New 1L class is a high-quality motley crew

Courtesy: C-SPAN. Dean Cornblatt is happy with the new class.The newly arrived Class of 2014 is the “most outstanding class in the Law Center’s history,” according to Dean of Admissions Andrew Cornblatt. In a report about the entering class provided to the Law Weekly, Cornblatt points to the new students’ grades, test scores, backgrounds and diversity to explain his enthusiasm.

“The story this year is our GPA,” Dean Cornblatt wrote at the start of the report. Indeed, despite-or because of-a 19% drop in the number of applications to join the Law Center, the university’s median GPA increased.

“For all students,” Cornblatt reported, “our median increased to 3.71, up from 3.66 last year and our highest ever.” The dean also wrote that in the Day Division, the 75^th percentile was 3.81, a small drop from last year’s 3.82.

As for why Georgetown managed to maintain a high GPA despite a drop in applications, Cornblatt wrote, “There are many possible reasons…our extensive recruiting efforts both in the Fall and Spring, our nationwide Alumni Program, the invaluable help of our Student Ambassadors and other student groups, and the Law Center’s increasingly strong academic reputation.  Another factor is our beautiful campus, particularly the Sport and Fitness Center. It has made for happier students who are sharing their feelings with potential incoming students. Of course the increased attention to Washington and public service also played an important role.”

Cornblatt also pointed to the increased interviewing of applicants as crucial to the Law Center’s numbers. “Of all the factors at work here though, I believe that it is our increased emphasis on interviews that is most responsible for these strong numbers for our entering class.”

He explained, “Four years ago, we decided to recruit alumni to interview a small segment of the applicant pool. Our hope was to gather more information about the candidates, to send the message that admissions here is about more than just GPA and LSAT, and to include more alumni in an interesting and worthwhile project here at Georgetown.”

Overall, 38% of the new students were interviewed by either Dean Cornblatt or a Law Center graduate.

The Dean also wrote that the entering class’ median LSAT score as something to be commended. “For all students, our median LSAT remained at 170, our highest ever.  Ten years ago, the median was 166, eleven years ago, 165. For the entire class, our 75^th percentile was 171 (172 last year) and the 25^th percentile was 167 (168 last year).”

Still, only 291 entering students have an LSAT score of 170 or higher, a drop from the 355 students who achieved that performance level last year. But Dean Cornblatt pointed out that 291 is still “up 7% from two years ago and three and a half times our figure of 78 nine years ago.”

As for the gender and racial diversity of the Class of 2014, Cornblatt wrote, “We are, as always, very proud of the outstanding diversity of the entering class. The percentage of women is 47% and our minority percentage increased to 25%.”

According to Cornblatt, the students of the incoming class represent 43 different states and 224 colleges and universities, including some international institutions.

Also, the class “has students from 14 foreign countries, and, including our LLM students, the overall entering class will represent 68 countries…”

The Entering Class Report also summarizes a host of other statistics about the new 1Ls. The top undergraduate feeder schools for Georgetown Law were, in order, Georgetown, Duke, Berkeley, Stanford, Yale, the University of Southern California, Columbia/Barnard, Harvard, Brown, Cornell and UCLA.

According to the report, 68% of students in the Day Division took a break before attending Georgetown Law. The class includes 6 Ph.Ds. and 45 “advanced degrees.”

As for the Evening Division, “only 7% entering straight out of college and the median age is 27,” the report said. “Twelve of the students (17%) are 30 or older. Twenty-two students have advanced degrees, including 4 Ph.D.’s.”

9%, or 54 students, graduated Phi Betta Kappa.

However, the report is not all statistics. Regarding the substance of the new class, the report has much to say.

“Once again this year, we have an extraordinary variety of backgrounds in our first year class. We have 20 teachers, 10 from Teach for America, 6 student body presidents, 5 patent examiners, 9 editors of their school newspapers, a stand-up comedian, 2 firefighters, and 2 police officers. We have 3 engineers, lawyers from the Ukraine, Romania, and two from China, an orchestra conductor, and a planning commissioner in San Clemente, California.”

Dean Cornblatt also wrote, “I am particularly delighted that along with its outstanding statistical credentials, this year’s entering class has continued our strong commitment to public service. We have 9 members of AmeriCorps, 2 members of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, and 6 Peace Corps volunteers, one of whom won a special certificate for helping to re-open the Peace Corps program in Madagascar, one who taught English in Mongolia, and one who was elected to chair the Peace Corps Morocco HIV/AIDS committee.”

The class includes numerous athletes—including All-Americans, minor league baseball players, professional football coaches, and NCAA crew and volleyball players—and members of the United States Military, including multiple veterans.

Also, Cornblatt noted, “We have 7 Fulbright Scholars and 2 Truman Scholars in this year’s class; in the past 10 years, we have had 25 Truman Scholars and 65 Fulbright Scholars. We have 10 PhDs, including one who is a patent engineer at the International Patent Office in Tokyo. We also have the facilitator for the Prison Arts Project in Ann Arbor, 3 CIA analysts including one who identifies and writes key topics for the Presidential Daily Brief, and the Acting Executive Director of the Delaware Democratic Party.”

Among the more random claims to fame of the class of 2014: 3 CIA analysts, the Acting Executive Director of the Delaware Democratic Party, three reporters, a documentary filmmaker, an acupuncturist and a rabbi.

All in all, Georgetown Law admitted 600 new students.

Edward Mitchell

Law Weekly