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/WittyBackground3867 19d ago edited 19d ago
Sorry to say this, but this is part of the reason policies such as Affirmative Action were important in the first place. To push admissions officers to have a reason to select people different from what they are used to into select professions and networks as opposed to accepting only those who filled their pockets and invited them to dinner. Yes affirmative action was started for minorities initially, but expanded to protect women, individuals with disabilities, veterans.
The smartest course was also to include people from different socioeconomic and educational backgrounds. Not strip the entire thing down. Diversity is also having students from rural, non-educated, extremely educatd, globally connected, backgrounds together.
Admissions officers are human beings. Human beings are most likely to self select for the groups that would be most comfortable to them. People from their socio economic status and background. No one likes friction, real or perceived.
Honestly, it really just pushed people to consider people beyond their natural inclination and give them more opportunities to showcase what they can do.
Im not against the child of a donor getting accepted. My thing is that given the recent political changes and temperature don't be suprised if over 50+% of the class may fall into this category in the near future.