Cornell Law School is a private Ivy League law school located in Ithaca, New York. It was founded in 1887 and has since become one of the most prestigious law schools in the country. Cornell Law School is the law school of Cornell University, a private Ivy League university in Ithaca, New York. One of the five Ivy League law schools, it offers four law degree programs, JD, LLM, MSLS and JSD, along with several dual-degree programs in conjunction with other professional schools at the university. In this article we will discuss Cornell Law School Notable Alumni, cornell law school ranking, cornell law school acceptance rate, cornell law school lsat score and what is cornell law school known for.
Cornell Law School is known for its strong academics and social justice focus. It has been ranked as one of the top law schools in the country by U.S. News & World Report and is consistently among the top 10 schools for employment after graduation. Read on to know more on Cornell Law School Notable Alumni, cornell law school ranking, cornell law school acceptance rate, cornell law school lsat score and what is cornell law school known for.
Cornell Law School has a well-known reputation as one of the best law schools in the nation. It is also known for its competitive admissions process, which makes it difficult to get accepted. The school’s most notable alumni include former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, and many more.
Cornell Law School Notable Alumni
We begin with Cornell Law School Notable Alumni, then, cornell law school ranking, cornell law school acceptance rate, cornell law school lsat score and what is cornell law school known for.
List of famous alumni from Cornell Law School, with photos when available. Prominent graduates from Cornell Law School include celebrities, politicians, business people, athletes and more. This list of distinguished Cornell Law School alumni is loosely ordered by relevance, so the most recognizable celebrities who attended Cornell Law School are at the top of the list. This directory is not just composed of graduates of this school, as some of the famous people on this list didn’t necessarily earn a degree from Cornell Law School. There are over 50 notable alumni in Cornell Law School, below, we would just have a list few notable alumni.
Business magnate, Businessperson
Age: Dec. at 85 (1874-1959)
Birthplace: Lyons, New York
Myron Charles Taylor (January 18, 1874 – May 5, 1959) was an American industrialist, and later a diplomat involved in many of the most important geopolitical events during and after World War II. In addition he was a philanthropist, giving to his alma mater, Cornell University, and a number of other causes.
Lawyer
Age: Dec. at 54 (1860-1915)
Birthplace: Pennsylvania, United States of America
John Tracy Morrison (December 25, 1860 – December 20, 1915) was the sixth Governor of Idaho from 1903 until 1905.
Edward Jerome Bloustein (January 20, 1925 – December 9, 1989) was the 17th President of Rutgers University serving from 1971 to 1989.
Businessperson, Diplomat, Writer
Age: 92
Birthplace: Rochester, New York, USA
William Jacobus vanden Heuvel (born April 14, 1930) is an American attorney, businessman and author, as well as a former diplomat. He is the father of Katrina vanden Heuvel, longtime editor of The Nation magazine, and Wendy vanden Heuvel, children from his marriage to author/editor Jean Stein, the well-to-do daughter of Jules C. Stein, founder of MCA.
Businessperson
Age: 62David M. Sherbin is vice president, general counsel and chief compliance officer for Delphi Corporation. His responsibilities as chief compliance officer include corporate oversight and adherence to corporate standards as well as enforcing formal compliance controls and established processes. Sherbin also serves as the company’s chief compliance officer and is a member of the Delphi Strategy Board, the company’s top policy-making group.
Others are:
- Kissi Agyebeng
- Barry T. Albin
- John G. Alexander
- Rob Andrews
- Patrice Arent
- Cameron Argetsinger
- Anna-Michelle Assimakopoulou
- Michael Atkinson (Inspector General)
cornell law school ranking
Next, we review cornell law school ranking, cornell law school acceptance rate, cornell law school lsat score and what is cornell law school known for.
Columbia University is one of the oldest law schools in the United States, having been founded in 1858 as Columbia College Law School by Caleb Cushing and George Bancroft. It was renamed Columbia Law School in 1896 after it merged with the New York Law School.
Columbia Law School is ranked No. 4 (tie) in Best Law Schools.
Schools are ranked according to their performance across a set of widely accepted indicators of excellence. According to U.S. News & World Report, these include measures like:
- LSAT scores and GPA for current students
- Acceptance rate
- Bar passage rate of graduates who have taken the bar exam within two years of graduation
These measures are combined into a single composite score and then ranked against other schools in the same category.
