What is “URM”? It refers to minorities historically underrepresented in the legal profession. While this may vary depending on which school qualifies as URM, it is generally accepted that this category includes those who identify as Black/African American, Latinx/Hispanic, or Native American. As mentioned above, admission to law school is not just about LSAT, GPA, and URM status. Other factors can have a significant impact. Why is URM status important? While law schools are busy creating a diverse student body and increasing the number of lawyers from historically underrepresented groups, an applicant who identifies as a URM gets a “boost” from their admission chances. Realistically, the most important factors cited in determining the best school for a candidate are that person`s personal and professional goals, chances of admission, and geographic location (especially for schools with a regional reputation). Like others, URMs should apply to a variety of schools. However, because URM cycles are so unpredictable, the need to cast a wide net becomes even more important. At this year`s URM Forum, candidates applied for an average of 4-5 litters, 4 goals and 3-4 collaterals. Now, many people choose where to apply based on how their concrete numbers — i.e.
their LSAT score and GPA — compare to the median numbers of the law schools they are considering. It`s a good start, but the math certainly shouldn`t stop there, especially for URM candidates. I`ll explain why, but first I need you to do something for me. I need you to pause this podcast and grab a pen and a piece of paper. Now that we`ve covered what it means to be a URM and why it`s important in the application process, we`re going to spend the rest of that time talking about special considerations for URM applicants in the process. The first consideration is deciding where to apply. Because there are so many different law schools to choose from, it`s important to understand how they are similar and how they differ. All law schools approved by the American Bar Association are equal in that they offer the opportunity to earn a Juris Doctor degree within two to six years, and upon completion, you are eligible to take the bar exam to become a licensed attorney in any of the 50 states. So, the first step in choosing a law school is to understand how law schools differ from each other and which of these variables are most important to you. Most law schools use “continuous” admissions, which can be casually defined as a kind of “first come, first served” process. Therefore, it is to your advantage to receive your application as quickly as possible without sacrificing quality. To understand why this is so emphasized, let`s look at an illustration: “softs” seem to play an even more important role for URM candidates, perhaps because their past experience allows URMs to stand out from the others with similar numbers.
In addition, many members of the URM TLS forum stated that law schools seek not only racial diversity among URM applicants, but also diversity of experiences. If you are part of the URM group, this does not mean that numbers are not important to you. But this means that the LSAT and surrogacy medians published each year by law schools do not represent the medians of URMs admitted to school. If you identify as an URM, you should not be discouraged about your chances of being admitted with an LSAT or a GPA below a school`s reported median or 25th percentile. URM applicants are regularly admitted with LSAT or GPA (or both) among the published 25th percentiles of law schools. The conclusion of these sources is that applicants who actually identify as URM increase their chances of admission. In other words, in a particular school, an URM candidate with a particular LSAT and GPA is likely to have a greater chance of admission than a non-URM candidate with similar numbers. However, strengthening the pipeline to law school will not be enough to address the lack of diversity in law firms.
Companies need to commit to hiring more inclusive categories of new employees and providing them with the career development support they need to stay and grow. Arnold & Porter`s partnership with the National Bar Association to establish an associate advancement academy for black employees is one model. To the extent that law schools are not representative of our population, neither are law firms. While I`ve imagined this scenario, anecdotal evidence shows that there`s actually an advantage to applying early. While this benefit doesn`t have to be a quantifiable increase in points, schools may be more willing to try their luck with a candidate who applies earlier in the process. The discussion forums of the best law schools have shown that this moment of application becomes more important for those who have fairly generic applications, those who have unusual circumstances but questionable numbers and URMs. There is (with rare exceptions) no specific number of points that can be matched to a candidate solely on the basis of race. I`m not usually willing to make any assumptions about this, but to answer the question, I turned to Anna Ivey “The Ivey Guide to Law School Admissions: Straight Advice on Essays, Resumes, Interviews, and More.” In it, Ivey (a former dean of admissions at the University of Chicago School of Law) argues that schools can increase the LSAT score for URMs by up to ten points. Unfortunately, it does not specify this number and does not distinguish between different URMs. However, before you count your LSAT points with a boost, I must caution that there is usually little empirical data on a general boost. talk.collegeconfidential.com/law-school/14481-urms-law-school.html At UCSF, our working definition of an underrepresented minority (URM) is someone whose racial or ethnic composition comes from one of the following sources: No. Law schools will select candidates who fall somewhere within a flexible continuum of their respective academic parameters and who also contribute to a diverse classroom.
Each candidate may be able to offer something distinctive to a class – diversity (e.g. race or ethnicity) is one factor among many in a review of the entire file. Other factors include your LSAT score and undergraduate GPA, strong letters of recommendation, personal statements, work experience, community service, special interest, or demonstrated strength of character. Each of these factors will contribute to a strong exchange of ideas in the law school community. To improve these discouraging statistics, schools have a few options. We can provide more scholarships to underrepresented groups, especially those graduating from historically black colleges and universities. A significant proportion of black applicants to law school and about 50% of all black lawyers graduated from HBCUs. While it is difficult to obtain official law school data on the impact of URM status on admissions, the existence of this “URM boost” comes from Law School Numbers (a website that collects self-reported admissions data from applicants), as well as admissions counselors and former admissions deans. Law schools are interested in creating an interesting and diverse student body for a rich law degree, so they take into account a candidate`s “soft factors.” “Soft factors” refer to other aspects of your history in addition to URM status. These factors may include, but are not limited to, military service, one-time work, community service research or experience, significant achievements in athletics or the arts, and aspects of identity other than URM status, such as disability. I have taken the trouble to detail all of this so that you understand that you never have access to good information about who has received an offer of admission to a particular law school.
They only have decent—not perfect—information about who accepted offers of admission from a particular law school. So you should never look at those numbers and use them as a reason to say, “Oh, my numbers aren`t good enough. I just shouldn`t apply to this school. Today`s podcast comes from our consultant Sir Williams, former director of admissions at the University of Wisconsin School of Law, where he led the successful implementation of UW`s first Pre-Law Diversity Pipeline summer program.
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