JD in admissions

[JayDee123]

Hi everyone,

I'd appreciate any insight you have on how a law degree weighs in admissions. I'm a first gen student and a bit of an academic late bloomer. I graduated from undergrad a while ago (10 years) and took a while to realize a PhD is something I want. 

My undergrad GPA is not great (3.4 ish) on account of working 40 hours per week. However I recently graduated from law school (a T14) and did quite well (3.9). I've also published several law review articles, one in a peer reviewed law journal.

Does anyone have any insight into how top programs (Chicago, Princeton, etc) would evaluate my GPA(s) and perhaps my candidacy generally? 

 

[polisci_gal]

It seems to me like you would be a really competitive applicant. Having a JD + published articles is really impressive. Not to mention that you could really use your life experience to demonstrate how you KNOW this is something you want to do and could talk about that journey a little bit. I think you would have a really good shot! My only advice would be to make it really clear what research you're interested in doing and how your experience would aid that.
 

[Richelieu]

I remember there was a candidate last year with a law degree who got admitted to pretty prestigious institutions.

You can reach his profile, results and suggestions here: 

 

[guest789]

Your GPA won't matter much if you can demonstrate a compelling research agenda for political science in your SOP with a writing sample and LORs to back it up. Are the law reviews outlets like where Kevin Quinn at Michigan has published? He's someone I know off the top of my head who does empirical legal work. If so, you're doing really well.

[JayDee123]

Thanks so much, all!

21 hours ago, polisci_gal said:

It seems to me like you would be a really competitive applicant. Having a JD + published articles is really impressive. Not to mention that you could really use your life experience to demonstrate how you KNOW this is something you want to do and could talk about that journey a little bit. I think you would have a really good shot! My only advice would be to make it really clear what research you're interested in doing and how your experience would aid that.
 

That is what I was thinking. My writing is informed by my practice experience, so it's not a stretch to say that my additional years of experience have truly led me to the poli sci program.

 

20 hours ago, timeseries said:

Your GPA won't matter much if you can demonstrate a compelling research agenda for political science in your SOP with a writing sample and LORs to back it up. Are the law reviews outlets like where Kevin Quinn at Michigan has published? He's someone I know off the top of my head who does empirical legal work. If so, you're doing really well.

Yes, my papers are in the same type of outlets Kevin Quinn publishes in, though he has placed in more prestigious journals than I have at this point.

[guest789]

4 hours ago, JayDee123 said:

 

Yes, my papers are in the same type of outlets Kevin Quinn publishes in, though he has placed in more prestigious journals than I have at this point.

If you still want to do law in political science, like say election law or gerrymandering, he would be a great person to work with. And don't worry about the prestige - he's a full professor.