leogiggles3

[leogiggles3]

I think concentration is a major issue. I’m a sociology/psychology major at Princeton, and there are some studies that show on multiple-choice exams, like the LSAT, a small caffeine intake can improve concentration and scores on these exams. The actual study showed a 20-30 pt gain on the old SAT (and it was statistically significant compared to the control group with no caffeine)

If you want to try it my advice would be:

1) don’t overdo it- 1 cup of coffee in the morning is plenty
2) try it out before hand on a practice exam- you may get jittery or have to use the bathroom frequently- in that case don’t do it

Otherwise- just relax- you will be fine.

[leogiggles3]

This is my first post, but I am a Princeton student, and grade deflation is a huge issue here. First, it’s a department wide “quota” which has very different implications from class based quotas. In some departments, for instance, they give very low grades in their intro courses so they can “save” the As for majors in higher level classes. This has led many to fear taking classes outside their comfort zone. It has also led to a contradictory message from the administration that goes “You students are so shallow, you shouldn’t care about grades, only about learning- but now we force you to pay attention to grades because otherwise you will do poorly”

And, although there are always exceptions, people here are generally extremely bright and would get higher grades if they attended a less rigorous school. Statistically, however, coming from Princeton is a disadvantage for graduate school all else being equal. A student with a 170 LSAT score and 3.5 GPA has a better chance of law school admissions if they come from bum-dumb university than from Princeton because of diversity issues- they already took 5 people from Princeton (with 3.6 and 171), and they don’t want to look like they are promoting the “good old boys” network. You may disagree, but you would be wrong- I mean technically speaking. For the data set and statistical analysis see Bowen and Bok’s Shape of the River or some articles from Gary Orfield.

[leogiggles3]

If you are asking if HYP kids are overrepresented at the top schools, the answer is both yes and no. If you ask if a greater percent of applicants from our schools get admitted, then the answer is yes. Princeton graduates, for example, get accepted to Harvard law school at about triple the rate of the national average. But that is entirely because we (on average) have much higher LSAT scores. If you control for LSAT score (using a regression analysis) there is actually a slight advantage to coming from a public school. In other words, if someone from Florida State and someone from Princeton both get 174s, the person from Florida would be slightly more likely to be admitted (all else being equal.) This is mainly because the top law schools dont want to appear waspy or to be admitting the “good old boys” If you want to know exactly what the “bonus” is for coming from a public college, I would suggest you read Bowen and Bok (both former Harvard and Princeton Presidents) “Shape of the River” that gives you all the numbers to look at for yourself. If you go to individual school websites, many have statistics available to see how the numbers work out that way (although you have to remember that they wont control for LSAT scores) Hope that’s helpful!

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