Pre-law Survey: Prestige vs. Grades

 

Each year at Blueprint, we conduct a survey of our LSAT prep students. This is done in conjunction with Above the Law’s Career Center to gather their thoughts and feelings regarding pertinent issues: What drew you to the legal profession? Are you aware of the debt you are likely to incur? Is Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s marriage a sham?

This time around, we asked our students what they think is the most important factor when choosing a law school, the most important factor admissions officers look for when accepting applicants, and the most important factor law firms look at when hiring. In short, we asked them more about factors than a sixth grade math teacher.

The survey was sent to our summer classroom students around the country, who are currently studying for the September 27th LSAT administration.

Of the 382 student responses, 200 ranked “prestige of law school/US News & World Report ranking” as the most important factor in determining their law school, while 71 ranked “best job placement record” as the most important factor, and 67 ranked “special interest that aligns with career goals.” “Where the tuition is lowest” was fourth at 21 votes. The most common write-in answer was “location.”

Of the 390 students responses, 340 said they think that law schools weigh the LSAT as the most important factor in admissions, and 35 said undergraduate GPA, with no other response garnering more than 5 votes.

Of the 386 student responses, 211 said they believe that law firms feel that “prestige of law school” is the most important factor in hiring. Meanwhile, 70 students think “ranking in first year class” is more important, 56 chose “work history,” and 46 said it’s “work history.”

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For the full range of answers, you can see Above the Law’s study results here.

Today I’m focusing on the first of these three questions and their responses. One of the most oft-reprised questions we receive from our students is how to decide between a higher-ranked law school and a lower-ranked law school with scholarship money. For instance, a student might receive admission to UCLA Law School (ranked 16th according to US News & World Report) with no tuition reduction, but may receive a sizeable scholarship to attend Los Angeles-based Loyola Law School (ranked 87th).

With few exceptions, our students choose the higher-ranked school, an anecdotal observation conclusively supported by the survey. (“Prestige of law school/US News & World Report ranking” was voted the most important factor in choosing a law school by a wide margin).

This sentiment intersects with a study done by UCLA Law Professor Richard Sander. Famous for his 2005 paper on law schools and affirmative action, Sander is a bit of a controversial figure. However, it is not his stance on affirmative action, but rather his observations on how law school GPA’s correlate with success at law firms that is the focus of this post.

Published in 2010, “The Secret of My Success: How Status, Eliteness and School Performance Shape Legal Careers,” explains how most students choose a law school based on reputation. He writes, “Anyone who has spoken to even a handful of law applicants will pick up on the strength of their beliefs in the value of law school prestige.”

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So far this accords precisely with our students’ thoughts, as expressed in our survey. However, what actually counts – according to Sander – is your law school GPA.

When Sander summarizes the earnings of young lawyers, as sorted by the tier of law school they attended, it appears that the better the school, the better the salary. However, when he examines the same data with additional controls for LSAT, undergraduate GPA, law school GPA, race, and gender, their law school GPA “seems to play a dominant role over most ranges in most school clusters.”

Indeed, in the abstract to his study, he definitively states, “The consistent theme we find throughout this analysis is that performance in law school — as measured by law school grades — is the most important predictor of career success. It is decisively more important than law school ‘eliteness.'”

So why are students so focused on eliteness? When asked why they ranked prestige first, students responded that “prestige = jobs,” and “at the end of the day it really does matter where you went to school.” The sentiment seems to be that the more elite the school, the better the job placement.

The irony, however, is that attending an elite law school may actually hurt your chances of long-term success. Sander’s study indicates that not only will the same student get better grades at a lower-ranked law school than at its higher-ranked counterpart, but that this higher GPA will translate to more success throughout his or her legal career. He writes: “Moving from the second tier to the top tier corresponds to a drop of more than a standard deviation in GPA,” and concludes that “the grade swings associated simply with attending a school of greater or lesser eliteness are large enough to essentially cancel out the short-term income benefits of a more or less elite law degree.”

In the law school game, where many students apply widely and simply attend the best school to which they’re accepted, it’s clear that more factors need to be considered. At the end of the day, according to Sander’s study, it’s most important to choose a law school at which you’ll be able to achieve a high GPA. You may not be able to brag that you went to a top 14, but you’ll have a better shot at being a top lawyer.

Today’s article comes from Blueprint LSAT Prep owner Jodi Triplett. Blueprint features live LSAT classes across the country and the online LSAT course Blueprint: The Movie — which are now open for enrollment for the December LSAT.