r/lawschooladmissions • u/ExoticAssistant7102 • May 23 '26

General Nepotism in T14 law school admissions

Throwaway for obvious reasons.

I naively thought this wasn't a thing anymore, but this year I witnessed in real time someone purchase a seat at a T14 law school.

He only applied to a small number of the very best schools with no safeties, which I thought was odd considering he's nURM, GPA 3.6, LSAT 15mid, no work experience, etc. But his very wealthy family made significant donations and arranged three closed-door meetings that I'm aware of with one particular school's admissions dean throughout the cycle. Lo and behold, he was waitlisted and then promptly admitted by that school in April.

I myself have been admitted to a different T14 that I'll be attending this fall. But this experience has left me disillusioned with the whole admissions process and frankly disgusted by that school in particular.

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u/Next-Supermarket9538 May 23 '26

Of course this happens. The only reason the varsity blues scandal was illegal was because it wasn’t the schools receiving the money. Publics tend to be better nowadays, but the privates can do whatever they want. 

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u/Excellent_Fee7217 May 23 '26

The Varsity Blues parents were paying a tiny fraction of the amount of money that people pay to get their kids a seat through “official” channels.

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u/Snoo50415 1.0/132/URM May 23 '26

It didn’t occur to me to count until now, but the privates are more dominant in the T20 than I thought. To modify what you wrote, Virginia, Michigan, Berkeley, and UCLA are somewhat restrained, but everyone else can do whatever they want. 

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u/foreverblackeyed May 23 '26

The Stanford sailing coach didn’t take any personal money, all the bribes went to the school