Some T30 Criminal History Info:

[lightessenz]

Requires Convictions only for disclosure:

Chicago
Virginia
Michigan
Boalt
BC
Penn
NWU

Requires Charges too

Duke
Cornell
WashU
UofI Champaigne <---Requires EVERYTHING, including arrests/detainment etc.
NYU<---Requires EVERYTHING, including arrests/detainment etc
Vanderbilt

[pgcc]

Schools that ask for arrests I do not apply to. This is the USA being arrested is proof of nothing.

[lightessenz]

Just wanted to update that most schools consider this truly peripheral information, and only relevant towards comparing your law school application w/ your bar application.

@ Vanderbilt the admissions secretary/person said explicitly that they didn't consider it in the review process.

[Typhoon Longwang]

Just wanted to update that most schools consider this truly peripheral information, and only relevant towards comparing your law school application w/ your bar application.

@ Vanderbilt the admissions secretary/person said explicitly that they didn't consider it in the review process.

I'm sure there are tons of felons that law schools admit every year.

[thescreed]

Schools that ask for arrests I do not apply to. This is the USA being arrested is proof of nothing.

Oh, really?  Allow me to introduce you to a gentleman named Jose Padilla.

This WAS America until January 2001. Now it is an autocratic quasi-theocracy.

[lightessenz]

I'm sure there are tons of felons that law schools admit every year.

Good point. Obviously their decision is largely based on whether you would be acceptable to the bar, rather then high moral convictions with regards to DUI/DWI and other common criminal instances.  This puts felons at a great disadvantage. 

[pgcc]

Schools that ask for arrests I do not apply to. This is the USA being arrested is proof of nothing.

[LawyersGunnersnMoney]

Requires Convictions only for disclosure:

Chicago
Virginia
Michigan
Boalt
BC
Penn
NWU

Requires Charges too

Duke
Cornell
WashU
UofI Champaigne <---Requires EVERYTHING, including arrests/detainment etc.
NYU<---Requires EVERYTHING, including arrests/detainment etc
Vanderbilt

this is interesting.  i applied to 12 schools that are all below the ones you listed.  11 of the 12 required disclosure of any arrest and the other suggested it.  most required disclosure even if the charge has been fully expunged.  a couple even required all relevant court documents.  its strange that some of the more prestigious schools ask for less

[sck]

I imagine the assumption is that if you're able to get into those schools, then CLEARLY you're not going to be that sort of riff-raff because you have good grades and scores....


Baylor's requirements made me go cross-eyed. They seemed to want lawsuits filed against you, too, especially if they had recklessness charges. That means I'd have to disclose a lawsuit filed on me once over a traffic accident.

[lightessenz]

Maybe it has to do with the requirements of respective state bar associations? On my apps for Louisiana schools (LSU and Tulane, but curiously not Loyola), they want violations of ANY law, which I assumed to include traffic violations

Ouch!  Parking tickets could get pretty unwieldy for me.  I probably have had over 25 during my college years. 

WRT to the upper schools requiring less, it is interesting.  My 2 safeties, a target and Cornell are the only schools asking for my charges, while all my reaches (pretty much anything in t14) are cool with just convictions.