A Black Woman's View

[dbgirl]

Amen Christina.

[LegalLassie]

My argument is if a person doesn't have the time and money for prep courses, etc. they are lazy.  I worked 2 jobs for 50+ hours a week to put myself through school and pay rent.  If I can do that, anybody can.

I worked full time, took an overload at school (27 units in one semester) and still managed to end up with a "decent" LSAT score.  It certainly bothers me that I bust my a$$ to be successful at attaining my goal of getting into a good school and then find out that someone else who didn't put in the same effort gets a leg up in admissions.  What makes it worse is that in the normal world, I am considered a minority, but for the purpose of law school admissions, I am not considered the "right minority."  How is this just or fair?  And, as far as work experience, life experience, etc. helping to influence admissions decisions - were it only true!!  I think it is true in borderline cases, but for the most part schools are numbers driven.  No amount of soft factors can make a 159 competetive at a T14.  When a candidate is admitted to Harvard or Yale with extremely low numbers, I would hazard a guess that it is because they are the "right minority."

As for prep courses and the expense of them..the library has excellent prep books free of charge!  And most of them have diagnostics in them that you can time yourself taking.  The library also has books that you can check out that will give you the same kind of advice about law school as an amissions consultant.

I am totally aware that in the world certain minorities experience things that whites or other minorities may never understand - however, we are all individual human beings and we need to be judged as individual human beings.  It may not be the reality of what happens, but that doesn't mean it makes it okay to perpetuate these prejudices.

[CocoPuff]

My argument is if a person doesn't have the time and money for prep courses, etc. they are lazy.  I worked 2 jobs for 50+ hours a week to put myself through school and pay rent.  If I can do that, anybody can.

Well I have to give you credit for that. I know it was extremely difficult and I hope you got into the school of your choice. But understand that just because you did it doesn't mean everyone can. If they can't, it doesn't necessarily make them "lazy" just different from you.

And, as far as work experience, life experience, etc. helping to influence admissions decisions - were it only true!!  I think it is true in borderline cases, but for the most part schools are numbers driven.  No amount of soft factors can make a 159 competetive at a T14.  When a candidate is admitted to Harvard or Yale with extremely low numbers, I would hazard a guess that it is because they are the "right minority."

Because I don't work in admissions, I can't say how much soft factors matter, but I do know that numbers aren't all that's involved. Soft factors can explain/make up for low numbers. And it doesn't just do that for Black students.

I am totally aware that in the world certain minorities experience things that whites or other minorities may never understand - however, we are all individual human beings and we need to be judged as individual human beings.  It may not be the reality of what happens, but that doesn't mean it makes it okay to perpetuate these prejudices.

Yes, we need to be judged as individual human beings, but in the real world, we aren't. If we were to use the same system in admissions that is used in the real world, there would be serious problems.

[LegalLassie]

Because I don't work in admissions, I can't say how much soft factors matter, but I do know that numbers aren't all that's involved. Soft factors can explain/make up for low numbers. And it doesn't just do that for Black students.

  As I said, in borderline cases I think they can make a difference, but for a student with a 157 applying to a school where the range is 169-177??  No.  Sure, there are "miracle admits" once in awhile, but counting on soft factors to explain away a subpar LSAT and a subpar GPA is a helluva gamble.  And the people who qualify their poor numbers by saying "I'm a URM" really piss me off.  It is offensive to minorities and causes a lot of tension between those who already feel that minorities are looking for a handout.

Yes, we need to be judged as individual human beings, but in the real world, we aren't. If we were to use the same system in admissions that is used in the real world, there would be serious problems.

So because it doesn't happen in the real world, it shouldn't happen in admissions?  I am sorry, but this just doesn't make sense.  Just because something is unfair in one realm, doesn't mean it is allright for it to be unfair in another.  This does a disservice to everyone.  I say, eliminate the ethnicity/race boxes.  You've experienced hardship/oppression/etc.?  Write about it in your PS.  Add a diversity addendum.  This is fair and makes things equal.