According to Law School Transparency, Columbia University is ranked No. 4 (tie) in Best Law Schools. This data was collected from the U.S. News & World Report, which publishes yearly rankings of law schools based on factors like LSAT scores and GPA averages, employment rates upon graduation, and bar pass rates.
cornell law school acceptance rate
Now, we find out cornell law school acceptance rate, cornell law school lsat score and what is cornell law school known for.
Despite contending with a global pandemic as they prepared to apply for and enroll in law school, Cornell Law School’s entering class of 2024 came in strong. In fact, it is the most credentialed matriculating class in the school’s history.
The 2021 law school application cycle was surprisingly robust across the country, with the Law School Admissions Council reporting a 12.6 percent increase in applicants and increases in LSAT participation in nearly every ethnicity and gender over the previous year.
“I believe the pandemic created a thirst for in-person study because of a lack of sustained in-person interaction, be it in education or employment,” says Associate Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Monica Ingram. “Our first-year professors have also remarked on the heightened level of first-year student engagement.”
Cornell Law outperformed both national and regional numbers, with 41.46 percent more applications in 2021 than 2020. This deeper pool of applicants allowed the school to enroll a larger entering class despite a more selective acceptance rate of 15.4 percent, down from 19 percent the year before. This incoming class has a median LSAT score of 171, in the 96.2nd percentile, and a median GPA of 3.86.
Ingram observes, “There were so many unexpected variables encountered during the previous year and a half that we were unsure what the class of 2024 would experience prior to enrollment. Prospective students who demonstrated an ability to ‘roll with the changes’ had desirable qualities, in addition to their anticipated law school performance. We needed students who were not only intelligent and capable but also flexible.”
The 204 students of the Class of 2024 hail from diverse backgrounds. Thirty-one percent are considered nontraditional law school students, having completed their undergraduate programs more than two years prior to enrollment. The youngest incoming student is twenty; the oldest is forty-one. Three and a half percent hold master’s degrees. Thirty-one percent are nonwhite and 54.5 percent are women.
One of those women was already a Cornell University standout. Grace Traore, from Brooklyn, is continuing her studies at the Law School after completing an undergraduate degree at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations—and participating in several of the university’s student singing and dancing groups, including delivering a solo when the Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers performed at Carnegie Hall.
Others had a bit farther to travel. Two of the incoming students had met with Ingram when she traveled to St. Andrews, Scotland, just before the pandemic interrupted international travel. A year and half later, Lydia Mackey and Zoe-Pascale de Saxe Roux made their way to Ithaca.
“While studying at the University of St. Andrews, I was fortunate enough to attend a law school admissions event where Dean Ingram spoke about the importance of community at Cornell Law School,” says Mackey. “This was an important factor in my decision to attend Cornell, and I have found a supportive community here beyond what I could have ever expected. Every interaction I have with faculty, staff, and my fellow students shows how much they care about my wellbeing and success, as I care about theirs.”
Says Saxe Roux, “I was galvanized by Cornell Law School’s goal to emphasize diversity and opportunity for students of a variety of backgrounds. The conversation I had with Dean Ingram centered those aspirations at the core of her discourse. As I am a member of the LGBTQ+ community, that aim was not just inspiring in terms of the law school I wished to attend but also reemphasized the reasons I wanted to become a practicing attorney.”
These three represent just a small slice of a class whose students have come to Cornell from thirty-three states and eleven countries and have graduated from 123 different colleges and universities with majors comprising more than fifty different subjects.
Nearly five percent of the entering class is part of the 3+3 program, which allows highly qualified undergraduate students to take an accelerated path to their law degree by transitioning to law school after three years of undergraduate study and forgoing the LSAT. The program was reestablished by faculty vote in 2014 and has grown from one participant in 2016 to ten this year. It is exclusive to Cornell University and Hobart and William Smith Colleges.
“The Class of 2024 is the most well-credentialed class to have entered the doors of Myron Taylor Hall,” says Jens Ohlin, Alan R. Tessler Dean and Professor of Law. “These are all exceptionally talented individuals—many of whom aced the LSAT or persevered to graduate at the top of their undergraduate programs.”
