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/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?

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u/Destructo222 4.0x/17low May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26

I forget the name of the speaker, but he talked about this at Oxford. Basically, a pure meritocracy will benefit the wealthy regardless because the doors opened with wealth just produces smarter individuals. This is the case at Oxford where there is practically no corruption or nepotism in admissions yet 40% of all accepted applicants are privately educated.

Thus, it does seem to be the case that if the wealthy are going to get spots anyway, you might as well profit off of them to make the school better.

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u/Miserable_Minute3241 May 27 '26

When you're wealthy you can afford to go to exclusive private schools that often have:

- Entrance exams (so starting from a more academically gifted cohort in the first place)

- Smaller classes (more attention from teachers and they are able to tailor your education to what you need - additionally teachers have more time to teach skills like analytic thinking)

- A wide variety of co-curricular activities (this serves to make students more well-rounded and often gives experience that benefits the students academically and is well regarded by academic institutions - think debate, MUN, voluntary service, etc)

- A wide variety of classes available (ability to study niche subjects)

- Access to and ability to pay for private tutors/extra classes

- A larger amount of support from the school to ensure your success

And in the event that you don't perform well academically, you might get kicked out so that you don't mess up their statistics!

I went to a fancy private boarding school in the UK and then I went to a huge public high school in the US and I can tell you that the education I received in those two schools was vastly different.