Where are my engineers/hard science majors at?

[Cantillon]

So I just got this email from Boalt that lists the 56 students that have committed to attending Boalt.  The list has each student's location, email, undergraduate major, etc.  Surprise, surprise.  I only saw one hard science major (physics) and no engineering/CS majors.  Are such majors an oddity in law school or is it just a Boalt thing?  I'm going to feel like the odd man out in LS.

[Texas2L]

Engineering/hard science/CS departments tend to not have the ridiculous grade inflation that some of the business/liberal arts departments have, so those students typically have lower GPA's.  Since your GPA isn't normalized against your class/major but rather everyone who has ever graduated college for rankings purposes, people who took grade-deflated classes are at a disadvantage especially at a place that focuses more heavily on GPA like Boalt.

Not to say you can't have a very good GPA in any undergraduate endeavor if you put your mind to it, it's just less common in eng/cs/bio/physics.

[TeresaPinfold]

Well, that's no doubt true to some degree, but Law School is actually extremely forgiving of GPA compared to a lot of other options, since the LSAT counts for so much.

I think the supply factor is probably more important than the demand. Law School is a default that doesn't require any particular knowledge or skills for people drifting along aimlessly (myself, for instance), while someone in hard science might have more focused interests or practical knowledge.

[makalika]

I got my BS in Math and Computer Science - I just forgot to release my information on the Boalt list. 

Oh, and I agree about the grades - With my LSAT score and soft factors, its definitely my GPA keeping me out of Harvard so far...which kills me cause I worked really hard and in my degree, my GPA is considered really competitive.  Its hard competing against history majors though

[SanchoPanzo]

I am a 1L-Undergrad engineering major. In general, there are many more liberal arts majors in LS. However, to the extent that admissions folks believe that hard science majors tend to have lower GPAs than, say, liberal arts majors, the admissions officers probably consider this when admitting students.

[Cantillon]

I got my BS in Math and Computer Science - I just forgot to release my information on the Boalt list. 

Oh, and I agree about the grades - With my LSAT score and soft factors, its definitely my GPA keeping me out of Harvard so far...which kills me cause I worked really hard and in my degree, my GPA is considered really competitive.  Its hard competing against history majors though

Makalika, are you planning on attending Boalt?  I thought the list was only of people who have definitely committed and not tentatively committed.  I haven't definitely committed though.

[UcsbEng]

I am a 1L-Undergrad engineering major. In general, there are many more liberal arts majors in LS. However, to the extent that admissions folks believe that hard science majors tend to have lower GPAs than, say, liberal arts majors, the admissions officers probably consider this when admitting students.

I used to think (hope) that.  I can say it seems some schools do take that into account, but a lot of them seem to count it for little if anything.  You're GPA hurts their numbers that they report to US News and so they will be ranked lower.  They just can't take tons of people from a major with such low GPAs without it hurting their rankings.  It's pretty bad when average is about a 2.7 or 2.8 tops in your major versus average being about a 3.5. 

[ChiTownEE]

I am confirmed at Boalt - have been for a while. I didn't submit the paper work though to be on that list.

[qmmm]

I'm a chemist who has committed to Boalt, but I didn't feel like sending in that form.

[plex]

I'm an EE, I had every intent to go into IP law before I even began undergrad. I went into EE because it is an extremely useful degree for IP. The grade curve is particularly brutal on EE's, even among engineers. I had something like a 4.0 average in my english/social science classes, since those are the ones I have always been strongest, but barely survived the insanely hard engineering classes. Ended up with a lower end 3, which was still well above average. With that GPA, and the three years of technical work experience, I could get a 80-100k starting pay job right now. So, if an EE goes into law, it isn't because of money, it is because it is something they want to do, they actually take a penalty if they go into anything other than IP law. I am going to a low end tier 2, and will be very surprised if I run into more than one other EE there, I don't expect to have any trouble at all, I am used to a curve even harder than the one I will have in law school.