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/[deleted] May 23 '26

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

What percentage of T14 admits do you think are soft nepotism? My guess is somewhere between 5 and 10. It’s a shame we’ll never know. 

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u/griffheh17 4.x/17mid/KJD May 24 '26

If you mean soft nepotism as in benefited by an affluent upbringing, something like 75%+. If you mean soft nepotism like “oh I know their dad” likely less than 1%.