Considering the University of Iowa?
I’ve been considering my options after highschool, and I’ve been thinking about law. I know you can go into law school with an undergraduate degree in anything(ANYTHING!!), but for the sake of knowing something, I’m specifically thinking of political science. I’ve got a 29 ACT, 3.7 cumulative gpa, lots of extracirriculars ranging from theater and plays to varsity soccer to the technology students association(TSA). Would the University of Iowa be a good fit(considering I’d pay in-state tuition.)? After you get your undergraduate in something, what exactly do law schools look for? Any tests/ rankings? Would I have trouble applying to Harvard for 3 years of law after getting a degree in political science in Iowa? Perhaps some other colleges I should consider for political science? If you’re read all this and are considering/have answered one or more of these questions, thank you very much.
I am an attorney (currently inactive as I am pursuing other matters).
The first problem I see is graduating from U of Iowa. This school appears to have a practice of being very easy for admission–you would probably be in the top 15% of the entering class, if not higher.
However, it also appears to have a policy of failing about half the entering class by making classes such as first-year chemistry almost impossible to pass. I do not know what the other classes are. I have gathered the information on a policy of failing the students from other posts on Y!A. I have no reason to believe it to be untrue as it would be unusual for people to take the time to write false material about such a matter.
You should check into this matter personally before paying an admissions deposit. The best way to do so would be to visit the campus and talk to students, which I hope you can do as you are in Iowa. You could investigate Iowa State, but if U of Iowa has this policy, I think it would be likely that Iowa State also has it.
So, you will need to see if instate tuition is really such a bargain. You could investigate if Iowa has arrangements with nearby states to reciprocally offer in-state tuition to students who enroll in certain programs, etc. Ask your high school counselor or ask the U of Iowa if your counselor does not know, or do some online research on Google using the key words “reciprocal” “in-state” and “tuition” or a similar combination.
If you verify the problem about staying in the U of Iowa and do not qualify for reciprocal tuition, give serious consideration to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and of the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, which have much better academic reputations in any event, and even with out-of-state tuition are less expensive than private schools. Both of these two schools rank in the top 50 nationally and you should be admitted to at least one of them if you apply to both of them. If you are a senior, you need to start filing all your applications immediately as deadlines are quickly approaching.
The other thing you need to know is that just as for undergraduate school, Harvard Law School has to turn away many totally qualified applicants due to lack of space. This includes applicants with a 4,0 undergraduate GPA and 99th percentile LSAT tests. Harvard Law School does appear to give some preference to its own undergraduates and to those of other Ivies.
The good news is that you can have just as good a legal career if you earn your law degree at any of the top twenty law schools. Good luck.
Fat and Mellow