He adds, “Needless to say, these 1L students are well poised to succeed at Cornell Law School and ultimately as legal professionals. We are excited to watch the many ways they will engage and contribute to this intellectual community over the next three years and beyond.”
cornell law school lsat score
What LSAT and GPA numbers do you need to get into Cornell University Law School?
Cornell Law is one of the much-vaunted “Top 14” law schools in the USA. The top 14 schools carry a strong national reputation, and degrees from these schools are generally considered transportable nationwide, meaning students will have strong job prospects in any major market in the country. That said, most Cornell Law students choose to work in New York City, where the school carries a terrific reputation.
Cornell Law usually ranks in one of the 10-14 spots according to the US News and World Report rankings. Typically, it is considered peer schools with the law schools at Duke, Northwestern, and Georgetown. Cornell Law currently stands alone at the #13 position just ahead of Georgetown (2014 rankings). As a result of its high rank and small class size, you can rightly expect that admissions at Cornell Law are a highly competitive process.
A very good LSAT is going to significantly help your chances of admittance to Cornell. To be a competitive applicant at Cornell Law, you would do well to have an LSAT score in the high 160 range and an undergraduate GPA in the 3.65+ range.
These LSAT and GPA numbers for Cornell University Law School (class entering 2012) can give you a better idea of what you might need to get a positive action from Cornell:
LSAT Score to get into Cornell University Law School
- The 25th percentile LSAT Score at Cornell Law is 164
- The Median LSAT score at Cornell Law is 168
- The 75th percentile LSAT Score at Cornell Law is 169
GPA to get into Cornell University Law School
- The 25th percentile undergrad GPA at Cornell Law is 3.54
- The Median GPA at Cornell Law is 3.68
- The 75th percentile undergrad GPA at Cornell Law is 3.77
what is cornell law school known for
The University of Cornell has its own legal institution known as Cornell Law School. It first began accepting students in 1887 and has since grown into one of the nation’s most prestigious law schools. Located in Ithaca, New York, Cornell Law School is one of only five of the prestigious Ivy League law schools.
Studying at Cornell Law School requires following a rigorous and demanding curriculum. Its students have extremely high bar pass rates and find jobs in some of the nation’s most sought-after law firms. Consequently, Cornell Law School consistently ranks as one of the top law schools in the country.
Furthermore, Cornell Law School is well-known for offering robust international law opportunities. If you’re interested in international law and international affairs, you have many of those resources directly at your disposal at Cornell. The school has long maintained the concept of “World Peace through Law” as one of its mantras, which is one of the major reasons so many international students apply and are accepted. As a result, Cornell Law students experience significant opportunities to network with classmates from around the country and the rest of the world.
In addition, there are over 160 world-class faculty members currently employed by the school. Cornell Law School boasts many notable alumni that have found success in a variety of fields, whose reputations are a major asset to both their current students and their graduates. Below are some of the most distinguished alumni at Cornell:
- Myron Charles Taylor: One of the most notable early Cornell Law School graduates was Myron Charles Taylor, an American industrialist and diplomat during the first half of the 20th Taylor made his fortune in cotton, textiles, and steel. After taking a step back from his business career, he became a diplomat involved in international affairs. A Cornell Law School building, Myron Taylor Hall, is also named after him.
- Tsai Ing-wen: Tsai Ing-wen is a Cornell Law School graduate who proceeded to become the first female president of Taiwan. She is a member of the Democratic Progressive Party and remains the sitting president of her nation.
- Edmund Muskie: Edmund Muskie is a Cornell Law School graduate that became the Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter, and later became the Governor of Maine and a Vice Presidential candidate alongside Hubert Humphrey in 1968.
As a student at Cornell Law School, you also gain exposure to a variety of academic outlets. The school itself is home to the Cornell International Law Journal, the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy, the Legal Information Institute, and a variety of other organizations and publications. This close access to the academic legal field draws in many students.
While Cornell Law School does have a notable alumni base, at the end of the day it still just remains another law school. The bar passage rate is fairly high and their employment numbers are comparable to many other law schools in the country—especially when you factor in the cost of attendance being considerably less than most.
Overall, gaining admission to Cornell Law School requires strong academic performance and a commitment to the application process. It’s critical to approach your application with rigor to ensure your best chances of being accepted.