a big law career, please do more research:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1110901.page

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/1204635.page

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/692815.page

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1014995.page

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New poster/BigLaw partner here.

My point is that that even with a top law school degree, who gets the 1L spots at the big law firm is decided by a very small group of active alumni. And depending on accomplishments, the undergrad can matter just as much as the law school.

Also AI is transforming the legal industry just as it is other industries. The triangle pyramid structure won’t necessarily make sense in 5 to 10 years. Law firms are already making changes quietly internally to account for the coming changes across the sector.

Just do a good job in law school and let the chips fall where they may. I would not go into extreme debt though for either undergrad or law school. BTDT.

Wouldn't "big law" salary and bonus be big enough to pay it off in few years?

Np. Lawyer here.

Not if you want to buy a house/condo; save; travel; be upwardly mobile. The big money is later in your career. Plus the biglaw lifestyle leads to overworking so you end up spending $$$ to save time in all aspects of your life. Ofc you can pay it off. But definitely not quickly.

The one thing no one mentions is how much mobility at a biglaw firm depends on socializing/networking. There is a ton of that. Very important to not only be smart but be a “people” person. Otherwise, you are up and out.

Lots of biglaw folks post on here under the jobs forum. Read that before getting into $200k+ in debt.

Anonymous wrote:New poster/BigLaw partner here.

My point is that that even with a top law school degree, who gets the 1L spots at the big law firm is decided by a very small group of active alumni. And depending on accomplishments, the undergrad can matter just as much as the law school.

Also AI is transforming the legal industry just as it is other industries. The triangle pyramid structure won’t necessarily make sense in 5 to 10 years. Law firms are already making changes quietly internally to account for the coming changes across the sector.

Just do a good job in law school and let the chips fall where they may. I would not go into extreme debt though for either undergrad or law school. BTDT.

Wouldn't "big law" salary and bonus be big enough to pay it off in few years?

Take couple of gap years and do stand out things.

New poster/BigLaw partner here.

My point is that that even with a top law school degree, who gets the 1L spots at the big law firm is decided by a very small group of active alumni. And depending on accomplishments, the undergrad can matter just as much as the law school.

Also AI is transforming the legal industry just as it is other industries. The triangle pyramid structure won’t necessarily make sense in 5 to 10 years. Law firms are already making changes quietly internally to account for the coming changes across the sector.

Just do a good job in law school and let the chips fall where they may. I would not go into extreme debt though for either undergrad or law school. BTDT.

Anonymous wrote:I hope people are aware that stats inflation has hit law school admissions at least as hard as it has undergrad

3.9 GPA and a 173 LSAT are just the table stakes to get you in the game to be considered for T admission. Then you have to bring something special on top of that

This 100%. And “special” can range from losing a leg in combat to owning a successful company to having a powerful boss to being raised in the middle of rural Mississippi. But without the “special”, unlikely.

The point that I have tried to make in my few posts here is that attending a top feeder undergrad school is in no way determinative of a person's chances of attending a top law school. Performance at the school attended, life experience and LSAT and not the undergraduate school are what matters. It's most important to attend a college that is a best fit for your student and family without considering law school. If this happens to be a college that is a top feeder school, then great. If not, your student still can attend a top law school from almost any other college.

My guess is that the overall strength of the student body at the top feeder schools is why the overrepresentation at top law schools and not an easier path to law school because of the undergraduate school attended.

Anonymous wrote:What you need to find out is what percentage (over time) applicants from a particular college receive acceptances from top law schools. Good luck finding that out.

Already been done:https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/top-feeders-law-school

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most I know who end up in Big Law went to undergrad at top universities and a few top SLACs. You often see Harvard/Yale, Cornell/Princeton, etc. The biggest non Ivy schools that feed into top law schools are Stanford and Georgetown.

Yep, go look at the bio's at a top firm and you'll see this.

Agree. This is it at my biglaw….
Also there’s a lot of ongoing alumni (for the undergrad school) stuff that keeps partners very connected. So they do look at undergrad (and favor some schools).

People tend to be more connected to their undergrad than law school (in terms of giving; philanthropic activities; volunteering; sports; etc).

I hope people are aware that stats inflation has hit law school admissions at least as hard as it has undergrad

3.9 GPA and a 173 LSAT are just the table stakes to get you in the game to be considered for T admission. Then you have to bring something special on top of that