4 ms·

very funny to write an article about the crisis in the legal system without addressing how it is a pretty good example of almost complete elite capture by a few

very funny to write an article about the crisis in the legal system without addressing how it is a pretty good example of almost complete elite capture by a few top law schools whose admissions are far from meritocratic. Or talking about Steven Donziger vs Chevron, a case so shameful the UN Commission on Human Rights has called for his release. Or talking about the basic truth of the US legal system, where the wealthiest can nearly always afford to win a civil case just through a war of attrition by hiring incredibly expensive lawyers while the bottom 50% of America could never hope to hire one lawyer. But I don't expect much else from Bari Weiss' publication, where the scariest thing in the world is always some college kids that asked each other their pronouns or something. Why is this even on HN

ss108 5y ago
Law school admissions are pretty meritocratic. Not sure the basis on which you would argue otherwise.
- julesqs 5y ago
  you don't think there are exceptions to the formula of LSAT/GPA? who do you think those exceptions are made for?
  - ss108 5y ago
    As someone who went through this process intensely and was an avid reader of places like r/lawschooladmissions (which has a lot of people posting stats and results--could be interesting to datamine and analyze), I would say no. The one exception is affirmative action; being Black or Mexican (it's not even really generally Hispanic, IIRC, just Mexican) or Native American has a quantifiable effect equivalent to like +10 LSAT, +.x GPA or something. It's quite unfair, IMO. But it's very mechanical. For example, undergrad school prestige matters only at the very margins. Better to have a 4.0 from rando state school and a 170 LSAT score than a 4.0 from Harvard and a 167 LSAT for most law schools. There is a whole site where people post stats and admissions results that is central to people trying to go to top schools. Nobody was getting results that deviated greatly. The racial boost was also well quantified on there (you check a box if you're an applicable race).

ss108 5y ago

Law school admissions are pretty meritocratic. Not sure the basis on which you would argue otherwise.

julesqs 5y ago
you don't think there are exceptions to the formula of LSAT/GPA? who do you think those exceptions are made for?
- ss108 5y ago
  As someone who went through this process intensely and was an avid reader of places like r/lawschooladmissions (which has a lot of people posting stats and results--could be interesting to datamine and analyze), I would say no. The one exception is affirmative action; being Black or Mexican (it's not even really generally Hispanic, IIRC, just Mexican) or Native American has a quantifiable effect equivalent to like +10 LSAT, +.x GPA or something. It's quite unfair, IMO. But it's very mechanical. For example, undergrad school prestige matters only at the very margins. Better to have a 4.0 from rando state school and a 170 LSAT score than a 4.0 from Harvard and a 167 LSAT for most law schools. There is a whole site where people post stats and admissions results that is central to people trying to go to top schools. Nobody was getting results that deviated greatly. The racial boost was also well quantified on there (you check a box if you're an applicable race).