Top Law Schools

Hi guys,

I’m Claire from China. Wanna know my chances in the coming application season

Personal info:
LSAT: 176
GPA: S ( International students)
College: PKU (Top 2 in China)
Major: Liberal Arts, Class of 2020
Exchange: one semester in HYPMS
Softs:
One publication in SSCI(field of gender study)
Co-Founder of a tech startup(social entrepreneur)
RA experiences in China top colleges
Intern in Chinese top law firms & UN
Leader of college student clubs

RL: 2 academic RL from T3 JD alumni & one strong from Assistant Professor (HYPMS)

What are my odds, T3/T6/T14¿
How about scholarships

Thanks sooooo much！

Good chance at H. Y/S are always hard to predict for foreign applicants. Should at least get 1 T6.

BKB wrote:Good chance at H. Y/S are always hard to predict for foreign applicants. Should at least get 1 T6.

Thanks BKB
But, just curious, is there any way for international students to increase the admission odds of Y？
Retake LSAT and get higher LSAT？More strong RL from YLS alumni or professors？Highly unique Softs？
By the way, do you have any idea how they distinguish “strong Softs” from just average？
I know there was one Chinese guy in 2016(also KJD) who received offers from Y & H. His LSAT is 176.

Any comments, concerns, and suggestions will be greatly appreciated

astrayforyou wrote:

BKB wrote:Good chance at H. Y/S are always hard to predict for foreign applicants. Should at least get 1 T6.

Thanks BKB
But, just curious, is there any way for international students to increase the admission odds of Y？
Retake LSAT and get higher LSAT？More strong RL from YLS alumni or professors？Highly unique Softs？
By the way, do you have any idea how they distinguish “strong Softs” from just average？
I know there was one Chinese guy in 2016(also KJD) who received offers from Y & H. His LSAT is 176.

Any comments, concerns, and suggestions will be greatly appreciated

Retaking the LSAT would be pointless for you, and letters of recommendation are mostly pointless for everyone, especially random ones from people with YLS connections. You have a decent chance, and really the only thing you could do to help yourself would be to go back in time and get a 4.0 from an American university, win an Olympic medal in your free time, or create the next facebook. You'll probably get into Harvard and full rides elsewhere so I wouldn't put too much into getting into 1 school.

astrayforyou wrote:

BKB wrote:Good chance at H. Y/S are always hard to predict for foreign applicants. Should at least get 1 T6.

Thanks BKB
But, just curious, is there any way for international students to increase the admission odds of Y？
Retake LSAT and get higher LSAT？More strong RL from YLS alumni or professors？Highly unique Softs？
By the way, do you have any idea how they distinguish “strong Softs” from just average？
I know there was one Chinese guy in 2016(also KJD) who received offers from Y & H. His LSAT is 176.

Any comments, concerns, and suggestions will be greatly appreciated

if you want to guarantee admission to Y/S, donate $10 million. (I'm half-joking.) your current softs are not going to move the needle, and starting a club or something isn't going to impress the admissions committee.

"strong softs" are like, getting a Marshall scholarship, being a combat veteran, winning an Olympic medal, having a PhD from a fancy school and publishing something, etc. ie, things that you can't do in three months to get into your favorite law school.

Tbh, you have a good chance... so just out of curiosity, if it’s not too offensive... what’s your admissions?

Zuglin wrote:Tbh, you have a good chance... so just out of curiosity, if it’s not too offensive... what’s your admissions?

I believe OP hasn't applied yet. They seem to be planning on applying in the upcoming (2019-2020) cycle.

At least one of CCN is very likely, and H is likely. Y is unlikely.

QContinuum wrote:

Zuglin wrote:Tbh, you have a good chance... so just out of curiosity, if it’s not too offensive... what’s your admissions?

I believe OP hasn't applied yet. They seem to be planning on applying in the upcoming (2019-2020) cycle.

Oh yeah.. you are right. Interesting to see the results. I know the Chinese guy enrolled YLS actually. It’s not outstanding grade/soft/RL but the great potentiality matters

Wild Card wrote:At least one of CCN is very likely, and H is likely. Y is unlikely.

lol why Yale is unlikely?

harryzhang wrote:

Wild Card wrote:At least one of CCN is very likely, and H is likely. Y is unlikely.

lol why Yale is unlikely?

Y is always unlikely. Their faculty review process introduces a decent amount of randomness, especially for international kids (but also for domestic applicants). Some faculty will rate a kid top scores, and another will rate them bottom scores. A decent amount of randomness and luck in the draw (in addition to having great credentials, obviously) make it unlikely for anyone.

miskellyjohnson wrote:

harryzhang wrote:

Wild Card wrote:At least one of CCN is very likely, and H is likely. Y is unlikely.

lol why Yale is unlikely?

Y is always unlikely. Their faculty review process introduces a decent amount of randomness, especially for international kids (but also for domestic applicants). Some faculty will rate a kid top scores, and another will rate them bottom scores. A decent amount of randomness and luck in the draw (in addition to having great credentials, obviously) make it unlikely for anyone.

Yeah...That's correct. The whole Yale admission process is basically a lottery.

Take a few years off between undergraduate and law school either in China or the U.S. and do interesting stuff! For softs, especially for Yale, I think it's better to pursue what you really want to do and what you are genuinely interested in instead of doing fancy stuff in order to impress admission officers. Alternatively, you could apply for some prestigious fellowships, such as Rhodes Scholar, Schwarzman Scholar, Yenching Scholar, etc., in order to boost your odds of Yale.