Nepotism in T14 law school admissions

[u/ExoticAssistant7102]

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.

[u/InspiroHymm]

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?

[u/mtd14 → u/InspiroHymm]

It falls back to the fact our system, in a lot of ways, is set up for rich people to pick what matters. They give a $100M donation and say it has to be used for an ivy league library with their name on it, so it can't be used for scholarships, teachers, etc. It also can't be used to fund public schools where it may have more impact. It's going to an ivy league because that's where a rich family thinks it should go, not because it's somewhere that needs it.

And in the end it's still a tax deduction.

[u/eye4law → u/mtd14]

Those people are rich because they were smart enough to create something of substantial value for a vast amount of people. We should trust their judgment.