With the school year just underway, Berkeley Law welcomes 287 first-year students—a diverse group with wide-ranging interests and an eclectic mix of backgrounds.
A record 8,313 prospective J.D. students applied for admission this year—353 more than the law school’s previous high. The incoming class boasts a 3.8 median college grade point average, a 167 median LSAT score (95th percentile), and nine Fulbright Scholars, and 15 percent enter with advanced degrees.
The first-year students were born in 27 different countries and hail from 113 undergraduate schools, the most common of which are Brown, Harvard, Penn, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC San Diego, USC, UC Santa Cruz, and Yale. Collectively the students account for 77 different college majors, most commonly Economics, English, History, International Relations, Philosophy, Political Science, and Sociology.
This year’s entering class features more than 20 former U.S. Congressional and state government interns and legislative assistants; full-time securities and financial analysts and economic consultants; television producers; reporters and editors of newspapers, magazines, blogs, websites, and journals; several software engineers, scientists, and biomedical researchers with seven patents among them; intercollegiate debaters and mock trial participants, some of whom attained a top-5 national ranking; and NCAA varsity athletes in nine sports.
As for resumé items that catch the eye, the class of 2013 features a Barbados Cricket Association consultant, Marine Corps logistics officer, professional crepe maker, juggling club member, CIA economic analyst, harpist, fire performance artist, concert pianist, lead performer from the Broadway production of “Stomp”, patent agent, stevedore, World Chin Woo martial arts championship silver medalist, equestrian wrangler, wild lands firefighter, competitive equestrian show jumper, competition salsa dancer, Los Angeles Lakers dance team member, and a bartender named one of BevMedia’s “10 Mixologists to Watch in 2009.”
Several first-year students are raising children, some as single parents, and many have recently returned from abroad where they were teaching, conducting research, or serving in the military. The class includes numerous interns, organizers, and advocates on behalf of the environment, human rights, and other social justice issues, and others who were involved in local and national politics as campaign organizers and workers.
Also joining the law school ranks are thespians, artists, photographers, dancers, vocalists, and musicians—including an opera singer, a member of a gamelan orchestra, three professional ballet dancers, members of at least three different touring and recorded bands, three professional actors, and a radio commercial voice-over performer.