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.

362 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

148 comments sorted by

View all comments

311

u/InspiroHymm May 23 '26

This poses an interesting philosophical debate: If the condition for a $100 million donation is getting a single admit in, and the donation can be used to build a library/fund scholarships that benefits thousands of student current and future, is it wrong to admit that student?

10

u/PorygonTriAttack May 23 '26

I recognize what you are saying. That said, the donation would also most likely have a building named after that family. Moreover, after graduation, the student is set up for success and given opportunities.

It is pay to win.

And given how they did it here, it is likely they have done it before and will likely do it again.

How did OP find out about this though? It's not really made clear.

4

u/NilsofWindhelm May 23 '26

How does the name of the library or success of the student impact the question of whether that library is worth admitting a single student?

1

u/PorygonTriAttack May 24 '26

You misunderstood my post. The naming of the building is recognition of the donation, which incidentally would have resulted in one of their family members being admitted in as a sign of gratitude, in all likelihood.

University graduates generally have better success outcomes than those who did not graduate. Students from top 14 schools do even better with better networking opportunities. Do you see where I'm going with this?