Blackstone Legal Fellowship GPA Forum

[PennLaw4]

I'm curious if anyone knows what kind of law school GPA is necessary to get a Blackstone Fellowship. (T14 school, wrote what I assume to be good essays, good writing sample, letters of rec. etc.). Just curious about the ballpark GPA (above mendian, median, possible with below median). Thanks.

[Anonymous User]

My friend was right at median at a T14 and got Blackstone. I have no idea whether they go below median.

[Anonymous User]

Friend was somewhere between median and top 10% at a top 50 school and got Blackstone. Sorry I don't know more specifics.

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone been accepted to this summer's program yet?

[Anonymous User]

Acceptances don't come out until Feb. 15th.

[Anonymous User]

well it says no later than 2/15

[Anonymous User]

The Blackstone Christian Legal Fellowship selection committee are a bunch of GPA sluts. Don't believe their whole horse and pony show. The program is about prestige for them, not about God's mission.

[Anonymous User]

I never thought I'd see a post about Blackstone on TLS! A Christian, conservative fellowship just doesn't seem to jibe with this board.

My acceptance came yesterday. I have an above-25%-GPA at a mid-T1.

Anon above me (this is a serious question): when you say it's about prestige, do you think they take people from good schools/high GPAs WITHOUT regard to their mission? Do you think the fellowship is just a bunch of nominal Christians who don't care about why they're doing the fellowship?

[Anonymous User]

I would think that the ACLU would want the best & brightest at their summer training program. I'm not sure why it's bad if the Christian legal group wants the same thing? What's wrong with having high standards? Is that mutually exclusive from having a religious motivation?

[Anonymous User]

I am a Blackstone Fellow from a prior year's class. ADF and Blackstone are serious about promoting an orthodox Christian worldview. Like any competitive legal internship, grades/GPA are the most readily available objective data for admissions people to use. There are plenty of people every year from unranked schools and not all of them are at the top of their classes. But it shouldn't surprise anyone that of the extremely small number of serious, committed Christians at places like Harvard and Yale makes it very unlikely that a T6 student will fail to be admitted.

To the OP: have you heard back?

[Anonymous User]

To add a data point for the future, I was accepted with top 20% grades from a school in the 20s.

[roddy4]

OP here: I was accepted. For the record, roughly 18 or so people applied from my school and roughly14-15 were accepted (with a variety of GPAs) I'm not sure exactly how low the lowest gpa was though

[Anonymous User]

1L here, just got the preliminary info/dinner invite for the Blackstone Legal Fellowship, not sure if this thread is still active but I was wondering if anyone could offer some insight about the value of doing this fellowship. Will firms give the experience the same weight as they would a non-religiously affiliated summer position? I only ask because I'm concerned about it just being dismissed as something irrelevant because it has a Christian background

[Anonymous User]

The great thing about Blackstone is that if you tell the placement director that you want a less religiously-affiliated placement, they bend their backs to accommodate you (and show you how to tailor your resume to limit censure). A lot of the placements were with judges, senators, human trafficking organizations, etc. with no clear Christian tie.

Blackstone made a definitive impact on my OCI process - it's not just a Christian program, it's substantively career-focused and they train you so well for this profession. I have absolutely no regrets.

Edit: they have a firm training program which is out of this world in preparing you for interviews (with REAL firm associates/partners who interview students at OCI). I did extremely well in OCI because of Blackstone.

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone heard back from Blackstone yet for this summer? T10, top ~15%, haven't heard anything yet.

[Anonymous User]

I think they tell everyone at once, was what I understood.

[Anonymous User]

acceptance emails went out today

[Anonymous User]

Got acceptance today. T7, Top ~25% (estimate; no rank published).

[Anonymous User]

I know they are getting a lot more popular and thus, a lot more selective. But they take into account a lot more soft factors than your average legal internship.

[Anonymous User]

I never thought I'd see a post about Blackstone on TLS! A Christian, conservative fellowship just doesn't seem to jibe with this board.

My acceptance came yesterday. I have an above-25%-GPA at a mid-T1.

Anon above me (this is a serious question): when you say it's about prestige, do you think they take people from good schools/high GPAs WITHOUT regard to their mission? Do you think the fellowship is just a bunch of nominal Christians who don't care about why they're doing the fellowship?

Most of the lounge is probably left leaning, but that's not to say the on topic forums are.

[Anonymous User]

I never thought I'd see a post about Blackstone on TLS! A Christian, conservative fellowship just doesn't seem to jibe with this board.

My acceptance came yesterday. I have an above-25%-GPA at a mid-T1.

Anon above me (this is a serious question): when you say it's about prestige, do you think they take people from good schools/high GPAs WITHOUT regard to their mission? Do you think the fellowship is just a bunch of nominal Christians who don't care about why they're doing the fellowship?

No, I never said that. You still have to meet their minimum belief/faith/personal requirements, but I think they're wise enough to know that if they can get enough solid Christian law students to fill up their class that are from T25 law schools (and high in that class), then they'll do so.

[Cicero76]

I am a Blackstone Fellow from a prior year's class. ADF and Blackstone are serious about promoting an orthodox Christian worldview. Like any competitive legal internship, grades/GPA are the most readily available objective data for admissions people to use. There are plenty of people every year from unranked schools and not all of them are at the top of their classes. But it shouldn't surprise anyone that of the extremely small number of serious, committed Christians at places like Harvard and Yale makes it very unlikely that a T6 student will fail to be admitted.

To the OP: have you heard back?

There are lots of committed people of all faiths here, including Christianity. We just mostly have better things to do with our summer, or don't want to litigate our religion. Matthew 6:5, etc.

[Anonymous User]

Blackstone provides a lot of options for their summer that aren't based on religion. Probably about half are, probably the other half are your typical 1L summer internships.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone else apply this year? Submitted my app recently and waiting to hear back. Just thought I'd bump for anyone else interested or who may have additional input about the program.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone else apply this year? Submitted my app recently and waiting to hear back. Just thought I'd bump for anyone else interested or who may have additional input about the program.

I've applied from a T14. I'm wondering if they'll take me since I think I'm just below median here. They say that we'll hear back at any point from now until February 16 but I'm guessing we'll all know on that same date.

Curious to know if they cover air transportation to the conferences? I thought they did but when I spoke to someone in the organization, they were less clear.