Does race affect international (foreign student) applicants?

[goldrogers]

Hi all,

I'm a foreign student who graduated from a liberal arts college in the United States. I'm also getting a Master's degree in a month from another US university. However, I am a citizen of a foreign country, and I am unsure of how this would affect me in the law school admissions process. It seems that law schools do not enroll many foreigners in their JD programs, and as such I have very limited information.

I am Asian, but I wonder whether that would affect me or not, since I am not a minority US-citizen. I have heard that Asians generally need higher than average numbers because they are overrepresented (particular in the top law schools). Does this apply to foreign Asians as well?

I am planning on taking the Sept. 30 LSAT...I have not started preparing, since I am still in grad school and busy writing papers to submit to academic journals (I'd like to stop that and start studying now, but I'm on a research stipend). So it looks like I'll only have time to start studying for LSATs in early-to-mid June. My undergrad GPA isn't as high as I'd like it to be, since I majored in a hard science. My LSAC adjusted is 3.66, which seems a bit low for top schools...it's such a shame, since I graduated #1 from my department (our average GPA was a 2.9).

[mommaknockyouout]

I could be wrong, but though you are a minority, you are not considered a special case or protected minority. I am not privvy to the behind the scenes workings but I don't think asians get all that special of treatment as opposed to say latinos or black males. someone else could probably answer this with more thought than me 
I will admit my scores were very average yet I was able to do fairly well in admissions compared to others who had better scores.

[goldrogers]

No, you are right. I know for a fact that Asian-Americans are not considered underrepresented, and I have also heard that being a member of this ORM (overrepresented minority) can actually hurt your chances at top law schools, since they usually have a much larger percentage of Asian-American students than the percentage of Asians in the whole US population.

What I would like to know is, will being an international (non-US citizen or permanent resident) Asian applicant hurt me just the same? Or will I be considered totally separate from American Asians?

[Hobson]

I was in the same situation (international student applying for a US JD), and at the end of the day, I don't think being asian hurt me (I'm not East Asian, though). First off, I'm skeptical that being asian (international or us-based) is actually going to hurt you in the application process, though perhaps it might if one fits the type with a strong science background and interest in IP law. Second though, I think being international can be an advantage, if it means an interesting background or interesting set of interests. Otherwise, it pretty much makes no difference. And of course, the LSAT still rules all - being international makes no difference if your score is low.